The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1873-07-25
~ HAVE GOT A SECRET
uew . ye..s Lady Feers when she o
EnGseed.

Engsgea.
Ne~ 'Yogk Mercury
The following Intercepted letter"
from the Home Journal, tells fbnnily
how a young miss feels when surreptiti-
ously engaged:
DEAR ALIm-I have got a real, live
grownup beau; and isn't ii 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 INA petite" just
like cooing dove, and he always smells
80 sweet of pond liliesl | don't have
anything TO do with the boys now those
little boys Of seventeen and eighteen do
very we'll when there are no men around,
IL they can get money enough from their
pas TO buy us Gunther's candies, but
they can't amuse US girls Of fourteen,
they seem just like babies, and when
they try TO make love-O, my, amt they
mushyi Now, Monsieur Fontaine acts
as IL he had been engaged twenty times,
although I'm his first love but we don't
let on before ma and Thuse. II makes
Arethusa awful mad TO have me call her
Thuse, and that's the reason ! do il. /
heard her ask ma the other day If that
Frenchmans manners was not too famil-
lar toward that child. Child She's
awfully afraid Of my being young la
dy! What need she care, now shes
marriUd9 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 fhce
would be as red as beet. Such fun |
caught her kissing him Unce-such lit
lie nipping kiss, just as If she were tas-
ting pepper sauce. Now, if | pretended
to kiss man, I'd do it in right good ear
nest just plant my feet square on the
ground and give it TO him sure pop right
on the lis. o, Allie, poor Thuse would
20 of on a dead faint at my low-bred
expressions, and inform me, for the nine
hundred and ninth time, that my name
is Ellsworth. Just as if it matters any
way, when expect to change il SO soon :
I do not intend to hang On to it till | am
horrid old maid, like poor Miss Tracy
opposite. She might be a warning to
the strongest-minded. She's nervous,
and how | do love TO scare her. | prom
ised Tommy the other day FIVE cents
worth Of peanuts to let me hold him out
Of our thirdstory window. He'd let me
skin him for a paper of peanuts. So |
got him out, and knelt down under the
window ledge, where couldn't be seen,
and held tight hold of his wrists. Thuse
thinks my strength is disgusting. Pret-
ty soon there was an elderly shrek, and
then an elderly form rushed across the
street to mother, but by the time they
got up stairs l was seated quietly at my
crotchet.work. and Tommy was turning
summersaults on the bed, over the lovely
iiuted pillow-cases. And ma still thinks
it is poor Miss Tracy that is "a little
wild at times"
love my brother Fred ever so much,
but don't see how he ever came to fan
cy such die-away specimen as our
Thuse. Because she Is so awfully pret-
ty, l 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 black hair like the Magdalens in the
picture gallery. And although they are
real pretty hanging on the walls, even
an artist does not want to sit at the table
three times a day opposite live one,
with her eyes rolled up and her hair
down her back. So poor Fred always
gives in. and she smiles forgiving smile,
puts up her hair, and goes of 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 son.
Just as II it were something wonderful.
Why, Mrs. Tubbs, oar laundress, has
eight of them, besides one that was
drowned and one scalded, and she isn't
bit set up. But Arethusa says my boyP
and does the maternal all TO pieces. She
thinks Alexis is made out Of nicer mate
rials than most babies, and know she
doesn't believe the catechism where IL
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 little Sol
omon. or some humbug or other.
Now, Allie, l have got secret that
you mustn't tell living soul. II you
do l will never forgive you. have
promised Monsieur Fontaine TO be mar
ried 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. Wont il be
splendidf Just think what a sensation
il will mAksl The Chicago papers will