The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-07-13
WILD STRAWBERRIES

More straHterfies?' said Mrs.
Wylde, with perplexed contraction of
her brows.
eyes" said old Phillis, the cook,
I've made two short-cakes an pie, an
dar amt nigh enough left to fill de big
glass dish for tea"
Dear mew said Mrs Wylde, "what
shall we do? Llsette is dressing, and
. Maude never could endure the sun.
Barbara" to a slender young girl who
was curled up in one of the deep window
seats, feadihg you'll have to CO."
Barbara Wylde reused herself out of
an Arcadian dream of Dickens Little
Nell, and fixed pair of big blue eyes on
her mothers troubled face.
Go where, mammal
"Down to the south pasture lot for
wild strawberries. The ground is Grim
son with them there, and"
Barbara Wylde scrambled down out
of her high perch.
Mamma" she said, "what "a nuisance
all this is! | don't believe Captain ELL
wood Severn is worth all this trouble
!. don't believe he will fall in love with
either Maude or Lisette. And [ think
preserved gooseberries arc quite good
enough for him."
Hold your tongue, childp said Mrs.
Wylde, sharply. "Take the basket and
90 for the strawberries at once"
" But it's 50 hot, mammal
''Put on your broad brimmed straw
fiat"
"And | haven't finished my novel, y
pleaded Barbara, with her mind revert
ing longingly to Little Nell.
Nonsense" said Mrs. Wylde. "You
read too many novels, deal, for child
of your age"
And Barbara disappeared, unwillingly
enough, into the apple orchard, across
which a sinuous path, bordered with
buttercups and red clover, led direct tC
the velvet slopes of the "south pasture, D
where the ripening fruit of the wild
Strawberries shone like tiny rubies along
the course of a little musical brook, al
fringed with reeds and alders and tall
growing ferns.
Strawberries, indeed!" said Barbara
to herself. Its dreadful to be the
youngest of family of girls, and have
to pick strawberries for ones elder sis
tiers beaux."
And she pushed the yellow curls out
OF her eyes, and went to work in lugu
! brious earnest popping the largest and
sweetest of the berries into her little
round rosebud of mouth, staining he
dress as she knelt down to seek the shy
treasures under the clustering greer
leaves, and crimsoning her hands will
the haste she made.
Isl | wonder Which of EN- he'll Rarry?'
said Barbara to herself, as she paused
n minute to listen to robin which
on the bows of feathery elm
beyond the brook, trilled out his barca
folle of glad music. "Lisette is the
prettlest, 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't talk so we'll. Gen.
Astlemen like intellectual ladies' Iwish"-
with sigh" that [ was intellectual"
M And our little maid fell to work at the
Strawberries again for full FIVE minutes
d And then she shook her basket, and
s.peeped into its depths, with eyes of azure
despair.
Not half full" said she to herself
- not a quarter full. Oh, dear mel how
wish some one would come to help me.
And there is some one stretched proyok.
Sagly IN the shade under Squire Dallas
pig oak by the stone wall where the
sweet briers grow. People have no bust
ness TO lie in the shade when other peo-
PIE have to be working hard in the sun.
And | do believe its Squire Dallas new
q hired man, and he ought to be at work
Ia the bayfield, instead of living there
under the trees with book. And .
Barbara added, surveying the distan,
JaineaRt with reSolute blue ewes from
beneath her uplifted hand, ''he shall
help mel"
ssh "Young mani" she called out. The
robin trilled, the brook made cool
tumultuous splashing over the mossy
stones that formed its bed, and no an
aswer came back to Barbara save the
Hutter of the leaves in the hazel copse
under the hill.
Young man, | saym she called out
kgain, this time with \ certain accent OF
lshe imperious in her voice. The recum
bent figure under the oak tree straight.
fned itself up at once, and mads haste
Howard the stone wall that separated
Squire Dallas's domains from Deacon
Wylde's south pasture lot.
Il beg your pardon" said he; but
did you call?
"Of course | called" said Barbara,
i thinking within herself how tall and
straight and darkly handsome Squire