The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1873-10-09
n q IFlt 2 = = y 2 ?
NO.. l3.

~ sls4.Ia. aca4I .z1omrst n1"1s,iH
.7PP1 .7PPo1e! Ell lit'ls Ell Ella-1 ves5sI ~ sprt
sa,s Ct sni1ieties ( tsl Mr.: Ashford bad eapied
tS!s e hst sste!s :hs P'a bsse Elle's! f.:
the best ofit: ri 4she va. r. CHEEKY, J: ob!p.
,pI py little q creature, looking At every
thing from the ln9 sunny sjde,, adoripg, Ter
father, running wild ont Of doors, but
With With 40 odd turn for housekeeping gs a nd
order and method at homnes,, Z !, 1> 1a13 Indeed,
for tho last two years, ever since : she
was twelve years old, she had kept Her
iatner's 't' house. Languid, gentle, easi-
~ impressed, Colonel Ashford ~ was
quite curiously Influenced by this little
daughter. She could make him come e
and 90, and like and dislike. I think
it was Ella who sent him into Parlia.
ment; she could not bear Sir Rainham
Richardson, their next no,ghbor, to
be an NJ. P. and an oracle, while her
father was only a retired colonel. Her
ways and her sayings were strange
and pretty mixture Of :childishness and
precociousness. She wonld be order.
ing dinner, seeing that the fires we're
alight in the study and dining:room,
writing notes to save her father trouble
Colonel Ashford hated trouble) 10 her
cramped, crooked, girlish hand; the
next minute she was, perhaps flying,
agile'footed, round and round the old
hall, skipping up and down the oak
stairs, laughing out like child as she
played With her puppy and dangled a
little ball Of string under his black
nose. Puff, with a youthful bark,
would seize the ball and go cuttlisg
down the corridors With his prize,
~hile Ella pursued him with her quick
lying feet. She could sing ch.rmin e.
w. with clear, true, piping voice like
a-bird's, and she used to dance to her
own singing ID the prettiest way i'm
aginable. 2'ss'>. greg Ia ... >:.> i.
Her dancing was really remarkable !;
she had the NEST beautiful feet and
hands, and as she seesawed 10 time,
still singing and moving in rhythm,
any one seeing her could not fail to have
been struck by the weird.like little ac-
oomplishment. Some girls have pas
sion for dancing; boys have hundred
other ways and means Of giving vent to
their activity and exercising their
youthful limbs and putting out their
eager young strength !; but girls have
no such chances; they are condemned to-
walk through life for the most part
quietly, soberly, putting curb on the
life and vitality which is in them. They
long to throw it out; they would like
to have wings to fly like bird; and
SO they dance sometimes with all their
hearts and might and energy. People
rarely talk Of the poetry of dancing,
but there is something in it Of the real
inspiration Of art. The music plays;
the heart beats time, the movements
| flow as naturally as the branches Of a
tree 60 waving in the wind. =
Ono day a naughty boy, who had
run away, for lark, from his tutor
and his schol-room at Clife, hard by,
] and who was hiding in a ditch, hap
pened to see Ella alone in field. She
was looking up at the sky and down at
the pretty scarlet and white pimper-
nels, and listening to the birds. Sud.
denly she felt so strong and so light,
and as if she must jump about a little
she was so happy; and so she did, shak.
ing her pretty golden name, waving
her poppies high over head, and sing
ing hig her and higher, like one of the
larks that were floating in mid.air. The
naughty boy was much frightened,
and firmly believed that he had seen
fairy. .
"She was all in white" he said af-
terwnrd, in an3aggrieved tone Of voice.
'She'd that. or snything-she
bounded six foot into the air: You
never saw anything like it."
Master Richardson's guilty con.
science had something to do With his
alarm. When his friend made few
facetious inquiries, he answered quite
sulkily. "Black pudden 7 she offered
me no pudden or anything else. /
only wish you had been there, that's
al, then you'd believe . fellow when
he says . thing, instead Of always
chatting"
Ella gave up her dancing after the
new wife came to Ash Place. It was
all SO different. She was not allowed
any more to run out in the fields alone.
She supposed 1t was very nice having
two young companions like Lise.te
and Julia and, at first, in her kindly
way, the child did the honors OF her
own home, showed them the way
which led to her rabbits, her most ee-
cret birds nest, the old lvy.grown
snuggler's hole in the hollow. Lisette
and Julia went trottiog about in their
frill trousers and Chinese tails of hair,
examining everything, making their
calculations, saying nothing, taking it
all in. Poor little Ella was rather puz-
zled and could not make them out.
Meantime her new mother was grace.
fully wandering over the house on her
husbands arm, aud standing in at
titudes admiring the view from the
windows and asking gentle little in