Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-03-22

sound Of merriment that fell upor
my ears, until / come suddenly
upon croquet party of gentlemen
and ladies at the sight Of whom
all my old timidity returned, ant
had / not seen Mr.. Wilson advanc
ing toward me, actually believe
/ should have turned and fed. Bu'
it was now too late, and nothing tC
be done but to face the music with
as good q grace as possible.
Mr.. Wilson introduced me to the
entire party, consisting Of his three
daughters, Miss Laura, the eldest
a beautiful brunette of twenty sum
mers, Miss Kate, graceful girl OF
eighteen, possessing beautiful ha-
eel eyes and brown ringlets, Nell,
the youngest, amerry little witch
of sixteen, with bright blue eyes
and golden curls, and Miss Austin,
whom ] mentally pronounced hu-
man icicle. The gentlemen were
Fred Wilson, whom / had often
seen at the bank, Mr.. Hughes, and
Mr.. Cassell. They asked me to
play, but l professed Ignorance of
the game, whereupon Nell offered
to teach me, an offer which /, of
course, accepted.
All went smoothly for a while,
until by an unfortunate stroke, l
sent my ball some distance down
the lawn, and in Fastening after it
l caught my foot in an arch and
fell sprawling across the croquet
ground, sending the balls in various
directions. Quickly regaining my
feet, / met the amused glances of
the entire party,who were vainly en-
deavoring to suppress their Taught
er. Nell, alone, tried to console
me by remarking merrily, "Never
mind, Mr.. Symthe, you have made
an arch at last
Wiping the moister from my
burning face, and the dirt from my
pants, / mentally vowed l would
not "malce another arch," at least
in the same manner. 1t was now
voted too warm for croquet, so we
adjourned to the house where the
ladies favored us with music. After
Miss Austin had displayed her
musical training in dashing waltzcs
and selections from the most popu-
lar operas, Nell seated herself at
the piano, and requesting me to
turn the music, commenced to sing
some simple ballads which were
much more to my taste than the
operas so popular to the upper
ten.
After a little, the ladies departed
to make their toilets for dinner,
and Fred Wilson took me to his
room, where with a few moments
labor. | managed to render myself
presentable. At dinner everything
progressed so finely that 1 began
TO congratulate myself that my
trials were over, but the fates had
not so ordained. / was seated be-
side Miss Austin and Nell. In the
midst of my congratulations, how
ever, Nell asked me TO pass some
article which she could not reach,
aud in fastening to comply with
her request, my sleeve caught my
spoon, which had very carclessly
left in my cup Of coffee. upsetting
the contents over Miss Austin's
dress. ! attempted to apologize
but her naughty stare and sup
pressed anger in her tones as she
replied:
"Noapology is necessary" check
ed the words upon my lips.
But Nell was not so easily silenced
and therefore remarked:
"Had you worn muslin, like my
self it would have washed"
/ had forgotten to mention that
tho Misses Wilson wore snowy
muslins, while Miss Austin was
radiant in an elaborate costume Of
pink silk, Miss Austin made no re-
ply to this, aud as soon as dinner
was over, went TO her room to re-
pair the damage.
p After q while, Fred suggested
that we should take a walk in the