Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-06-29
II HAVE GOT A SECRET.

From the New york Mercurv.


is Engaged.
From the New York Mercury.
The following ssinterceped letter." from
the Home Journal, tells funnily how a
young miss feels when surreptitiously en-
gagged:
Dear Allie: have got real, live, grown
up beau; and isn't it jolly He's perfectly
splendid; just like those lovely wax figures
in the windows, only they can't use their
lips. It's my French teacher, and he says
'ma petite" just like cooling dove, snd he
always smells so sweet OF pond lilies! I
don't have anything to do with the boys
now; those little boys of seventeen and
eighteen do very well when there are no
men around, if they car get money enough
from their pas to buy us Gunther's candies,
but they can't amuse us girls of fourteen,
they Eseem Just like babies, and when
they try to make love-O, my! arn't they
mushy? Now, Monsieur Fontaine acts as
if he had been engaged twenty times, al
though Pm his first love; but we don't let
on before ma, and Thuse. It makes Are
lhusa awful mad to have me call her Thuse,
and that's the reason do it. l heard her
ask ma the other day if that Frenchman's
manners were not too familiar toward that
child. Child She's swfully afraid of my
being q young lady! What need she care,
now she's married? Wasn't she spooney,
though, about Fredl When he used to come
and see her, would drag Tommy into the
room and put my arm around his waist
and squeeze his hand until her face would
be as red as beet. Such fun!
| caught her kissing him once
such little nipping kiss, just as ifshe were
tasting pepper sauce. Now, If pretended
to kiss man, I'd do it in right good
earnest; just plant my feet square on the
ground and give to him sure pop right on
the lips. o, Allie, poor Thuse would go off
on dead faint at my low-bred expressions,
aud inform me, for the nine hundred and
ninth time, that my name is Ellsworth. just
az If didn know my own name, and what
does it matter any way, when expect to
change it so soon? do not intend to hang on
to it till am a horrid old maid, like poor
Miss. Tracy opposite. She might be a
warning to the strongest minded. She's
nervous, and how l do love to scare her.
l promised Tommy the other day five cents
worth of peanuts to let me hold hint out
of our third story window. He'd let
me skin him for paper Of peanuts. So
l got him out, and knelt down under the
window ledge, where l couldn't be seen,
and held tight hold of his wrists. Thuse
thinks my strength is disgusting. Pretty
soon there was an elderly shrek, and then
au elderly form rushed across the street 10
mother; but by the time they got up stairs
l was seated quietly at my crochet-work,
and Tommy was turning summersaults on
the bed, over the lovely Auted plllow-cases.
And ma still thinks it is poor Miss Tracy
that is ga little wild at times"
Hove my brother Fred ever SO much,
but don't see how he ever came to fancy |
such dieaway specimen as our Thuse.
Because she is so swfully pretty, | suppose;
but she just turns him around her thumb.
If he refuses to get what she wants,
she Just looks like a martyr IN the |
flames, and lets down all her back hair like
the Magdalens in the picture gallery. And
although they 70 !ffesl pretty hanging on
the walls, evensn artist does not want 10
sit at the table three times day opposite |
live one, with Aer eyesrolled up and her hair |
down her back. So poor Fred always gives |
in, and she smiles torgiving smile, puts |
up hsr hair, and goes off to buy the fine
silk or the set of jewelry that has
taken her fancy. And when she |
gets it she keeps tight hold of it, too. |
She has never given me even a
cuff button. Thuse always was stingy. !
And she is so stuck-up, because she has got |
a son. just as if it were something won
derful. Why, MIS-. Tubbs, our laundress,
has eight of them, besides one that was
drowned and one scslded, and she isn't a |
bit set up. But Arethusa says ''my boyl" |
and does the maternal all to pieces. She
thinks Alexis is made out Of nicer materi- |
ais than most babies, and know she doesn't
believe the catechism where it says he was
made out of the vulgar dust of the earth.
/ suppose she thinks rose-leaves and corn
starch were used to make up his delicate |
organization. 1t would relieve my feelings |
to see speck of dirt on that child's face;
it makes me ache to see him so painfully
clean. And she thinks he is going to be a
little Solomon, or some humbug or other.
Now, Allie, have got secret that you
mustn't tell living soul. II you do will
never forgive you. l have promised Mon
sieur Fontaine to be married in three
weeks, ON my fourteenth birthday, and if
mother seems likely to object, we are going |
to elope, just like the girls in the novels. |
Won't it be splendid? Just think what =
sensation it will make! The Chicago
papers viii be full of it. ''Elopement in
high life. The lovely daughter OF the rich |
and eegant Mrs. E-h eloped with her
teacher" Poor Thuse would do high trag-
edy, wiring Der hands, and talk of the dis
G. ace to their noble house of Ellsworth. l |
should think her delicate shoulders would
ache FROM carrying our noble house so
long. Now. don't you breathe word
about it, and will stand by You if you run
away with shoeback.
Married at fourteen! Just think / shall
beat Thuse out and out. Then, too, some
thing might happen to Monsieur FOntaine.
or course, wouldn't have anything hap
pen to him for the world; but then some
thing might, you knOw--the railroads are
always smashing up: and if there should,
why then l would be young an interest
ing widow; and black Grape with my fair
complexion would be so sweet, ant o,
Allie, do you think that l am too young
to wear widows cap? What blow that
cap would bs to Arethusa! she would |
rather receive whole paper of needles in
her side-thst is, gold headed ones, not
your common steel things. Now, Allie
Wyndham, if you tell you'll be just as mean
as you can be.
CELIA ELLSWORTH. (for little while).
THE WAY IT IS DONE IN SCOTLAND.
The love-making of young ladies in Scot