The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1873-05-15
MISS DOLLY CORNERED.

81 shouldn't be surprised any day,
Dolly, to see David Wiggin tying his
horse at your gate," said Mr.. Blount,
roguishly, gathering up the reins.
"Nonsense, brother any thing the
matter with his own hitching post ?'
retorted Miss Dolly, turning in the door
way.
Mr.. Blount laughed. Everybody
felt bound to laugh at Miss Dolly's crisp
sayings. She had kept her friends in
good humor these forty years.
"And when David does call on yon,
pursued Mr.. Blount, more seriously,
81 do hope, Dolly, you'll give him a
chance to do his errand. That'll be no
moren fair, and the man won't be easy
till he has freed his mind"
"What mischief are you the forerun-
ner of now, James Blount ?" cried Miss
Dolly, facing about like soldier on
drill. "What upon earth have | to do
with David's errands?" ?"
"Well, his wife's been dead IL year
or so, said Mr.. Blount, suggestively,
shutting 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 yourself" Z.
Fiddle-sticks p said Miss Dolly,
energctically.
81 shan't say have him, or don't have
him though there isn'ta likelier mani liv-
ing than David-but / do say, Dolly, you
ought to give him a hearing" And
having convinced himself beyond a reas-
enable doubt that the whip was all right,
Mr. Blount tickled his sleepy horse
with it, and drove away.
"Oh my sorrows /" calculated Miss
Dolly, closing the door with an afflicted
countenance, and sitting down SO quiet
ly for once that photographer might
have copied her then and there
Not that he could have done her JUS
tice, for her expression was too quick and
varied to be caught by any trick OF chem
icals, and without it Miss Dolly's physi
ognomy would have been rather charac-
terless but for her prominent Roman
nose. This organ gave tone to her
face. By which I would not be under
stood literally, as saying that she talk
ed through it in a nasal whine. I mean
simply that in metaphorical sense this
bold feature spoke loudly of energy.
And Miss Dolly had always had abund-
ant need of energy-else why the nose ?
Every two years during her childhood
she had been tiptoed into the east bed
room to see Il new baby, till, at her
mothers 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. "They1l run
square over you, Dorothy Almeda."
Dorothy Almeda was Miss Dolly's
baptismal name, but it was so manifest
ly too big for her that most of her
friends would as soon have thought Of
labelling tiny homeopathic vial with
quack medicine advertisement as of
calling her by it.
"Let 'em run over me as long as it
doesen't hurt 'em !" laughed Miss Dol
ly, skewering her faxen 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
cheerily on, making the best of every
thing, though it must be confessed she
often had odds and ends to work with,
as people usually do have who are born
with faculty. Somehow she found
time for all her duties excepting matri-
mony. If that were duty, it was one
that she couldn't and wouldn't attend to
while her father and the children need