The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1877-03-07

handsome nephew, and had fought
many pitched battles with bis prin
mother and austere step-father, and il
must be owned that Nelson was one
of those who give their friends
enough to do in this respect,
After breakfast Annie went to heI
own room and locking the door, went
to her bureau and took from one oi
the drawers photograph Of o hand
some cavalry officer III Union blue,
which after looking at it q lbng while
with dropping lids, ouivering chin
and misty eyes, she suddenly kissed
passionately, and then, with blushins
face, bid it with a rapidity lquite re-
markable, considering how long she
had stood looking at it. Then she
went to the window aud looked long,
with her white forehead pressed
against the glass in the direction Of
the headquarters of the United States
Cavalry, although the actual view
presented to her eyes consisted OF
long lines of houses on each side oi
Mission street. The thought OF Nell
son Mowry rs last she saw him,
mounted on his splendid black mus
tang-which was no less fiery and
impatient of restraint than himself
of his large black eyes which flashed
on her look that thrilled her through
and through even now, of toe 1.-THE,
slender figure. of the curling brown
hair, that looked SO glossy and tossed
so free, as be lifted his plumed caval-
ry hat, and the handsome picture
grew in her Imagination 10 almost re-
ality. She would have liked to be-
lieve that Nels Mowry was no worse
than Aunt Sarah thought him ;
and | am afraid she found
as many excuses for him
as did bis partial aunt-though
she had perfect right to Ike him
was he not her second cousin ? and
as for Jane Berger, with her long
white hair and fsby blue eyes, she
never liked her anyway ? She al
ways hung around him in o manner
decidedly unladylike, I'd say the
least.n
So one can see that tho mischief
maker in this instance. at least, re-
ceived her deserts. Yet others had
said that Nels was wild that be was
scattering his wild oats with very
liberal hand and others still said
that be fought the tiger,a aud was
always "hsrd up" Thest last quail
ficstions seemed in her eyes the most
terrible of the category ,inasmuch as so
obscure and so seldom used by ladies,
and at such times with dolorous looks,
while the other two were spoken Of 10
smiling way, or with shake of the
head merely, over his wildness.
Still Annie sighed. She would
rather not have had her only cousin the
only scion of Mowry stock, so repro
bated, and so-and so-she only
sighed.
1t was very hard to believe him so
wicked, looking at his frank, honest,
darkly beautiful face, under
the light of the the bright
black eyes, or to be frigid under the
smile of the rich red lips that so often
parted in boyish laugh, disclosing
rows of white, even teeth-very hard,
and 80 Annie thought it the next day,
as she sat demurely silent near
one of The windows, and listened to
the merry singing voice that was chat
tering solively with her aunt.
Nels had seemed nightly amused
at hearing the capacity in which be
was invited to serve, and on the
whole, impressed Annie with the
conviction that he would be badly
disappointed if no burglar afforded
him any means of exercising his
predilection for "battle, murder and
sudden DEATH
With these thoughts uppermost,
aud withal, the fear that she after all
liked him too well down in the bot
tom Of her heart, Annie was shy and
constrained before Nels to the last de-
gree. Naughty or digni6ed she
could not be, as nature had not be-
slowed on her those unlovely attri-
butes, but only an impulsive, passion
ate heart that fain would hold loving
and kind thoughts of all the world,
and believe the best of every man,
woman and child she met, particular
lv OF her handsome cousin.
In theory, you see, Annie mad
shaken her head over the iniquitv of
the world at large but in practice,
it was the feminine fashion to take
those with whom she came into actu-
al contact much as they appeared or
professed themselves to be, and thus
after bestowing on them virtues, or
the sem5lance of them, which, fear,
they had no claim to, except in her
innocent mind.
And all the shyness. and all the re.
straint, did not deter Nels in the least
from setting himself to restore, at the
very first opportunity, something of
the old. familiar relations which had
existed between them before his Ari-
Zona exodus. He thought over it
considerably, and smoked many ci-
gars, seeing through the clouds of
smoke the pretty girl, scarce more
than a child whom he had left three
years ago and remembered the fact
that that separation had give1 him
q realheart-ache at the time, and be
smiled to himself complacently at the
thought that neither of them had
grown any less handsome during that
lapse of time, a1d he thought, too,
that Annie had the largest, softest,
brownest, and yet finest eyes be had
ever seen, and that she had the love-
liest wild rose complexion tha. ever
was, and that she also had the finest
figure of any woman be had ever
met. and he admired her accordingly. !
The sweet picture framed all this
while in curling rings of blue smoke. |
Fashionable girls. handsome girls, |
gay girls, Indian girls, fast girls, |
flirting girls, timid girls, and savage
girls Nels knew by scores, and had |
doubtless pade love to them several |
ly and collectively, and talked non
sense to them by the hour, and waltz
ed with them by the mile, but some