The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-01-24
A SMALL BOY.

Ned, as no opened the door. "She's
gone to the dress makers, but she'll
be back soon, cause she's got to friz
her hair for dinner. Come in and
Wait.''
accepted the invitation. and in
stalled myself in the easiest chair in
the parlor, after rolling it to the bay
window, SO as to command II view OF
the street, while Ned ''histed him.
self, us he called it, on marble-top-
ped table beside me, and sat there,
with the crispy cheekiness OF early
boyhooll, wi,istling and swinging his
feet.
Ned was a chap OF ten years, with a
remarkable memory-as | was fated
to discover-the youngest brother Of
Miss Victoria Conrad and Miss Vic.
toria Conrad was Il handsome dash
ing clever girl whom had met 1T a
picnic the preceding summer, and with
whom had immediately fallen des-
perately in love.
I use the word "desperately'' adj
visedly, for it was my first really seri'
Gus entanglement, and my charmer,
being thorough mistress Of the arts
by which young and susceptible male
hearts are subjugated, had |enthralled
me most completely. ..
True, before I cast myself at her
feet, had felt a great tenderness for q
sweet little third or fourth cousin OF
mine, a slight pale young girl, with
hair of the faintest gold and eyes of
the softest blue, and an innocent,
trusting, child-like 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 insigniiicance.
1t was though one placed a delicate,
cream-colored lily in the same vase
with a gorgeous, tiame-dashed-with-
crimsOn-leaved. brown-throated glad
iole.
and so | found on becoming ac-
q,lainted with Miss Conrad, that my
feeling for May, which had existed
ever since our earliest childhood, was
only a tenderness, while my feeling
for Victoria, although but three
months old, had already amounted to
apassion.
But in spite of my infatuation for
the latter, l was not blind to the fact
that she was a 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
was an old love affair between them
which had not entirely ended even
now, and it was after one of these
flashes had sought her house, deter
mined to discover what her real feel.
ings toward me were, and resolved
that when I left her it should either he
as an accepted or rejected sui tor.
To speak frankly / had every reason
to believe that it would be an accepted
one. in spite of flashes, For as much
rs Thornton was distinguished by
Miss Conrad above her other admir-
ers, just so much had I been of late
distinguished above Thornton. And
We two were equal in age, looks, fam.
lily, education, land our lady-love
thought) fortune. l say our lady-love
thought, for the truth was, compared
to me Charley was poor. How Itch ]
was | had taken care should not be
known for although only three-and
twenty, had already grown tired OF
4 single life, with its attendant board
lighthouses, and was looking for d
wife, with view to comfortable
home OF my own. And like Lord
Burleigh and other romantic poetical
fellows, I wanted to be loved for my
self alone.
Only Charley Thornton Epew of my
recently Inherited wealth, and him
lad bound by all that is sacred in
friendship not to disclose it.
so in singing me out for favor.'
argued, Victoria leads me to suppose
she loves me. And if she consents to
become my wife, that supposition will
turn into happy certainty, for she
certainly, with her beauty and talents,
might make much finer match than
the one offer her. And what delight
it viii be when the words are said that
seal lay happiness and make her all my
own to see her Respondent eyes grow
larger and brighter as she learns that
in accepting few thousands, she has
become the mistress of half mil.
liOn!''
But to go back to the small boy,
swinging his feet and evidently anx.
ious to enter into conversation.
II say he blurts out at last, ''do
you like to look at photographs
Charley Thornton does. He and Vic
looked at this book'-taking one from
the table on which he sat-s'fol
more n an hour the other day. like
him. He gave me two white mice and
aguinea-pig the cat ate the white
mice, and the guinea.pig's dead. But
they wasn't looking at it all the time
either. They was talking. You:
pictures there, you know. He used
to he ON the other 1ara hut he ccaxnf