The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1872-04-04
PART I..-NOON:
CHAPTER VII.

PART I!.-NOON:
CHAPTER VII.
WHAT JENNA SAYS.
IF I Imagine that Lenore's composed
cheertulness and equable serenity are
Ehe result Of strain so strong as to bo
unable to be kept up beyond one even
ing, I am mistaken. I find her the
same the next morning, and the morn
ing after that, and the morning after
that. She talks more than usual; or
dinarily, indeed, she is too lazy to take
The trouble Of talking merely for the
sake Of contributing her share to the
general stock that forms family CONVEX
sation :; but now she talks resolutely to
any one who will talk to her. She
lounges away less time than usual in
her own rooms j.; always che is to be
seen in the general sitting-rooms, by all
comers and gosrs, working and reading
She drives out with Sylvia
to pay morniDg-oalls; she walks out
with me into the village, carrying broth
and jelly. Sometimes I try to surprise
her face of guard, to see her features
fall into the haggard lines of hopeless
angry grief in which I saw them SO
lately ; but I fail her face seems to be
never in dishabille. She actually plays
with the children !-gambols which, I
confess, remiud me of the millennium,
when We are told, the weaned child
shall play;;on the cockatrice's den. On
the third day, I am sitting ponderiDg
these things in tho drawing-room,
which Lenore has just left with a light
and buoyant tread. Sylvia, with one
Of her spasmodic fits OF maternity upon
her, is trying, with alternate peevish
coaxings and caressiug abuse, to lead,
or rather push, pull, and mildly asgel-
late, her offspring along the rosy path
Of learning. In this case, it is theologi.
cal learning, ss represented by the
"Peep Of Day." Bobby is leaning
against her knee, while in tho corner
Why such peculiar ignominy should at.
tach to tho corners of room tradition
saith not-stands Tommy, committing
to memory these soothing lines:
Snow i'll tight,
And scratch, and bite,
In passions fall,
And bad.names call,
Full we'll know
Where / shall go.'
Now and again, as the thought Of the
gloomy regions whittier his iniquities
are hurrying him comes home TO his
mind, he blubbers suppressedly. What
amplest enlargement on the horrors o1
hell could equal that portentous hint 2
"Pull we'll know
Whore shall go!'
Sylvia to Bobby: "Has God been
kind 10 dogs ?"
Bobby to Sylvia, doubtfully: eye
e."
Hw round eyes are fixed on Tob,
tho pug, basking 10 the 6re-warmth
and chasing the lively flea through tb.
preserves OF his soft fawn headquarters
and his mind is wandering from th<
typical dog Of the fable to the aetna
dog Of real life.
Ills the dogs body like yours?"
Bobby Climbing it safe to stick Il
the afirmatlve): EYES,"
"The dogs body like yours? Wha
are you thinking Of, child? Are 20.
covered all over with black hair, ant
have you got "a big, bushy tail?"
Bobby glances down uncertainty Al
his small person but, seeing no eau
dal appendage, shskes his head.
care the chickens legs like yours r
Silence.
Mrs. Prodgers is reduced to answer
ing herself from the enlightened psg.
before her. "No; the chicken has yer,
thin, dark legs."
Bobby does not appear sufficient,
impressed with gratitude for the essen
tial difference betaeen his own fat
chubby supporters, and those Of thu
bsnighted chicken. He is still
watching Toby, who has abandoned tn,
flea- chase, and RUGS barking toward tn,
door.
"Mother, dear, there is a ring at tb<
door.bell."
Prospect OF emancipation, and conse
quent elation Of tone.
"Nousense, darling !; attend to you
lesson. Has the pig a."
Whether the next word was soul 0,
tail, gizzard or imagination, trsnspireI
not.
"But there was, really, mother.
hear Morris going to open the hal
door,"
Mrs. Prodgers listens. $50 there
isw
She jumps up hastily, while th.
"Peep of Day." With all its mingled
treasures Of piety and natural history
rolls unregarded on the floor; as sb,
stands before tho pier glass, tweakipe
the blsek.ribbon bow that ornament,
her head, aud smoothing away the hai
behind her ears. By the time the but
l>.l. INA EnnA.&nn :. 1,o.,5 Al