The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-06-20


the velvet slopes of the ''south pasture, y
where the ripening fruit of the wild
strawberries shone like tiny rubies along
fringed with reeds and alders and tall
growing ferns. !. .....,.t
Strawberries, indeed |" said Barbara
| to herself. "It's dreadful to be the
youngest of family of girls, and have
to pick strawberries for ones elder sis.
ters' beaux."
And she pushed the yellow curls out Of
her eyes, and went to work in lugubrious
earnest, popping the largest and sweet.
est of the berries into her little round
rosebud of mouth, staining her dress
as she knelt down to seek the shy trea-
sures nnder the clustering green leaves,
and crimsoning her hands with the
haste she made.
" I wonder which of 'em he'll marry?'
said Barbara to herself, as she paused
minute to listen to robin which,
perched on the boughs OF a feathery elm
beyond the brook, trilled out his bar
carolle Of glad music. "Lisette is the
prettiest, of course, and he can't know
what dreadful temper she's got. But
Maude is literary, and has read all the
new books, and can talk so we'll. Gentle.
men like intellectual ladies'. I wish"-
with sigh-''that I was intellectual. u
And our little maid fell to work at the
strawberries again for full five minutes.
And then she shook her basket, and
peeped into its depths with eyes OF
azure despair.
"Not half FULL" said she to herself
''not quarter full. Oh, dear me how
I wish some one would come to help me-
And there is some one stretched provok.
ingly in the shade under Squire Dallas e
big oak by the stone wall where the
sweet briers grow. People have no
business to lie IN the shade when other
people have to be working hard in the
sunl And do believe it's Squire Dal-
lass new hired man, and he ought to be
at work in the bayfield, instead of lying
there under the trees with book. And, u
Barbara added, surveying the distant
fdineant with resolute blue eyes from
beneath her upli ted hand, che shall
work; he shall help me p
"Young man |" she called out. The
robin trilled, the brook made a cool,
tumultuous splashing over the mossy
stones that formed its bed, and no an
swer came back to Barbara save the
hutter Of the leaves in the hazel copse
under the hill.
| "Young man, I say |" she called out
again, this time with a certain accent of
the imperious in her voice. The recum-
bent figure under the oak tree straight
ened itself up at once, and made has.e
toward the stone wall that separated
| nan a,t,
Wyl de's south pasture lot.
81 beg your pardon, said he; "but
did you call"
"Of course I called" ssid Barbara,
thinking within herself how tall and
straight and darkly handsome Squire
Dallas's new hired man was. "Don t
you think, young man, you ought to be
at work ?"
"At work ?" repeated the Spanish
browed stranger. "Well, perhaps I
ought"
"There's no perhaps about it,"
said Barbara, brusquely. "Of course
you ought. And since you don't choose
to work for your master, you may as
we'll be working for me-"
"My master?'
esquire Dallas, of course" said Bar
bara. "Dear me, how stupid you are. +"
"And how, may venture to ask, did
you know who WASP" he questione d,
in an amused sort of way.
"Oh, it didn't require any great ex-
ercise of brilliance for that" responded
| Barbara, with q little nod of the head.
"I know Squire Dallas has gotta new
hired man; and if you're not he, who
are you ?"
"That If the question:" said the
stranger gravely.
"But we mustn't stand talking here"
went on Barbara, in a business-like sort
of way. "Take the basket and go to
picking strawberries just as fast as ever
you can, because we're to have COM
pany at our house I'm Barbara Wylde,
you know, young man-and must get
back with the berries for desert as quick
ly as possible"
"All right" said the stranger; "I'm
tolerably quick at this sort of thing, I
"I hope you are," said Barbara-in-
tent on extricating tiny rose-pricker
from the point of her stained forefnger
-''and at other things too. Because, if
you're not, Squire Dallas won't keep
you"
"He won't eh2"
Barbara shook her head. "The last
man went away because he couldn't en-
dure the squire's driving ways" said
she. "Oh, I was so sorry He was
nice. He used to lend me books and
things over the fence, and he taught
district school in the winters. 1 used
often to come here and talk with him
over the stone wall, because, you see,
it's lonesome up at the house if do
have two grown sisters. Lisette is cross
with me if I ask to borrow any of her
books-she has dreadful temper, has
our Lisette-and Maude is too intel
lectual to trouble herself about slip Of
girl like me. Grown sisters are dread
full, ;" with solemn shake of the head.
"And l suppose you are not grown, "
said Squire Dallas's hired man, with a
curious gleam of amusement around the
corners of his mouth.
"No," said Barbara, "I am only
sixteen, and haven't got trains to my
dresses yet. But perhaps when the
girls get married, and one of them is
sure to marry this Captain Severn-Oh,
take care, you're tipping all the berries
out upon the grassl Squire Dallas
won't keep you a week if you're as
clumsy as that"
But the hired man luckily succeeded
in righting the basket before it's GRIM
son contents were irretrievably lost.
"It's all right" said he. '"see how
rapidly it is filling up. But suppose
this Oaptain-I forget that you said his
name vast"