The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-11-17
TOM.
An Every Day Incident.

IA
The old gentleman said | was not to
stand upon ceremony, SO I'll run down
to-day. 1t is dismally lonesome here,
and somebody said the Lawlor girls were
the bellies of the place. Who was it told
me that Julia Lawlor was the belle of
Rushtown, and that Dolly was the incest
little thing in the world? I'll go down
and prove the assertion"
All this in soliloquy, as Mr. Thomas
Bardell donned his daintiest walking
dress, drew on his lavender kids, put on
his glossiest silk hat over his crop of
curling hair, and surveying his handsome,
faultlessly-attired self in the long mirror,
sailed forth.
Rushtown was a collection of country
seats, mile from a populous borough,
and the Bardell Place was one of the
most stately of the many superb houses
of which it was composed Thomas
Bardell, my hero, was the nephew of the
late owner of the Bardell Place, and on
the death of that gentleman had inner
tied his entire property, greatly to his
own amazement, Mr.. Julius Bardell. de-
ceased, having quarreled with every re-
lation he had in the world, and an
nounced his intention of leaving every
dollar to charity.
That he did not, but relenting, made a
will in his nephew's favor, brought Mr..
Thomas Bardell from a college in Ger
many, where he was finishing his educa-
ton, to Rushtown.
He was twenty-four, an orphan, hand
some and talented, and had some private
fortune before his uncle's death. That
he was unspoiled, modest, and one who
held all women as little lower than the
angels, may be attributed to the fact
that he had a mother who was a true
Christian lady, who loved him, and
whose death, when he had just attained
manhood, was the heaviest sorrow of
his life.
Rushtown was an unexplored country
10 my hero, but Dr. Lawlor being the
only physician in the place, his residence
was easily found.
The hall door stood open, the parlor
door also was stretched invitingly wide,
and after vainly waiting for the ring to
be answered, Mr.. Bardell stepped inside
the vestibule.
a voice high above his head, and in
the parlor, called:
lonl, Is una you
The speaker, Dolly Lawlor, whose
name, be it here recorded, was Mabel,
but who had been called Dolly from her
cradle, being at the top of high STEP
ladder, scrubbing the paint over a
French window, heard voice say:
:" 1t is Tom, certainly"
Hand me my soap, that's good
fellow" said Dolly, from the lofty perch
where she was seated, facing the back
windows; you know | am afraid to look
down or turn around on the ladder, | am
50 sure to get giddy.'
Where is the soap" came in a voice
muffied by laughing.
Close down by the ladder, where il
has just dropped. Don't dare to laugh
at me, sir, for | am in the depths of af.
Fiction. Papa has invited the heir to
that handsome Bardell Place to drop in
without ceremony. Did you ever; and
we just in the middle of spring cleaning:
% LETT Jane to finish up stairs, and
came down myself to make the narlol
decent. There goes my brush! Hand
it up; that's dear"
The brush was handed up, Dolly moi
daring to take her eyes from level
already feeling her head spinning will
giddiness.
We can't be grand, of course, and the
house will look mean enough after Bar
dell Place, but we can be clean" she
continued, scrubbing vigorously at thu
paint. ''And you know, Tom, he is sure
to fall in love with Julia, and it is such q
splendid chance for her, poor dear. She
does so hate our economies. She has gone
now to Mrs. Simpsons to finish her blue
muslin, and she can't help clean, because
1t will spoil her hands, and they are so
pretty. Julia is lovely in blue, be-
cause her skin is so fair, if her hair and
eyes are dark. She will Just be perfect
when she is rich, Tom. | hope she will
have him, and papa and can iog along
forever. We don't mind cheap things as
poor Julia does There, That paint
can't be winter I'm coming down and
you may move the ladder over to the
other window for me, Tom"
but, cautiously descending the ladder,
Dolly only caught a fieeting glimpse of a
tai Inquire out at the garden gate.
Wei, she said, Juggling at the
heavy Ladder, if Tom was in such a
hurry that he could not move the ladder
ne mlghtat least have waited TO say good
morning"
Then, being the sweetest-tempered of
women, though merely passably pretty
girl, Dolly assembled the ladder again
and soon forgot Toms rudeness i'm the
absorbing duties she had undertaken.
In the meantime Mr. Thomas BardeU
shaking with laughter, wended his way
homeward, inwardly determining to
make his next call at Dr. Lawlor's when
Miss Dolly was less engrossed in the task
OF cleaning paint and the difficulty of
maintaining her equilibrium.
8 For that must have been Miss Dolly,
with the natty little boots, and pink
calico dress. She had lovely brown hair,
though | could not see her face
The next cali made by the heir of
the Bardell Place found the parlor shin
ing with cleanliness, Miss Julia Lawlor,
a really beautiful girl, arrayed in the
blue muslin at the piano, and Dolly,
also in blue muslin, knitting. The APP
pe9rance of the blue muslius was the re-