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

his cousin MIN Was SAA. coo " go "
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 l should have
hated him. That solitary bond OF
sympathy served to bind us more or
less firmly to each other, and seldom
uuarreled with thim, except when his
regard for her showed signs OF cooling
down.
She was pretty, fragile little lady,
with quaint ways of her own, and
gentle. frightened manner of dealing
with her boisterous playmate which
seldom failed to bring him to a sense
of order. She loved US both very dear
ly, but | think Joe was her favorlte.
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-
monstrative and colorless affection.
But she was very fond OF me, for all
that.
Neither Joe nor l had any parents,
and we lived with Minis papa IN
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 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 a nurse
Nurse Stark. a tall, muscular, hard
ened woman of 40. She had stern,
unrelenting face, close lips, hard gray
eyes, and a certain smooth roundnesS
of figure which, on looking back, sug-
gests the idea of it having been turned
in lathe. | never see the old woman
who lets lodgings in pantomlme
without thinking Of Nurse Stark. l
am bound to say, however, that she
was scrupulously-indee aggraVa-
tingly,-clean and neat, and in that re-
spect, of course, the analogy falls to
the ground.
Nurse Stark was not actively unklnd
to us indeed, | believe she had cheat
ed herself into belief that she was
rather eak-minded and lndulgent
than otherwise, but in this she was III
error. | believe she was fond OF us III
hard, unyielding way, but she was
sudden and impulsive in her move
ments and never handled us without
hurting us. There was a housemald--
Jane Cottar-who occasionally helpeu
to put us to bed, and sometimes Nurse
Stark addressed us while Jane put our
hair into curl-papers, and sometimes
Nurse Stark did the curling while Jane
undressed us. And the manner IN
which these duties were to be divided
became matter of no light specula-
tion to as eveningtapproached; Tor
it was | ~se Stark's custom to pull
the, locl # hair out to their full
lengtls anu luen loll them around a
piece OF peer. twisting the ends to
ether whs1thn66rl had been rolled
veil hnnlA. Nhoresis Jane Cotter first
made th9 61{T uPT with her fingers
and t. bo1e gently in a TRAN
gnlar 3 she pinched will
the tg0 ss18s Cotter's fiat curl:
were pleasant to sleep upon, but Nurse
Stark{p4boukeeTrws placed comfort
able niGhteRieeet out of the question
II Ii inRdedble to sleep IN peace witt
double f0N Of balls. each rs big as
large cheatnpt. round your head. Yol
can fthout giving four or tiy
OF thera y wrench.
Ithink vGemust have been sufficient
" happy - rule, or Sunday woul,
not hare stood out in such gaunt an
sleeola1e contrast to the other days 0
the wo0k sIhere~reigned in our nurser
IN unsepeu11ble fiction that Sunday wa
a!lq1 reSy, 1nd in the Difference to thl
tsadftcn We endeavored to cheat our
se1veeinfo d belief that we were gla
whonxha&Say arrived. Sunday hega
very eeElysin Bloomsbury. 1t bega
to rin& iteAlf in at half-past :. whe
we got up. and continued to ring itsel
through the day at short intervals
until it finally rang itself out and Il
into bed, atlhalf-past in the evening
There were drawbacks. however. t
our enjoyment Of the day. thin
we were required 70 tackle more Co
lect than is good for a child Of six Q
seven. and perhaps we did not quit
understand the bearing of that shorte
catechism which bench of thought
full bishops had prepared for the e,
press use Of very young children
Even Nurse Stark. a high authority 0
all points Of church controversy, nevt
succeeded in placing its meaning quit
beyond all question. But Nurse star
had special Sunday frame OF mil
which discouraged close questioning
and on that day of the week she VI
exceptionally short and sharp in h
replies. She bafied our interrogat
ries By pointing out to US that the
was nothing so unbecoming as ten
pDey Ia ask orSstinpS which SCENT