American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-06-20
AUNT CHAKLOTTE'S STORY.

vice." said Aunt Charlotte to her giddy
young niece, land don't imperil your
own future happiness nor be guilty of in
justice by sighting the man to whom you
have given your troth or by fOOlishly teas
ing him in order to test his affection.
There is story in my own memory. that
have never told you; and l could not
now bring myself to do so only that see
you don't like me to lecture you, and 1
wish you to learn wisdom by an easier
method than that of bitter experience.
When l was a young girl we lived, as
you know, in Canada, in one of the small
1ake-shore towns between Toronto and
Kingston. Your grandfather was a man
of note in the town. and l was a good
deal sought after; was giddy, too, and
selfish, though I did not then consider
myself so. had many admirers and
suitors, among whom the one liked best
was Harry Vane. From my very infancy
Harry had been my gallant, and though
sometimes pretended to be, and sometimes
really was, Jealous of him or otherwise
offended, and he the same with regard to
me, we always made up again and were
better friends than ever. There was not
really any engagement between us, though
Harry had asked me to form one; but my
parents objected to long engagements, and
we were not ready to marry. Matters
stood thus when, early one spring, we had
an addition to our list of beaux in the
form of q dashing young fellow, an En-
glishman, sent out by wealthy firm of the
mother country for the purpose of estab-
ishing an agency in their line of business.
His headquarters had been in Montreal,
but he now announced his intention of
making our town his home during the
summer
"He had good deal of leisure, and
spent no incOnsiderable part of it at our
house, or in promenading the streets with
me. l could hardly set my feet on the
sidewalks without encountering him.
His name was Downs, and he claimed to
be of aristocratic parentage. ae was
handsome and affable, though rather su-
percilious, withal very distinguished in
appearance; SO no wonder the girls
our set wished to attract his attention and
were envious of me. OF course l was
proud of my conquest, and perhaps carried
myself q little haughtily in consequence.
For some time Harry pouted, then open
ly demonstrated, even pleaded; but, as
angrily asserted my independence. he
finally desisted from all apparent notice
of the matter; and whenever we met he
treated me with Indifferent courtesy, and
altogether showed a manly selfcommand
which did not fail to note and admire.
Still must confess that at that time /
gave very little thought to Harry or to
any Of my old admirers; it seems won
derful to me how completely l was fas-
cinated by the prepossessing stranger.
To be sure, he fiattered my vanity not
by his lavish, adulatOry style of compli-
ments- He raved about my eyes of heav-
emily blue, the golden color of my mer-
maid locks, my swan-like neck, and an
endless flow of bathos that ought to have
Disguised me, but did not; and so
listened and he ranted. About the middle
of August we made up among our set
picnic party to drive out to Rice Lake
Plains and spend the day in boating on
the Ike, gathering huckieberries, wild.
flowers, etc., and generally amusing our
selves.
"You must know that there is an irreg-
ular chain Of small lakes extending trans
versely from the Bay of Quinte, near the
eastern end Of Lake Ontario, to the east
ern end of Superior. Rice Lake is the
first of the chain counting from Ontario,
and il lies at 3 distance of from two to
four hours drive from several small
towns on the frontier. We had an carly
breakfast, and set off at eight O'Clock, so
that we need not be on the road during
the heat of the day. There were several
carriages; the one in which l rode was
handsome barouche hired from a livery
stable for the occasion, and by my side
sat the alLconquering Mr.. Downs.
FOR some unexplained reason Harry
Vane did not go in any of the carriages,
but was mounted on horseback, and he
rode gayly by the side of first one vehicle,
then another. When we had gone little
distance out of town the country air,
sights and sounds were so exhilarating
that we in our carriages began to sing
Harry, hearing us, rode up and Joined in
the song, he being particularly fond of
singing. Shortly we struck off into an
old ditty which he and / had sung to-
gether countless times when we stood
each first in the esteem of the other and
no gay stranger had come between us.
For stanZa or two Harry sang bravely,
but when we came to the refrain sudden
Iy his horse bolted and he rode off,
catching at his hat with one hand and
seeming to draw rein with the other.
The remainder of the party thought his
horse bad SHE'D and run away with him,
but saw thoroughly the whole maneuver,
and a sudden pang shot through my
selfish heart.
"On reaching the lake at the point
agreed upon we separated into little
companies and wandered about &C will,
but keeping within the vicinity of the
carnp until the horn sounded for dinner.
We we're all, as is usual at picnics, in
hungry mood, and we did not dine mine
ingly.
latter dinner we lolled about on the
grass for awhile, then formed plans for the
afternoons campaign. There were near
by several canoes or rOw-bOats that were
kept for hire, and fair proportion OF our
band decided in favor of an excursion on
the lake, some parties going in one direc-
ton, some in another. The boats would