The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-11-18
MASTER ROBBY's ROMANCE.
IHarper's Monthly.l

I suppose other people would think they
could tell this story better than can. There .
Ethel, now; but she couldn't make any kind
Il ai along, and what could she know Of how
1T looked TO other people2 Nelly,s baby, but
she was mixed up In II, too As for the rest
they didn't know anything about 1t I'LL II was
all oyer, 60 what could you expect OF them2
Besides, Ii grown people write stories for
children, / don't see why children shouldn't
write stories for grown people, too, once In q
Who am n Well, I'm Master Robby Law
renee ten. years old on my last birthday,
and standing. four feet one In my stocking
feet. Ethel, she's my big sister, and Nelly is
only little girl after all, and always making
plumbers. Boys don't But then everybody
knows that boys are born with more brains
than girls ever get in oil their lives.
You see there was just us three, and we
hadn't any mother-,never had had any as
long as Nelly or / could remember We had
o father, to be sure; but what's the good of
q father when he's off down town all day,
goodnight, and ask whether you've been a
good boy fore you go to bedf Ethel is all
the mother we ever knew, and she Is pref
ty good sort OF girl, as girls go. only she
always wants to boss us too much. It's all
very, well for girls to DO bossed, like Nelly,
you know, but 1t doesn't do for boys. Boys
are meant to take care of themselves
OF course you'll want to know whether
things. that always did bother me. peo-
pie call her pretty, ! know, for I've heard
then but / don't exactly see how she can
be-. All the beauties that ever l read about
hair that came down to their feet-"purple
hair" they say sometimes Must look kind
of funny, should think. but suppose it's
al right II It's in print,, Sometimes they have
the silly ones what's always a-crying. Ethel
amt that kind at ALL so she ought to have
raven hair and everything to match. But
then You see, she 81 hasn't. When ! vas !, q
but somehow she doesn't look near as big to
me now, and some time, maybe, she'll seem
quite short. Little woman" papa calls her
an Her eyes aren't black nor blue
look almost black, though. ! know they did
the day she caught me stoning q kitten,
so ! reckon it's when she's mad. Her
n Ts f b # ydaesn all de sa a ind
Just o little way below her waist and |
don call that very long do you Then her
nose isn't straight one bit, and her cheeks
laughs, like she had put her finger in when
she. was baby and left mark. She's got
pink cheeks and red lips and little white
teeth; but so have ], and nobody ever called
me pretty. for that. I'd knock 'em down If
they did, ! know, but Ethel doesn't seem to
mind Ii one bit. Girls are such queer things
4 asked Ethel once whether she was pretty or
not, but, she wouldn't tell me-. She just
turned all sort Of pink, and didn't say either
yes or no. Frank Gresham was there, and he
laughed, but he didn't say anything, and
Ethel hustled me out of the room so quick
Ididnt have time to ask him. That's just
the fault had to find with Ethel you see
always bossng.
There was one thing suppose l ought to
tell you, for 1t really does come into my sto-
ry,. though you mfghtn't think 80 at first
Nelly and went TO school In the mornings
htff hY,y,,n J,Nfa lal
ternoons all to ourselves. Our nursery
play-room we call 1t, but the rest will call 1t
nursery, all we can do--is up In the fourth
story, and we used to spend most of our time
there. Ethel came there most every day,
and she used to play with us like she wasn't
any bigger than we were-croquet, you know,
and battledore and shuttlecock and ball
wben w we er red tell yeu hsn
fairy. tales sometimes, and sometimes stories
about men and women that were SO brave,
why, 1t made your hair stick up straight to
near wna Es shey did That Mas the kind Of
fairy tales, and always used to beg for them.
Well you see, Cynthy Brown that was our
nurse--she heard Ethel telling us these sto-
she brought us, q lot of books and picture
papers, and told us we might read them IL
we wouldn't let Ethel know. We didn't want
to promise, first off; but the stories were just
them all away II she knew of it, and may be
turn her off besides; so Nelly and me Thought
Il would be mean to tell, and we didn't oh, I
tell YOU, those books were Just prime. There
Revenge" and Nora Creina's Curse and
ever so many others, just ehock-full of love
Nelly, 80 she didn't care much about them |;
but they didn't scare me bit, and / liked
them first rate. Well, of course, it all had to
come out. Cynthy, she'd Just brought. us q
them before we had looked at one of them !
Oh, wasn't she mad though! She just
took up those books and papers and put
every one of them straight into the fire,
told her they were Cynthys, and she had no
right; but she said shed settle with Cynthy,
and walked stright outof the room. We never
saw Cynthy again, and reckon Ethel sent
her away, Tor when we asked about her, they
Just said she'd gone. One good thing about
il, though, was that we never had another
nurse, and we saw more of Ethel than ever.
Well you see, those books. had set me
thinking that's the good of books, people
say--and pretty soon | made up my mind
that Ethel ought to be in love with some
body or other, but it took me ever so long
to find out who 1t was. There were Frank
Gresham and Roger Grey, they came to see e
must be one OF them, but do what | would I
couldn't find out which of them liked best.
They were both good-looking, and one of
them that is, Frank Gresham- rich. He
Lorraine and Ethel were such great friends
that thought that might have something
to do with 1t. Roger Grey was young lawyer,
and he hadn't lived in New York very long,
but his father and our father had been friends,
and SO when he came here to live he came to
see us. Then my father took great shine to
him, so ne kept on coming, only after while
Ii was always Ethel he asked for. / thought
IL was shame, but when 1 told papa SO he
only laughed, and said he didn't mind, for
that Roger was a fine fellow. | didn't see
what that had to do with it, for was only a
youngster then, and green, you know.
asked Ethel one day which Of them she
was In love with, but she wouldn't tell me
She only looked awful mad for minute, and
then all of sudden she burst out laughing
and called me an absurd baby, and told me
was too young to think about such things
nd nnuaI To talk like that anain In nhcurd