Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-02-21
MR.. MULTAHNEE.
Harper's Bazaar

Grandfather didn't leave me his prop
erty, after all. I might have known he
wouldn't, because he said he would.
Grandfather always did something en-
tirely different from what he set out
to do.
There, for instance, was the day-we
had just got nicely settled in our coun-
try home that we were all waiting
patiently for the cow grandfather had
gone to buy. Goodness gracious knows
how many quarts of delicious milk we
had drunk, how much luscious cream
and strawberries we had eaten. how
many crooks Of sweet golden butter we
had churned, and how many pats of
cottage cheese we had made-in imagi-
nation-when he returned, with no COW,
and handsome parlor organ. Nobody
could play on it. Grandfather said
somebody could learn but nobody ever
did, and so we had to try and console
ourselves for the disappointment by re-
fiecting what fine addition to our
somewhat scanty parlor furniture the
organ was, until the morning grand
father suddenly made up his mind that
he needed another horse, and brought
our gentle, star-faced Daisy home in
stead
There were four of us in the family !;
grandfather, tall, straight, eccentric,
obstinate old man mother, the sweetest
and dearest woman that ever lived
and who should know better than her
only child myself, plain, quiet girl
of five-and-twenty and my cousin
Eta, Just of age, but looking about
seventeen pretty, selfish, idle, and
vain.
Now you're thinking [ added the last
three adjectives on account of the first
one Bnt | didn't, upon my word, for
| tried my very best to love the blue
eyed, fair-haired, teasing thing when
she first came among us, her father and
mother both having died during the
previous year but | couldn't; she was
SO thoroughly wrapped up in herself, so
sensible to her own wants and wishes,
and SO utterly insensible to even the
rights of others.
Grandfather was forever scolding and
finding fault about her, and wondering
how his grave, honest, elder son, John,
came to have such Il good-for-naught
daughter, and always praising me, who
was the child of his second son, William,
and saying that was the comfort of his
life, and should have the cottage and
grounds when ne died, but must
promise this was the invariable con-
clusion-" to take care of Eta until she
married, which is sure to be before long,
as men are always taken with q pretty,
doll-like face and kittenish ways, and
never care much for sensible-looking,
sensible-acting girls like you, my dear"
OF course / promised, although /
hadn't the slightest idea Of grandfath-
er's dying soon when he talked in this
way; neither had he, or he would have
said nothing on the subject, for he was
a hale, hearty man of seventy, appa-
rently good for another twenty years
lease of life, when one day, having
started to build a hen-coop, and begin
ming to dig we'll instead, he had ter
rible chill, and died in an hour
And when his will was read the day
after the funeral, I, for one, was very
little surprised to hear that all his pos
sessions, with the exception Of five
hundred dollars to my mother and five
hundred to myself, were left to " that
good-for-naught," the daughter of his
son, John.
And it was only q week after the
reading of the will when my cousin
Eta said to me, with calmuess and
GOODNESS somewhat astonishing in such
4 babyish-looking little thing, You
must be looking for another home
Faith. | am going to marry James
Read "a young man grandfather had
Getested-" IN q short time, and we viii
want the whole cottage ourselves"
So mother and l went up into oul
room-a fine large square room it was
right over the porch, where the branches
of hundred-year-old oak-tree served
us in summer for window blinds and
curtains, and the birds that made then
nests there woke us up in the early
morning with their musical chatter
and held consultation rs to what we
had better do.
WASN'T we'll enough educated to be q
goyerness, and couldn't sew well enough
to be 4 seamstresS, and, besides that
mother and l couldn't bear the thought
of being separated-we never had beer
since the day father died, ten years
before and we finally came to the
conclusion that small store was the
very thing.
What kind should it be? was the mex
question. I inclined to books, papers
.and stationery but mother shook hel
head (mother's head is lovely, beauti
fully shaped, with soft brown hair wav
ing and rippling all over it in a way tina
never was and never Will be produced
by crimping pins and other like con
trivances) and said, "You know thai
books and papers are an almost irresisti
bic temptation to you, Faith, and wher
you find one that interests YOU, you
forget every thing else. l think con
fectionery and fruit would be a gooC
idea"
"Ah, yes" said I,shaking my heaC
in turn but you know your weakness:
is children, and you'd give away all the
profits gained through larger buyers t
the poor little things who had only /;
penny to spend"
I'm afraid should" confessed she
with smile, (mother has the brightes
smile | ever saw, and the small, white
even teeth it displays are all her own.
How would millinery do?'
"That requires some knowledge O
the business, and necessitates strange
women about u.s." said |. "The only
thing that can think of as at all suit
able is fancy store. with a great variety
of small goods. That am sure we could
manage, and make enough to Support
us comfortably all our lives long; for
of course, / shall never marry, being 81
plain and sensible, as grandfather usec