Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-07-22
BETSEY BOBRETT.

though she was moved by steel springs
especially if Squire Wilkins happened
to be passing her house. If she saw
him fitting by in his gig she was sure
to be busy at the front window, picking
an imaginary dead leaf off the rose
geranium, or culling L spray of migo
nette to fasten among her bonny brown
curls. Sometimes she would be coming
round the house from the cistern pump
and she would iirt her ruffies in a way
to show the 'broidered hens of her
marvelously dainty skirts and the trim
NEST of all pretty-arched ankles.
She was as artful as a mink, Betsey
was, and it was very certain that she
had laid her plans to captivate the vii
lage Squire. Her brother thought so
he was an old bachelor who lived
with her-and all the trouble Ira knew
was the fear that Betsey would marry
and his cozy relations be broken up. He
embraced every opportunity to say
something against every manageable
widower or susceptible bachelor in the
neighborhood
mo, don't like tine looks o. Squire
Wilkins, no how" he said one evening,
40 iC itdbtu odCh III Ills CutlI at Tie
rea-table and picked his teeth leisurely.
Them deep, up-and-down wrinkles
tween his eyebrows are enough for me;
when you see them on anybody's face
you may look ont for ill-natur' and a
cross fault-finding disposition. But
where they run this way" and he arched
his eyebrows up until his skinny look
ing forehead lay all in deep burrows
plowed horizontally, "why, then, you
may expect a good -natured man, not
fault-finding nor hard to please.
''It's nothing to me who's ill-tem-
pered or who has wrinkles, I'm sure.
said Betsey, smiling demurely 'but l
never believed much in signs. You
know our old Grandmother Tressway
was as full of contrariness as the old
fellow himself, and people looked in
her smooth face, as placid as a china's
dolls, and they called her a saint and
a mother in Israel, and all such holy,
significant titles. You remember how
she used to throw the teapot, or the
press-board, or the boot jack, or any
thing that came In her way at us young
ones"
And so the talk of the brother and
sister drifted on until it ran into the
past, and they both talked of old times
and half-forgotten adventures, and they
spent very pleasant evening together,
as they usually did.
/ The next evening, Just after dusk, the
Squire called and stayed an hour or So.
He had not intended stopping long
Just ran In to see how Ira managed to
keep his sweet potatoes all winter-he'd d
never had luck keeping his, somehow.
Ira hurried and told him, secretly hop
ing that he'd go home Immediately, but
the Squire was in no hurry.
They talked election news and dis.
cussed tine candidates for Governor
aud for Lieutenant Governor and Con-
gress, and Yet the Squire fingered. He
Was building a new house, frame, story
and-s half, with two dormer windows,
that cost fifty dollars each. He said
"dormer windows were so charming to
sit in and watch the sun set in the sum-
mer evenings when the mellar light
fringed all the hills with glory here
he ran his spongy hands into his pock-
cts and then plowed his fingers through
his well-dved ambrosial locks, and then
fell to milking his sooty black beard,
while he glanced over at the widow,
whose eyes spake again.
"Or," he continued, sit is pleasant
to sit in the dormer wInder in the full
O. the moon and watch him sailin'
majesty. One knows how to vally a
friend at such a time ;" and he rolled
up his eyes and milked on leisurely
while he sighed.
That's So" said Ira, thinking that
he ought to say something to show
himself an appreciate listener.
1--WE not planned yet how I'll have
my upper rooms divided of 1 want
them handy and to be as large as posi-
ble," and he cast his round, white orbs
up to the ceiling, thinking that he
looked like poet whose eyes were in a
''fine frenzy rolling"
This is fine October weather." said
the widow, tossing her black curls and
rocking gently to and fro, giving her
head Just motion enough to swing the
glittering pendants in her ears and make
them catch the light of the lamp and
sparkle there most bewitchingly. Oh,
1t was a captivating little dodge, and it
worked like a charm. 'Sqdire's heart
melted like roll of July butter.
Her hands lay prettily in her lap she
continued: Il always think of what
the poet sung of October. He says:
There is a vgor in the air
That brings such light to heart and eye
As came not with the summer glow
She recited 1t rather mournfully,
and raised her voice at the end of each
line until she came to the last, and she
gradually let it die in a whisper.
That was artful dodge number two.
Ira was growing uneasy at the senti-
mental turn matters were taking, and
thinking of hospitality, he said :
esquire s'posin' we have a basket o
black walnuts to eat-some o them
boosters that growed down on the bot
tom?"
"No, believe not I ate a hearty
supper this evening"" said the Squire.
Now my family room is trifie larger
than this" he continued, and he looked
all around the room scrutinizingly.
The widow was glad that she had
swept down the cobwebs that very
morning, and that Ira had whitewashed
overhead the week before the State fair.
/ To all outside appearances she was a
tip-top housekeeper. But sometimes II
she was in hurry, she did not make
her bed more than three times In one
week. Nobody knew it but Ira, and he
didn't care a cent.
Ira stood his ground and managed to
say something every time the Squire
spoke; he was determined that he
shouldn't have an opportunity to talk
sentiment to Betsey, for if he did, dear
knows where it would end. There was
the Squire, a well-to-do widower, a
good provider, only two children, rich,
and looking about for partner to share
his Joys and sorrows. There was Ira's
sister, Betsey Bobbett, only turned
thirty three. neat, handsome, smart as
cricket, and her husband AS dead as a
door-nail this eighteen months and
over, and why shouldn't she marry if