Connecticut western news., 1877-01-12
A SMALL BOY.

On l say, She s out, Sa1u small Ned, as he opened the door. "She's gone to the dressmaker's, but she'll be back soon, cause she's goin' to friz her hair for dinner. Come in and wait
 I accepted the invitation, and installed myself in the easiest chair ill the parlor. after rolling it to the bay window, so as to command a view of the street, while Ned "histed himself, as he called it, on marble top table beside me, and sat there, with the crispy cheekiness of early boyhood, whistling and swinging his feet.
 Ned was chap of ten years, with a remarkable memory-as l was fated to discover-the youngest brother of Miss Victoria Conrad; and Miss Victoria Con- rad was handsome, flashing, clever girl whom had met at picnic the preced- ing summer, and with whom had inn mediately fallen desperately in love-
 I use the word desperately" adyis- edly, for 1t was my first really serious entanglement, and my charmer, being a thorough mistress of the arts by which young and susceptible male hearts are subiugated, had inthralled me most completely.
 True, before I cast myself at her feet, had felt a great tenderness for sweet little third or fourth cousin of mine, Q slight pale young girl, with hair of the faintest gold and eyes of the softest blue, and an innocent, trusting, childlike look in her pretty face.
 But beside Miss Conrad, with her magnificent form, glorious auburn tresses, and wonderful big black eyes, May Newton faded into insignifcance It was as though one placed delicate, cream colored lii y ill the same vase with a gorgeous, fame-dashed-w crimson leaved, brown throated gladiole.
 And so found, on becoming acquaint- ed with Miss Conrad, that my feeling for May, which had existed since our earliest childhood, was only tenderness, while my feeling for Victoria, although but ! three months old, already amounted to 8 passion.
 But, in spite of my infatuation for the latter, I was not blind to the fact that i she was finished coquette, and didn' t half like the way, after the very decided encouragement she had given me, she firted with my intimate friend Charley Thornton. Sometimes, indeed, it flashed upon me that there had been love affair between them which had not entirely | these flashes I had sought her house, de- termined to discover what her real feel 'ings toward me were, and resolved that when left her it should be either as an accepted or rejected suitor
 to believe, in spite of the flashes, it would be as an accepted one. For as, much as Thornton was distinguished by ! Gnnro6 oh IaIs o4I just so much had I been of late distill- i guished above Thornton. And we two were equal in age, looks, family, educa- tion and (our lady-love thought) for tune. I say our 1ady-love thought, for the truth was, compared to me, Charley was poor. How rich I was had taken care should not be known; for though only three-and-twenty, I had already grown tired of single life, with it's at tendant boarding houses, and was look ing for a wife, with a view to comfort able home of my own. And like Lord Burleigh and other romantic, poetical fellows, I wanted tc be loved for myself alone
 Only Charley Thornton knew of my recently inherited wealth, and him had bound by all that is sacred in friendship not to disclose it.
 "So in singling me out for favor" l argued, FVictoria leads me to suppose she loves me. And if she consents tc become my wife, that supposition will turn into happy certainty, for she cer- tainly, with her beauty and talents might make q much finer match than the one offer her. And what delight il will be when the words are said that sea my. happiness and make her all my own to see her resplendent eyes grow larger and brighter as she learns that in accept ing few thousands, she has become the mistress of half million P
 But to go back to the small boy swinging his feet and evidently anxious to enter into conversation.
 1T say," he blurts out at last, "dt you like to look at photographs? Char ley Thornton does. He and Vic looked a this book taking one from the table on which he sat-'' for more'n an horu the other day. like him. He give mt two white mice and guinea pig; the ca ate the white mice, and the guinea pig' dead. But they wasn't looking at it al the time either. They was talking t Your pictures there, you know. Hi