The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-09-19

| a5aih- Due east was the hopeful Tom
my, whistiing in an exasperatiye man
ner, and staring at the widow, as though
she was What is 1t :" and he had lust
paid his twenty-five cents to Barnum in
person while opposite, julie and Susie
were quarreling about book, and prac-
tlcaliy giving dear old Dr. Watts the
lie direct about the object for which
little hands were made Patty
smoothed out the last crease in her
shawl, and walked up to the combat
| ants.
Are you sisters? she asked quietly.
The children hung their heads, and
dropped at once the book and each others
hair. Then Patty took the little golden
head on her lap, and nestled the brown
head in her arm, and in FIVE minutes
led them off to Fairydom, where she
kept them till they were safely in Dream
land. Master Tommy stopped his shrill
| whistle to listen. Mrs Frost's nervous
| system being relieved, her senses came
back to her, and three of her short sem
| fences put father and George out of the
way, and restored the bound girl to her
| normal condition. In half hour that
! kitchen was so quiet that pussy got up
from before the fire and walked around.
mewing uneasily, thinking she had
made mistake and got into the next
| door, where nobody lived but prim old
Mrs. Gillet. But the cap never relaxed
an atom of its severity.
''Just as told you" insisted that pre-.
| JUDGED piece of muslin. "She is an art
| full little hussy. Never came across one
Of them low-spoken women with curls in
my life that wasn't. She'll be making
eyes at George soon. See if she Doesn't
Fate who seems to have a special spite
! against widows, obtruded her ringlets on
the notice OF another pair of unfriendly
eyes, belonging to Lucy Ellis, Georges
| first love.
Lucy, who was older than George. and
| had no roses and some freckles, saw the
dear little woman, one day, running at
ter the children, laughing, painting, and
rosy with health and fun, and took
the alarm.
"What a bold, vulgar, disagreeable
woman that is who lives atyour mothe'sl'
she said to George
'Disagreeblel echoed the astonished
young man, ''Why, she's one of the
incest little women | ever saw in my life;
and as for being bold and vulgar, |
don't see how you can say SO Lucy"
go, of course not, snapped she.
'You men always do like those horrid,
brazen things. She's painted if | ever
saw paint! I'm sure she's thirty, and
I'll bet anything her hair and teeth are
false. Ii you like her, however, it s all
if you make her Mrs. George Frost!"
| II I I
youth didn't so much as see this forbid
den tree, what allied you to bump his
head against it, because you fancied he
had hankering after the apples. If you
did not wish him to watch the riotous
blood that was continually deepening
! from peach bloom into the flush of the
rosiest sea shell, and fading back again
into the widows fair cheeks, why did
you hint at paint? And, oh, idiotic
muslin cap that catching him in one of
| his secret eye-inquisltions, must needs
read him a lecture three times a week
on the folly of falling in love, the vanity
Of the things called widows, and the utter
| frivolity and worthlessness of this widow
in particular. Under such circumstances,
what could the poor man do but fall in
love with her? There was no help for
him. He was only obeying Il law that
governs our sex. Why, L might never
have married Polly, and been a free and
happy bachelor at this very moment, if
my Aunt Cath-but Pm drawing toward
the close of my paper. I'll tell you the
story some other time, and come back
now to our "muttons."
Winter had emerged into spring, gray
! 1 orlD i OF.
but with fresh odors in the air and oc
casional faint twitters from the orchard,
andeverywhere sounds of trickling water,
and the glad sight of the fresh, green
grass peering timidly up from patches of
snow and mud Without, all was hustle
father, George, and the men, getting
ready to start for the upper dam, that
was hourly expected "to CO. in the fresh
ct within, Widow Patty going around
in her usual sunshiny fashion, and Mrs.
Frost a little more northeasterly i'm her
movements than ever, and furiously out
of patience with the "freshet," George,
the widow, herself and everything about
her. The widow being handy, and hap
pening to look more provokingly pretty
than usual, on her was poured out the
Walls of her wrath.
F'DOn't want to interrupt with i'm.
mense stateliness,) but if you've done
looking after the men (withering empha.
STA, I'll thank you for them eggs. The
puddin's waiting"
Widow Patty, who had stopped mo-
ment in the doorway to glance after the
retreating wagons, started TO cross the
kitchen, but half way was almost knock
ed out of existence by the boundgirl
who rushed in, breathless and commaless,
as usual, exclaiming:
ooh Miss Frost hurry hurry
Be as quick as you can. Old Dan--the
creek = bags mill = four-men, why
don't you run?" all the time dancing
around the kitchen, and snatching down
emily with a vague intention of making
herself useful in some inexplicable way
Mrs. Frost turned up her nose and
went on with the pudding.
"She was always simple, and the bus
tie has set her crazy, and no wonder,
said she. But Widow Patty thought
different, and in the course of half an hour
put the girls halfuttered sentences to
gether thus The mill, then, was in
danger, and if they wanted to save any
thing out of it no time was to be lost. "
1t was now Mrs. Frost's time to exclaim:
''The mill going! My goodness and
all them things stored in the loft there
and them great lazy men off to the upper
dam, like parcel Of fools, instead Of
staying to home and minding their bust
ness -
''Here, you, Sally-but what's the use
of talking to her? You Cunning 20 Patty
come along with me. am going to save
all can, if only to shame the men"
''But the freshet the danger p ex,
claimed Patty-eFthe-f