Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1871-08-18

y
had attended school and made their first
communion with Clairette. After this
important act, which brings us out of oul
infancy. and which resigns to US our place
in the great workshop here below, each
was allotted her task in the family
Marghelidc did sewing during the day and
spun in the evening; Biebe looked after
the house and carried out meals to the
field hands; Lixandrine took the sheer
and the cows to pasture.
Clairette, alone, as idle as little saw.
age-shc called this liberty-was proud
Of her independence, and pitied her poor
companons who gave themselves so much
trouble in the world. "Of what use is
lit? Is Biebe's Sunday dress any better
for plodding along muddy paths strewn
with briers? Has Lixandrine finer
complexion for getting tanned 10 scorch.
ing summer sun, tending her cows?''
| II.
The time came, however, when, in spite
of her pride in her half vagabond life.
Clairette was less ambitious of indepen.
dence, and felt disposed to come under
the dominion of a husband. This very
natural desire, but still vague one al
eighteen, besides being subject to circum-
stances, became imperious, like the. sa-
tisfaction of honor, when Charlotte return
ed from the wedding of Marghelide with
the tailor Latane.
Marghelide was the younger. BY what
inexplicable grace of St. Joseph. the pa
tron of spouses, should she take the lead
of her associates? She was assuredly less
pretty than Clairette, and likewise less a.
miable-who would dispute that? What
charm had given her the preference in the
eyes of the brisk young Latane?
Ab. here it is! Marghelide wore a
splendid red petticoat as brilliant as pop
py, and which scared away the cattle but
which produced quite different effect on
all the young men the color of this lucky
tpetticoat relieved SO sharply on the green
of the meadows and the gray of the braun
bles as to be very easily seen half league
of. Latane, completely bewildered must
have run for the petticoat the same as a
lot of frogs after the bated hook on the
end of fish line.
Woman is naturally disposed to regard
her toilet as a sort of talisman, and not a.
lone the city dame, but the simplest young
girl of the fields. 1t sufices to wear a
pstticoat to possess an instinct for colors
and calicoes. Clairette had it in the high-
est degree; she was sure that she had dis
covered Marghelide's secret; she ran of
to sell six of her sheep, and bought the
deepest scarlet petticoat she could find in
the market.
From that day forth, Clairette never
went to the spring, to church, to ball,
or to fair without wearing the attractive
garment in which the lucky Marghalide
had captured the tailor Latane.
In vain, however. did she. glide through
the crowd and thus display herself The
women found her taydry, the young girls
looked envious, while. the young men po-
litely invited her to dance, but no mother
ever dreampt of selecting her as wife for
her son, and no son ever uttered a word
about taking her for a housekeeper.
A year of fruitless efforts had passed
and not whisper of proposal Of mar
riage. What bad luck! Soon her friend
Biebe followed the same delightful road
as Marghelide, and espoused the farmer
Menichot.
Clairette became despondent. She had
lost fifteen months in displaying her red
petticoat, and she could not imagine the
cause of her failure. Was Biebe, then,
the more charming? Nobody would dare
maintain that falsehood 1t was sufficient
to see them alongside of each other at q
dance. Clairette always had thirty part
ners more than her rival. Was she more
entertaining? Biebe could not put togeth-
er two consecutive ideas, and when her
beaux spoke to her she answered only with
downcast eyes. Il have it," said Clair
ette, meditating, and eager to know the
cause of her disgrace. '.Biebe wears a
distaff at her side constantly, even with
the water jar on her head, and when car
rying the basket with the workmen's
meals"
The distaff. it must be admitted, had
about it a certain matrimonial virtue which
enticed young men anxious to marry, the
same as mirror attracts looks. Clairette
was determined to have one of these mag
lical utensils. If plain willow distaff