The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-08-26
PATTY'S PLOT.

PATTY'S PLOT.
FLoves me better than the whole
world, does hep" said Patty Peronel =,
shaking her brown, tendrilly rings of
hair over n faded rosebud and n knot of
crumpled ribbon. ''Oh, | dare say (;
but You see, " gravely addressing space,
''I'ye heard that sort Of thing before
Love must be an awful epidemic nova
davS. And all the worlds a lottery and
!, for one, don't want to draw a blank
o dear, dearl how | wish | could readi-
ly see into n mans heart, How | wish
/ had any means of ascertaining wheth-
er Ralph Pcnrhyn really cares for me or
whether he has heard of Uncle Hutch
inson's so, 900. O, dear mel" and
Patty sighed deep enough to stir all the
red cinnamon roses that were nodding
tUrbaned crests at the easement.
And then she jumped up and went
about her business.
Which chanced to be girl-hunting Just
then; for Mrs. Maurice Peronel, Patty's
cousin, was chronically in the suds, so
TO speak, on the domestic service ques-
ton, and Patty knew the inside of every
Intelligence Office in town.
''lt's a cook this time, is it, Bessie?'
said she.
"A cook" said Bessie. go, Patty,
Patty, don't get married and 90 to
housekeeping. 1t takes all the romance
out of one
al don't know but what You are
right, Patty assented, reHectively.
And away she went to the Intelligence
office.
1t was crowded, on this hot July day,
with the miscellaneous aSsemblage of
foreign femininity who are always seek
ing situations and, like the lover in the
sAIistletoe Bough - ''find them not T"
Patty looked around obviously. She
was something of phySiognomist, and
she did not exactly like the looks of the
raw material wherewith she was sur
rounded.
81 had better bide my time q little, 8"
she thought, and down she nestled into
a corner of a prodigious sofa, to wait
with what patience she might.
As she seated herself the shrill, pip
inc voice of an old lady beyond made
silence vocal.
Ou Nbu L uo lBI llts SilC Silh q.
ENo fOllowcrs-that' my rule. My
kitchen amt place for all the loafing
fellerS in town to smoke in. Ask every
body in Darlingville, if you want to
know what kind of n hOusekeeper Ra-
chel Pcnrhyn is. Every body in Dar-
linville knows me. No followers, no
ribbons, no hoop skirts"
81 guess, thin, ma'am, We won't do
for me, - said the MileSian damsel, with
an indignant toss of her iockey-hatted
head; 81 don't 90 nowheres | can't
have me Young man come and see me
of Saturday night. "
Patty Perouel listened with miSchiev-
ously sparkling eyes and cherry checks.
This, then, was the eccentric Aunt Ra-
chcl. of whom Ralph had often told
her-the grim old Spinster who except
house. all bv herself in the quaint vii
lage of Darlingville, where the elms
lined the streets Ike TFeen-skirted SEN
tinels and every body went to bed at
half-paSt nine O'Clock.
Very sudden resolves viii sometimes
rush through our brains, lightning-eX-
press fashion. iu-a-Short space of time,
and almost before the shrill tones of
Miss Rachcl's falsetto voice had ceased
to vibrate on the air, Patty Peronel
Stooddippingoddlittle courtesieS before
her.
EIf You please, ma'am, would /
suit?''
Miss Rachel glared through her moon
shaped spectacle glasses at the trim fig
ure in sober gray.
EgA,,, .1,SIl f'' ,,,,4b sla GENNIy-
You are such a chit Of a thing.n
81 am nineteen, ma'am."
"What can You do?n
"a little of every thing, ma'am, -
Patty answered, demurely.
"'N'hat's your Nance
"Martha, ma am, please
Apparently the cross-eNamination
tnat followed was satisfactory to Miss
Rachel Penrhvn, for She finally told
Patty she might "come and try at 3
a month.
II may 90 home for my clothes,
ma'am," said Patty, with dropping
eyelids and hands folded.
"Ges; hut be sure you meet me at
the railroad station at. four precisely -
Patty promised and ran home to Mrs
Z
"'Where's my girl?" demanded the
matron. ......
~ haven't got any. I'm a girl my
self, Bessie, at = 4 month-and no fol
l0werS,i
"What under the sun doyou mean?''
And Patty explained.
HDont Scold, Bessie-now don't,
that's darling. I'm Caliph Haroun
Alraschid in disguise, that's all. 1t
will be such fun, Where's my gingham
dress and the little linen collars and the
big bib aprons? For my bubble would
burst altogether if / shouldn't meet
Aunt Rachel at the station 4 O'Clock
precisely"
What change it was from the swarm
ING city streets, radiating scintilations
of heat from every curb-Stone, to the
old PenrhEn house, where the century
old elmS formed green canopy of
shade and the Glove pinks and old-fash-
toned blue-bells bloSSomed along the
horders. And Martha, the new maid
settled into the grooves at once, rs If
She had lived all her live under Aunt
Rachel's roof-tree.
~ believe | am going to like this
oirl = said Aunt Rachel. 'But then,
of course. q new broom sweeps clean,
and Tn most 'fraid to believe in any
one since Keturah Smith experienced
religion and then ran away with my sill
yer sugar baSinin