American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-10-03


\ miserable half hour of indccisio
followed at the end of which she tosse
all the scattered sheets in a heap into he
writing-desk, locked it, and then crie
with renewed abandon. \ series o
sharp raps on the door and a voice b.
no means gentle reused her
"Lottie, | say, Lottie. For goodnes
sake, what are you about? Here it
after four, and no cake for supper, an,
Mr. Willard going in the six train! Conn
right down stairs, and don't let us hav
any more dawdling, Come, there's n
time to spare"
How Lottie ever got into the kitchen
and in what manner she contrived TO be
gin her cake-making, she never knew
Harry going at six, She was such
child that his going away seemed to he
to end everything finally between them
She should never see him again, Owe
and over she said it to herself as she me
chemically weighed the flour and the
sugar for sponge-cake, beat her eggs
and commenced to mix the ingredients
A great many tears fell into that cake
and they so blinded her that she did no
see her mother at her elbow, as she wa:
dropping it into the pans, until SHARP
voice startled her:
You haven't put bit of paper in the
bottom of those pans! 1t would have
burned for certain, and here it is almost
five. Hurry! run and get some paper
quick.'
Lottie, still mechanically, searched the
drawers of the dresser in vain; then,
spurred to action by the sharp voice and
by the sound of the clock striking five,
| she rushed upstairs to her own room
tore off two half sheets of paper from
the pile she had thrust into her desk, ran
down again. and had the cake in the
oven in such a miracul0usly short time
that even her mother was astonished.
There, now, pick over these berries
and set the table. Susan hasn't finished
ironing. And fetch up the butter,
| and"
The voice buzzed in Lottie's ears as
she hurried from one thing to another.
AT last everything was done and Cd the
table but the cake, and the shrill ringing
of the supper-bell admonished Lottie to
hurry up with that Never was cake so
| unceremOniously tipped out of the pans
and so roughly cut up. The papers had
burned on, and there was no time to stop
to pull the fragments off. So Lottie
made the best of it, and left them on,
dumping the cake-basket down on the
sideboard with Il long sigh of relief.
She did not dare to go in to supper on
account of her swollen eyes, and on ac-
afraid to meet. And if Harry was going,
what was the uses She could not let
him go unmatched, however; so, running
upstairs, she hastily donned walking
dress and hurried out of the back-door
toward the village From the Postoffice
| she would be sure to see him pass, and
it ''wOuld be some comfort just to do
that" thought poor Lottie, trying to
swallow the lump in her throat as she
fastened along.
Once in the Postoffice, she dawdled
aimlessly about the counters, asking for
| this and that and keeping her broad hat
| pulled low over her face lest the marks
of tears should be seen. She waited a
long time, watching the street, but Harry
did not pass. The clock pointed to five
minutes of six-perhaps he would be
late for the train. At any rate, he had
not passed, and there was no other road
to the station.
One minute of six Surely the clock
must be wrong. No; for the whistle of
the train sounded with its first stroke and
Harry had not gone by. He had been
late, then. LOttie turned toward home in
IA hurry. If she should see him
She did not finish that sentence, for she
had no idea how seeing him would help
the matter; still she felt more cheerful
as she hastened along the sunny road.
She had almost reached home when she
saw the object of her thoughts coming
toward her at "A round pace. There was
no valise in his hand, and he still wore
his fishers coat. Lottie's heart gave a
great bound, half of relief, half of appre-
hension. The first feeling quickly pre-
dominated, for Harry's strides soon
brought him to her side, and he looked
down ON her from his altitude of six feet
with smile that betokened anything but
displeasure-
"Where have you been running to,
YOU naughty child? And where-why,
where's your seal ring?"
Lottie, family.
Why didn't you come to supper, and
bid me good-by."
You haven't gone"
''Tm going, though. Will you give me
some sponge-cake for luncheons"
More and more amazed, Lottie made no
reply at all"
Did you make the sponge cake we
had for supper"
Made it in hurry, didn't you?"
"Why?"
"You didn't get all the paper off, that's
all See what was stuck on my piece,
you small deceivsr, Why didn't you
use the Postoffice instead of sponge-cake.
Eh:''
a small strip of greasy paper was laid
in Lottie's outstretched hand. Upon it
she read the beginning of her last epis-
tolary production of the afternoon:
MY DEAR HAHRY-I don't know how to write
this to you and am very much ashamed to take
back what | said, but never meant TO say it.
had to, because Mr. Davenport
Here the paper was torn off, and, be-
sides was taken forcibly out of I.ottie's
hand, which was clasped in two others.
- on wrote that to me? You mean
it? Say yesn
For some time after Lottic's reply
nothing connected or sensible was said
on either side; but when they had reached
the garden gate, and were philandering
under the elms, Lottie said:
But don't see how you got so much
paper on your cake. | thought it was
all in little fragments
Harry laughed
Il couldn't break it easily, because it
was so tough-no offense to the cook-so
took IA whole bar. l couldn't eat it, for
I'd no appetite, so l turned it over and
looked at it, and, singularly enough, /
began to get hungry Immediately. Let's
have spOnge-cake for our wedding cake,
Lottie !"-Harper's Bazar.
As A very pretty girl asked a young
man on the Maine Railroad the other
morning if the vacant seat by his sids
was engaged, after saying: " No, miss"
he, highly approaching her beauty, I'M
consciously said: " Are you?" She so
pleasantly and promptly replied: " No,
SIR that the agreeable conversation
which followed for ten miles leads him
to hone for a better acnuoiut,nrp bpforp