Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1877-06-30

7
bouncing, crashing. on the AOOr. The
altar upon which burnt sacrifices were
daily offered lay broken in a hundred
pieces. Aunt Susan witnessed the whole
transaction, and in two minutes Tots
was seized, spanked. and sent TO bed.
There is nothing to do bnt to yield to
Fate and Aunt Susan. They are COM
bination too strong for Tots to overcome.
SO she tOddles upstairs, lays aside the
garment she has worn during the dav,
and buttons herself into her bifurcated
night-dress.
Then it is that the idea comes to her.
Tots, Notwithstanding her tender years,
is devoted to fictitious literature. She
cannot read herself, but she takes great
pleasure in listening to Aunt Fanny,
who sometimes ente rtains the family by
reading aloud. Their last author was
Dickens. and Tots imagination has been
greatly excited by the beautiful story of
David Copperfeld and his child-wife,
little Dora.
eff" says Tots to herself, 6" could
only marry somebody. Now Dora was
just as good for nothing as am, and vet
Dodo loved her, and nobody called her
a nuisance and boxed her ears 1t must
have been very nice to live in the little
house with DodO and Jip. | wonder il
l could find anybody to marry me-"
Then, all of a sudden, Tots thinks of
the minister. His name is David, and
ne lives all alone in tine cunningest little
cottage, with an old woman for house
keeper.
at would be just the thing" thinks
Tots. "TlI ask him.
With Tots to plan is to execute. She
withdraws the foot with which she has
began to scale the heights of the bed,
and goes to the window. The moon
shines brightly. She isn't bit afraid.
In two minutes she has scrambled over
the roof of the shed, seized bough of
tie old apple-tree, let herself quietly
down to the ground. and is on her way
to the minister's house.
The Rev. David Thornton, sitting
gloomily in his study on the ground-Aoor
of his house, and fighting manfully with
the heartache caused by girls careless
words, is suddenly startled by two white
legs tearing their way through the vines
that grow in front of his window, and a
small body turning somersault into the
middle of his room.
al caught my toe and tumbled," ex.
plains Tots, assuming an upright position,
and caressing the injured foot.
"What are you doing here at this
time of night" asks the clergyman, be-
ginning to smile.
81 want to get married"
"To whom"
"You!"
This time the grave man laughs, and,
seating himself in his armchair. take the
child on his knees.
"What for" /
"'Cause Aunt Sue spanks me and Aunt
Flo boxes my ears, and I've been hearing
about David Copperfeld and Dora, and
1 want to be married and be child-wife
like Dora, aud have dog named Jip,
and I'd like YOU" Tot accompanies this
statement with kiss.
"Thank YOU"
"And I'll call you Dodo, and hold
your pens. They are all 50 cross at home,
and there is nothing to do, so 1 thought
I'd come and ask you to marry me. {
wish l had thought of it before got un- ,
dressed" and Tot surveys her toilet, 1
for the first time that she has
breach of the proprieties by
in public in pantaloons.
"What did Aunt Flo box your ears
for?"
CATER you went away this afternoon :
she began to cry so that 1 thought you /,
had been pinching her. 1t hurts so. you
know, when you take little nip. But |,
then 1 heard her say she had been 90
and done something to you that
you never would forgive, and that you
would never come back again; so then !,
thought it must have been she that
pinched you. So she cried for an hour :
awful hard. Then took her some jam.
When l cry, and they give me jam, / al.
ways stop. But she boxed my ears and
sent me away. Don't skeese me 50; it
hunts"
"Tots," said the minister, you are t
the dearest child in the world, and am s