The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-02-15
LITTLE MINI.

The only point OH which Joe Paulby
and 1 could ever bring ourselves to agree
was that his cousin Min was the only
young lady in the world who was worth
falling in love with. Joe Paulby was
eight, L was seven, and his cousin Min
was six. Joe was Il strong, rough,
troublesome, rude boy, and 1 was small
and weak and delicate and if it had not
been that we were both deeply in love
with the same young lady, L believe /
should have hated him. That solitary
bond OF sympathy served to bind us more
O. less firmly to each other, and l seldom
quarreled with him, except when his re-
gard for her showed. signs of cooling
down.
She was a pretty, fragile little lady,
with quaint ways of her own, and a gem
tie, frightened manner of dealing with
her boisterOus playmate which seldom
failed to bring him to a sense of order.
She loved us both very dearly, but /
think Joe was her favorite. He was n
rude, unpleasant boy to others, but to
her he was quiet and gentle enough and
perhaps this palpable evidence of sub
nissionappealed more directly to the little
lady than my undemonstrative and color
me, for all that.
Neither Joe nor l had any parents,
AMI We lived with Minis papa in great,
Salnt, draughty house in Bloomsbury
square. Captain Paulby was our guard
ian-a tall, bony, unsympathetic wild
over, who governed his house, as if It
had been a regiment of soldiers A scale
of dietary was hung up in the nursery,
and from it one learned how many quar-
ter ounces OF cocoa, how many half
pounds of bread, and how many table
spoOnfuls Of arrowIoot we consumed i'll
the week. An order book was brought
into the nursery every morning, i'll which
the detail of the days duties was care
fully set out, and to the instructions it
contained implicit 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 we were to walk, and
what we were to wear.
We were placed in charge of nurse
Nurse Stark, q tall, muscular, hardened
woman of forty. She had stern, unre-
lenting face, close lips, hard gray eyes,
and certain smooth roundness of figure
which, on looking back, suggests the
idea of its having been turned in lathe
L never see the old woman who lets lodg-
ings in pantomime without thinking of
Nurse Stark. / am bound to say, how
ever, that she was scrupulously-inde
aggrayatingly-clean and neat, and in
that respect, of course, the analogy falls
to the ground.
Nurse Stark was not actively unkind
to us; indeed, | believe she'had cheated
herself into belief that she was rather
weak minded and indulgent than other
wise, but III this she was i'll error. /
believe she was fond of us in a hard, nm
yielding way, but she was sudden and
impulsiye III her movements, and never
handled us without hurting us. There
swas a housemaid-JaneC Cotter-who oc-
easionally helped TO put us to bed, and
sometimes Nurse Stark undressed us
while Jane put our hair into curl pa
pers, and soInetimes Nurse Stark did
the curling while -Jane undressed us.
And the manner in wlieh these duties
were TO he divided became Q matter of
10 Hght speculation to us as evening ap-
proached; 1or 1t was Nurse Stark's GUS
ION 10 pun the locks of hair out to their
Iell length, and then roll them round 4
Piece OF paper, twisting the ends to-
8eInef when the curl had been rolled
wen nome, whereas Jane Cotter first
made the curl up fat with her fingers,
and then incased it gently in triangu-
lar paper, which she pinched with the
t0ngs. Jane Cotter's flat curls were
pleasant to sleep upon, but Nurse Stark s
corkscrews placed a comfortable nights
rest out of the question. 1t is impossi,
bleto sleep in peace with a double row