The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1876-12-28
Little MIN.

Little MIN.
The only point on which Joe Paulby
and could ever bring ourselves to
agree was that his cousin MIN was
the only young lady in the world VINO
was worth falling in love with. Joe
Paulby was eight, I was seven. and
his cousin MIN was six. Joe was
strong, rough, troublesome, rude boy,
and was small ana weak and delicate;
and if it had not been that we were
both deeply in love with the same
Young lady, believe I should have
hated him. That solitary bond Of
sympathy served to bind us more or
less firmly to each other, and I seldom
quarreled with lhim, except when his
regard for her showed signs of cooling
down.
She was pretty, fragile little lady,
with quaint ways of her own, and q
gentle, frightened manner Of dealing
with her boisterous playmate which
seldom failed to bring him to sense
of order. She loved us both very dear
ly, but think Joe was her favorite.
He was rude, unpleasant boy to others,
but to her he was quiet and gentle
enough; and perhaps this palpable
evidence of submission appealed more
directly to the little lady than my de-
monstfative and colorless affection.
But she was very fond Of me, for all
that.
Neither Joe nor I had any parents.
and we lived with Minis papa in a
great, gaunt, draughty house IN Blooms
bury square. Capt. Paulby was our
gaurdian-a tall, bony, unsympathetlc
Widower. who governed his house as
if it had been regiment of soldiers.
A scale of dietary was hung up IN the
nursery, and from it one learned how
many quarter ounces OF cocoa, how
many half pounds of bread, and how
many tablespoonfuls of arrowroot we
consumed in one week. An order-book
was brought into the nursery every
morning, in which the detail of the
day S duties was carefully set out, and
to the instructions it contained, i'm
plicit and unmurmuring obedience
was exacted. 1t regulated the hours
of rising and going to bed, the school
hours, and the hours of relaxation,
when and where to walk, and what we
were to wear.
We were placed in charge of nurse
Nurse Stark. a tall, muscular, hard
ened woman of 40. She had stern,
unrelenting face. close lips, hard gray
eyes, and certain smooth rOundness
of figure which, on looking back, sug.
gests the idea of it having been turned
in a lathe. l never see the old woman
who lets lodgings in pantomime
without thinking of Nurse Stark. l
am bound to say, however, that she
was scrupulously-indeed, aggrava'
tingly,--clean and neat, and in that re-
spect, of course, the analogy falls to
the ground.
Nurse Stark was not actively unkind
to us indeed, believe she had cheat
ed herself into belief that she was
rather weak.minded and indulgent
than otherwise, but in this she was in
error. | believe she was fond of us in
= hard, unyielding way, but she was
sudden and impulsive in her move
ments, and never handled us without
hurting us. There was housemald--
Jane Cotter-who occasionally helped
"a ,pnt us to bed, and sometimes Nurse
StsTk undressed us while Jane put Oul
hnfr into curl-papers, and sometimes
NursA Stark did the curling while Jane
un6roksed us. And the manner II
Wk{1N these duties were to be divided
hnonrke matter of no light specula
ts . eveninghapproached; TO
Hg~a rae Stark's custom to pull
10 Tel. IL hair )Out to their full
lo1rtA. anu Linen roll them around !;
pfoCo of r -, tniBting the ends to
eth NJ ~ Irl had been role,
Vel 4ls Jane Cotter frs
n& ID with her fingers
g. gently in TRAN
1x~ d she pinched wit
O. 3 Cotter's fiat curl
So 4 sleep upon. but Nurs
So Dws placed comfort
1DG out of the question
III n TO sleep in peace wit
y 16h balls, each as big as
round your head. 70
e. bout giving four or fiv
q tkln HJlHnch.
11Hi1 lust have been sufiicien
Ushopf0 Frule, or Sunday woul
uGf 1n&1 Il out IN Such gaunt an
a. kast to the other days {
th9 - Aerefeigned in our nurser
49, Bic fiction that Sunday Wa
Id in the difference to tn
t endeavored to cheat on
belief that we were gla
lay arrived. Sunday bega
No. I'm Bloomsbury. 1t bega
fpYy( r in at half.naSt whp
we got up, and continued to ring itse
through the day at short intervals
until it finally rang itself out and /
into bed, atlhalfpast 8 in the evenin.
There were drawbacks, however,
our enjoyment of the day. l thin
we were required to tackle more CO
lect than is good for child of six {
seven, and perhaps we did not quit
understand the bearing Of that shortt
catechism which bench of Though