Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-09-09
THOSE JEROME GIRLS.
By AUGUSTA LARNED.

/ SASEeQ IN designating as crOGkebs. :.
with dim notion hat it was an inven-
fore disreputable.
There was a little, odd, cornering
1 window, where Aunt Prissv often sat
at work and from there she could
look over into the Jerome place, which
had been fixed up and improved until
dence. The old squat fFame-house,
| with its blinking windows and over
hanging caves, faced by that admira-
ton of the ancients, red barn, had
been altered into a tasteful cottage,
/ with a piazza embowered in honey
suckle and rose vines. The barn had
been moved out of view, opening q
| prospect to the river, with its fringy
| willows. A neat, ornamental fence
/ had been built and trees and shru bs
| planted, and hower-beds laid ont.
Aunt Prissy shook her head ruefuIIy
/ over what she called those tsdoin 50
/ every time she looked out of the little
cornering window; and she did look
out many times day, somewhat to
I the detFiment of her reeling and knot
! ting on a little wheel. a reminiscence
| of her girlhood she had never given up.
For Aunt Prissy sighed heavily over
I the degeneracy of modern stocking
/ yarn and, if anything, to her mind,
| was an outward and visible sign of the
approaching end of the world, it was
! them dimsy boughten things through
which a body can poke her finger"
sfI don't believe Uncle Abner ever
would have thought of making such
changes in the old place." Aunt Prissy
remarked to her sister-in-laW, Mrs.
Babbett, who was fond of good old
ways too, and loved the store of nice
old-fashioned things in the Babbett
farmhouse, and yet had thought more
and lived more in her time than Aunt
Prissv had, tsif it hadn't a been for the
L 4
lady held up a long cotton sock she
was knitting for her favorite nephew,
Asa, (she always knit Asa's socks three
! inches longer in the leg than she did
the others), and looked at it critically
through her glasses.
ttIt does folks good to gel stirred up
now and then" remarked Mrs. Bab-
bett, who was stepping about in her
neat buskins, to brush up the tidy
room, with great patches of sunshine
lying on the rag carpet and the braid
ed mats, and lighting up grain of
dust, if there had been one "and I'm
Gle Abner has appeared younger and
smarter" she added, lever since the
girls got back from school. The inn
proyements have given him something
to think about besides his rheumatic"
There they are crocketing agin' cried
Aunt Prissy putting her Wrinkled old
face out between the dimity curt aims,
with smells ofsouthern wood and sweet
clover coming through the window.
II can't for the life of me, see what
sense there is in knocking them balls
around. They'd sight better be do
ing something useful. I'll be bound
Uncle Alb don't get his socks mended
once month. Do hear 'em laugh and
holler like looms. / must say Mirandy,
that sounds brazen."
siIt's only a bit of fun, . replied Mrs.
Banbett, who was sticking in her side
combs now, before the glass. "And,
for my part, I like to see young folks
enjoy themselves. 1t carries me back
to my own young days."
'sThere never was such goings on when
we was gals" +" remarked Aunt Prissy
pushing her cap-frin once more out
between the WindOW-euFtains, and let
ting her knittIng-WOrk rest upon her
lap. ftIt makes me ache, most when
think how pertiekeler Mrs. Jerome
was about the house; and now look
there at the doors all standing stretch
ed open, as if it was gfn'ral traiuin,'
of the fr0nt-foom Winders, and the sun
streaming right in on that bristtes car
pet, and everything getting spickled
with the fiies.i'
s'Sophy says she won't have anything
in the house too good to use every
dav,'' put in Mrs. Babbett, sitting
down in her favorite rocker, in one of
the patches of sunlight, and gently
oscillating to and fro, with the big yell
low pussy cat at her feet and a basket
of the weeks mending close by her ell
| bow. s4She wants to keep the rooms
| light and open, because they look
| pleasant, and her notion is to make
/ life cheerful. :"
ssWal,'' sighed Aunt Prissy, ST
| should think poor Miss Jerome would
almost grOan in her grave. They
know how to make the money fly; and
a man would need q purity long puss
! that should marry one of them girls,
| To my thinking, they'll stay single
many long day. Sensible young
men, like our Asa, amt going to be
kitched up by such highty-tighty crea-
lures, with rag bags stuck on the back
! of their heads"
siI don't like the rag-bags any bet
| ter than you do, laughed Mrs. Bah
| bett, while she fitted a patch over her
knee 'tbut we weren't bit more sen
| sib1e in our time than girls are now-a-
| days. For, didn't we wear great sleeves
stuffed out with bunches of feathers,
and little short waists up under our
armpits, without ever thinking those
things were going to spoil our market?
| Times have changed, Prissy; but
Sophy Jerome is just as practical in
her way as we were in ours / don't
see why she shouldn't make a good
wife, for the house looks like wax"
81 don't know about that" returned
the old lady, bobbing her head. "The
outside of the dash and platter may be
clean enough but I'd just like to take
| a squ1nG round the kitchen. L don't OF
ten go prying into my neighbors af-
fairs; but should just for the notion
of it, like to see how the buttery and
cupboard is KEEP Of course the parloI
always looks sIicked up for company
and the minnit you step your foot into
the door the girls go kitlng around
showing of their footering kroshay
. | or playing some oId-fashioned tune or
the pianner, that puts it out of a body'S
head to peek into the corners"
! 81 don't see what's the sense of peek
ing into corners y put in Mrs. Babbett
as she drew out a long thread, while
the fat cat purred contentedly at hel
feet. ST wouldn't thank anybody fol
po6iug into all the corners of my
house. It's a good deal with houses
as it is with folks. IF the fundamental
things are all right, a dy-speclk more
or less don't signify and, when folks
is set square on principle and good
ness, we don't mind a whiffte of tenn
per. You know, Prissy, what Scrip
. tur' says about the mint and cum
I min ?''
3 ssLawks, NIirandy, don't go to quo
{ ting ScripGur'. I only say them Jerom
7 girls is highty-tighty with their nev
Z notionsg and, for my part, j pity UncI
: Abner, for I don't believe he has an,
peace of his life."
: ''You needn't pity him." quietly re
marked Mrs. Babbett. "Bless you
heart, he likes it. You never saw
! good-natured old man yet who WASH
d pleased to have his girls pussyin
e round him. It will keep him smart fo
q ten years yet. y
e % oval, = remarked Aunt Prissy, tai
ing up her knitting again an
beginning to clack them vigorously
ST guess he'll have a chance to kee
them by him yet awhile They ain
going to marry off so dretfuI easy, i
J, me tell you. Our Asa and Henry Fisl
er love TO run there, and they'll fot
round as much as you please; bu
when it comes to marrying, that's al
other story. Asa is a dretful hand
conjure, and he likes a joke as well
he likes to eat but he has got the re
old Rabbit sense, and he will show
3, too, when it comes to picking out
wife. Now Benjamin has bought hi
the Upham place, all ready fixed to /
into, the girls are on the Io0koui