The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-12-06

sIory IN that, too. 3~
.',Who is that spruce-looking chap.
with tall hat in one hand and a little
cane in the other?''
"That," said Betsey, with a senti-
mental whine and a sorry shadow in her
eyes" that is an old beau of mine
when l was at H College. His
father was very rich. He was captain
IN the army deserted into the Southern
ranks, married a Creole, and is now a
sugar merchant in Havana
And there's romance waiting to be
unwound.
"That's Miss Anthony said the
Vermont lady, with knowing air. 81
think she's horrid; her nose shades all
the rest of her face, and her mouth puts
in continual protest against the over
arching precipice." (The a1nt's sister
writes for magazine.)
You're Mistaken" returned Betsey
severely, :" that's my Aunt Bingham, of
Detroit! That's Adonijah when he was
21; his mother says 'tisn't bit good
picture; he didn't have his hands spread
all over his knees that way-it was the
artists fault''
They turned another leaf, and Mrs.
w. sat back as if she was sstook with a
stitch," and the "lady on VISIT said
go, my!" l knew what it meant; twas
the beauteous Emmelina, remote rela-
tive, with rich papa. You have seen
such photographs-frizzes a foot high
above the forehead, and curls yard
long, straying over the left shoulder; a
shadow picture, with melancholy coun-
tenance and pensive, up-looking g eyes,
full of tragical suggestions, tieecy white
drapery, fastened with flowers-and
Oh! dear me!
"That," said Betsy, sis my picture,
taken last November; it isn't natural at
all; my frizzes got damp going to the
gallery, and that pink bow looks like a
patch; besides, it looks 45, and l am
only So"
~ thought you was older than that, :"
said Mrs. w.
II think it very true likeness" re-
marked the hateful old fossil from the
G. M. country.
sThat is Phebe Ann,n and nobody
asked any questions about the prim,
plain face.
Betsey shut the book and snapped the
clasps.
Mrs. Weatherbe said they ''must 60 -
Betsey said "Don't be in hurry .
and opened the hall door, ~ 81
The aunt's sister said, eff you ever
come out our way give us call" "
And Betsey said she should "be de-
lighted" and they all said s'good after
noon," and while Betsey was bowling
them down the front steps, and think
ing how much better the Eastern lady's
hoops on, the scribe slid out of the Gel
lar-way, grabbed up the album, ran in
to the big closet that has a window in
it, and picked up her train-of thought,
as a very careful knitter does dropped
stitches.
1t is the last picture in the album, the
pinched face of poor Phebe Ann, that
shall have its story, all that is known of
it, told. Once, when ''yours, etc. }"
was young and idle, before she became
scribe to the B. family, she knew, this
Phebe Ann; she was an old maid, too,
but not bit like the Green Mountain
one.
She was over forty years of age when
she came from the east. with her old
and feeble parents to settle near friends
in little, kind; quarrelsome, gossipy
western village. With all the busy pry-
ing and poking, nobody knew why
Phebe Ann had never changed her
name. To be sure she was sallow and
sharp featured, and angular, but there
was picture in the parlor that told when
she was young and charming. 1t was
hard to realize it, for she always had
the same set look on her face, and did
her thin, silver-streaked hair in the
same tight twist, with a stingy little
comb atop of it, One old philosopher
said he had seen her face change to the
beauty of an angel, when she was hand
ing cookies through the fence to hungry
street urchins (she always made the
cookies for the churce picnics, etc., and
they were the incest in the world) She
was an unbending Presbyterian. Like
Hannah mending Shoes she always
sat by the same window, doing patch
work, or family work. The time came
when there was funeral in the house,
then another, and after that Phebe Ann
lived alone. E+J
One mild May afternoon, when the
earth was moist and warm, and the air
redolent with the perfume of new leaf
and opening bud, the dearest friend of
your humble scribe-the one she wrote
criss-cross letters to when she was
"away to school" }" and vowed to love
for ever and ever-came in quietly for
her, upset a basket of stocking -darning,
rocked against the window, and said:
ave must go and sit up with Phebc
Ann tonight. She is sick and wants
nc +. mo cold co >, rss