Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-06-20

!, dove.eyed beauty with the ripping
hair and the complexion of rose and
snow. AS if Captain Severn would
ever look at you.'
But | may look at him, / suppose,
cried indignant Barbara. And I'm
sixteen years old, and you we no right
to treat me like baby
'Children children don't get to
quarrelling, said Mrs. Wylde. sAnd
Barbara can sit here behind the tea
urn, and dare say we shall have
plenty Of room.'
sTherD ! said Barbara, with a tri.
umphant grimace at her sister.
'Horrid little spoiled child = said
| Maude.
Barbara always gets her own way,
commented Lisette.
Hush = said Mrs. Wylde, authori.
tatively Here comes your papa up
the laurel walk with Captain Severn.
Lisette peeped from behind the
folds of the tiuted Swiss curtains
Maude ran to the Venetian blinds OF
the bay window, and Barbara climbed
with sixteen-year-old agility into a
chair to peep over her sisters shout
der.
'Oh, good gracious = cried she,
dropping from her aerial perch with
startling suddenness.
sWhat is it p asked Maude.
It's Squire Dallas's hired man 4
gasped Barbara.
What p said Lisette.
IL don't mind about the first
table, said Barbara, turning pink and
white, like York and Lancaster rose ;
I'D rather eat in the kitchen with
Phillis. And away she darted like a
scared young doe, before any one
could stop her.
Go awayr said Barbara, indig-
nantly.
She had cried until her eyelashcs
were all glittering, and her cheeks
stained with tears, to say nothing of
the crumpled state of her sash ribbon
and white muslin dress, and now she
sat crouched under the shadow Of the
great Towering almond bush, as if she
would fam retreat utterly out of the
world of sight and hearing.
Captain Severn stood immovable
before her, with folded arms and
questioning Spanish eyes.
Il shall not go away, said he, sun.
til you have pardoned me-
'How can ever pardon you p
flashed out Barbara. you have i'm
posed upon me, you have practic ed
npon my credulity.'
You asked me to help you gather
strawberries-and l helped YOU
you allowed me to suppose that
you were Squire Dallas's hired man.
Il claimed no identity, one way or
the other,' pleaded Captain Severn.
1 was trying to find my way by a
shortcut across the fields to your
fathers house, and sat down nnder
the oak-tree to rest. And when you
called me | come, like a true knight
of old. Now if you can convict me
of any serious offense in all this,
stand ready to abide the consequent
ces.'
you never, aever, will be able to
forgive me- sobbed Barbara, again
retiring behind the end of her blue
sash,
Little Barbara, said Captain Sew
ern, falling on his knees, as if it were
the most natural and conventional
thing in the world to do, will you
forgive me?
And what could Barbara say but
yes p
Captain Severn insisted upon his
strawberry tart that evening, accord
ing to agreement, and they ate it to-
gether, he and Barbara, like two
school-children, out on the lawn,
while Maude yawned behind book,
and Lisette acidly wondered what
on earth Captain Severn could find to
amuse him in the chatter of child
like Barbara
And when the red leaves of late
October choked up the little stream
beside which they had gathered wild
strawberries, there was a wedding at
the Wylde homestead, and the bride
was, not Maude the intellectual, nor
the lovely Lisette, but little Barbara.
Oars no accountin' for true love-
said old Phillis, as she stirred the
wedding cake.