Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-02-26
out text-thin and thumbed and

out text-thin and thumbed and
faded.
The good lady was humbly aware of
her DEFICIENCIES. A mere bit of quartz,
she did not attempt to shine even in her
husbands refulgence. All real author
ity in her department was delegated to
Miss Bimm, who carried things with an
air, taught the "higher branches, and
took the lead.
Mrs. Squimps meekly took the kitchen,
eminently filter, as her husband de-
clared for that department, which was
the foundation of all others. The foun-
dation prepared under Mrs. Squimps'
supervision was not very substantial.
But elegance was the aim, gentility the
law, at the academy, as Mr.. Squimps OBJ
served, and 10 one asked twice for the
same dish. An army of hungry girls,
he remarked privately to Mrs. Squimps,
would devour all before them unless
properly restrained. Under this aspect
sour bread and chill pancakes were Judi
cious.
Amanda Liza, the girl about whom
we were all just now In furore, had
assisted Mrs. Squimps and the maids IN
the kitchen of morning, likewise of an
evening between these she generally
sandwiched the thin hour of study
which was denominated her education. "
She was a slim, drooping-eyed little
thing, who never spoken up for herself ;
andif Jake hadn't spoken up for her once
in a while, think she would scarcely
have held her own even under Mrs.
Squimps' motherly sway.
"Old Jake" as we called him, wss a
black-eyed, ragged lad of eighteen, the
factotum of the school, general flag,
boot-black and boy-of-aI-work to the
establishment, with an occasional eleva-
ton to coachman. Jake was subject to
state of chronic outbreak, FESTIVE, for
getful of rules, and dreadful sassy"
the maids declared. But Jake had his
ideal, and that ideal was " Miss Manda
Liza" Her pale, patient face, her soft
quiet voice, were potent with him.
The girl was really poorer than Jake,
lower in the scale, and with no appa-
rent chance of rising from her bondage,
but she recitea with the young ladies,
and it was Jake's high ambition to help
her through with her chores and get her
into class. Jake's guardianship of the
girl was an accepted fact in the school
and village round about. No boy dared
play any tricks on Amanda Liza.
"Just you wait till / get my luck, an
I'll teach you'll" was Jake's admonition,
accompanied with a clinching of his
sturdy fist, that ably seconded the argu-
ment.
The girl took it all very quietly in
her gentle way, and seemed to have a
kindly regard for Jake-mending his
coat occasionally or darning his stock
ings-a thing Jake calamity declared
"she shouldn't do never again he
wouldn't have no ladies waitin' on
him."
Ladies! The girls used to nudge
each ether and smile; but for all that
they were very good to Amanda Liza,
whose faded dress and meek ways set
her apart from the noisy youthfulness
of the rest of us. We never begrudged
the extra polish which Jake, in his Ca
pacity of bootblack, bestowed upon her
shoes, and we did not laugh when those
same shoes made their appearance one
day adorned with respondent pair OF
steel buckles, which were afterwards
discovered to be extracted from the
coachman's rig in which Jake occasion
ally did duty, and to which, am sorry
to add, he was ANONYMOUSLY obliged to
restore them.
Occasionally, on some rare holiday,
we girls had the privilege of drive out
into the country, when the Squimpses'
superannuated sorrel, covered with an
elaborate netting to conceal its deficien-
cies, and pricking up its tasseled ears
with quite a show of spirit, would set
off on brisk trot, animated, no doubt,
by the prospect of grassy nibble along
the road. Gay times were those. Jake
was at his jolliest, and we all-old Dob
bin included-forgot our "short COM
mons" and long lectures, and grew
hilarious together. Even poor Amanda
Liza, quietly slowed away in the back
seat, frightened up in the sunlight,
and was meekly merry. Once, I re-
member, old Dobbin cantered along so
friskily that he upset the whole party on
a messy bit of rising ground, and whisk-
ing his long tail facetiOusty. quietly be-
took himself to pasture, while we picked
ourselves up as best we could.
eve might have had worse luck, "
said Jake, as he plucked Amanda Liza
out of the heap, shook her out, and
wiped the dust from her black apron,
leaving the rest of the party to look
after themselves. Which we did, scold-
ing and laughing by turns, and giving,
quite by accident, the front seat beside
Jake to Amanda Liza the rest Of the
way. All! the twilight that summer
evening was warm and mellow, the fields
were gilded, the meadows fragrant, and
we heard a refrain of the grand eternal
poem on the jolting seat of the old
wagon, though Jake was silent the rest
of the way, looking furtively now and
then at the girl beside him, and being
very attentive to old Dobbin. Poor
Jake Amanda Liza had shot up clean
out of his reach since then, and what
we wanted to know was whether the girl
would remember him now In the days OF
her elevation.
A wealthy uncle, splendid home,
and money on her own account-ah nc
wonder we had not seen Amanda since,
"They touched her off like sky.