Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-08-01
NO, lsl.
entertainments.
MISS DOLLY CORNERED.

|
your gate" said Mr.. Blount, roguishlv,
| gathering up the reins. st.ss -
Nonsense. brother! anything the mat
ter with his own hitching- post ?" retorted
Mis- Dolly. turning into the doorway. ~.
Mr. Blount laughed. Everybody felt
bound to laugh at Miss Dolly's crisp say
ings. She had kept her friends in good
humor this forty years -
And when David does call on you,n
pursued Mr.. Blount. more seriously, III do
hope. Dolly, YOU II give him a chance to
do his errand. That'll be no more'n fair,
and the man won't be easy till he has
freed his mind" ass@
'What mischief are YOU the fore-runner
Of now, James Blount p" cried Miss Dolly,
facing about like soldier on drill "What
upon earth have to do with David's er-
rands ?" -...
We'll, his wife S been dead year OF
SO, said Mr.. Blount, suggestively, shut
ING one eye, and squirting with the other
down the length of his whip-stock, "and
lately he's been asking about you You
can put that and that together to suit your
SELF s. -.sf. s..ss7 .tfst
"Fiddlesticks y said Dolly. energetic
ally. ~
81 sha'nt say have him, or don't have
him-but there isn't likelier man living
than David-but l do say, Dolly, you
ought to give him hearing" And hay-
ing convinced himself beyond q reasonable
doubt that the whip was all right, Mr..
Blount tickled his sleepy horse with it, and
drove away. fasfw
'Oh, my sorrowsm calculated Miss Dol
ly, closing the door with an afflicted
countenance, and sitting down so quietly
for once that photographer might have
copied her then and there. ,a4a
Not that he could have done her Justice,
tor her expression was too quick and va
ried to be caught by any trick of chemicals,
and without it Miss Dolly's physiognomy
would have been rather characterless but
for her prominent Roman nose. The
organ gave tone to her face. BY which
| would not be understood literally, as say
ing that she talked through it in a nasal
whine. mean simply that in a metaphori-
cal sense this bold feature spoke loudly of
energy. And Miss Dolly had always had
abundant need of energy---else why the
nose @attfat3' #A
Every two years during her childhood
she had been tip-toed into the east bed
room to see new baby till. at her moth
ers death, five little brothers fell to her
charge to be coaxed and scolded into
manhood, You can't bring up them
boys croaked dolorous aunt, "Thev'll
run square over you, Dorothy Almeda"
Dorothy Almeda was Miss Dolly's bap-
tismal name, but it was so manifestly too
big for her that most of her friends would
AS soon have thought of labe ling u tiny
homeopathic vial with {, quack-mediciDe
advertisement as of calling her by it.
| "Let 'em run over me so long as it does
not hurt 'em !" laughed Miss Dolly, skew
ering her flaXen hair with a goose-quill,
and tying tow apron over her calico
long-short, preparatory to ''bringing up"
said youths.
From that day forward she went chcerily
on, making the best tofeyerything. of though
it must be confessed she often had odds
and ends to work with, as people usually
do have who are born with d faculty
Somehow she found time for all her duties
excepting matrimony. II that was duty,
it was one she couldn't and wouldn' t
attend to while her father and the children
needed her. Divers young men thought
this a great pity, among them David
Wiggin. r has5s
Don't be silly, David" said Dolly,
when he hinted as much to her, whereup-.
on David went off straightway and mar
ried Olive Searle. the plainest girl in the
parish. This happened thirty years ago,
and now David was again wifeless, and
again the current of his thoughts turned
toward Miss Dolly, who still lived at the
old homestead near the foot of Bryant's
Falls. .l ..n8g3 Es,haha
Her father had died some months be-
fore. OF the boys, James and Ezekiel had
settled on neighboring farms. and the re-
naming three We're in the West. David's
benevolent heart warmed with compassion
us he remembered Dolly's lonely condi-
ton, and he felt that it would be exceed
ingly kind in him to offer her home,
especially as he owned as good place as
you d find on the river, while the Blount
cottage was fast falling to decay. He would
not let her former refusal of him tell
against her, for, now as he looked back, he
really didn't see how she could have mar
ried any body at that period. She ought
to be rewarded for the devotion she had
shown to the family, and, for his part, he
felt magnanimous enough to give her
second chance to accept him. Such was
| the worthy widowers state OF mind when
he asked James Blount with mock hum
ility, whether it would be of any use for
him to try to make bargain with Dolly.
nat ) more III CdH teh, 4ni
had answered; ..Dolly's puzzle. You'll
have to find out for Yourself 's-
Mr.. Wiggin smiled, IN comPlacent an
ticipation Of acceptance, Indeed. if it
might not seem like a reproach to the
memory of his lost Olive, Il should say
that The kind -harted man rejoiced in this
opportunity of making Miss Dolly's hap
plness
Benevolencc was in his face, benevol-
ence was in his spirit, as he sailed fourth
at an early day to acquaint her with her
good fortune The broken harrow which
he had strapped into the wagon to give the
neighbors plausible reason for his trip to
the Falls was by no means typical of
mental laceration in its owner. His feel
ing as he approached Miss Dolly's moss
grown cottage was purely one OF thankful
ness that it was in his power TO provide
her a better home. Not that he was CRATE
ful to his dead wife for leaving a vacancy
there, Mr.. Wiggin had mourned faith
fully for Olive year and day.
Miss Dolly was out in the garden gath
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