The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-05-15

MISS jennings, 1 Will See you Ill d lew
moments" and hurried his sister to the
carriage, she all the way endeavoring to
impress upon him how very unfavorable
an opinion she had formed of the capa-
city and experience of the new governess,
"to be engaged only for the month, you
know; and it was necessary to have some
one at once"
Her last act, rs the cab drove off, was
to thrust her head through the window,
with an expression of dire solemnity, and
say, with a groan, Brother, we've gone
through the woods to pick up the crook
ed stick at last"
Mr.. Rainor returning to the parlor,
supposing that his sister had arranged
all preliminaries, only said: "How soon
can you come, Miss Jennings ?" .
"To.morrow morning, if you Like,
answered Amy.
"Let it be, then, by ten o'clock 50
that may present my little daughter,
and see you established before I 60 down
town."
"Just what you might have expected
from such wilful girl, said Amy ssister-
in-law to her husband, who was petri6ed
with astonishment when he learned that
his pretty, sprightly sister, who seemed
to him call smiles" and who, "just out
of school," had been received most lov-
ingly on his part into his afluent home,
had engaged to "go as governess.
cit is girlish freak" he said; 81
can not consent to it," But Amy shock
ed him into acquiescence by tempestu-
GUS outpouring of her story of home
sickness and unhappiness: and although
he was sorely puzzled to conceive how
his wife could have been cruel to Amy,
or rather how Amy could have imagined
his wife to be cruel, he finally-consider-
ing that the engagement was only for a
month, and Mr.. Rainor happened to be
known to him as one of the most estim-
able of citizens-gave his reluctant con-
sent, saying to his wife, caressingly,
"She'll come back to us, Matilda, at the
end of the month, quite cured of her
girlish homesickness.
So Amy appeared the next morning
by ten o'clock in the breakfast-room of
Mr.. Rainor, and was presented to his
little daughter.
The child was an angular, awkward
girl, with sharp, delicate features and
immense black eyes that seemed to be
peering forth from an extremely active
Intelligence with suspicious vigilance
that to Amy was really formidable.
"I had hoped she would have resem-
bled her father" thought Amy, despair
ingly. 81 like Mr.. Rainor. But this
child is Mrs. Edgeley in miniature.
What shall do with her?"
Little Miss Martha, clinging devoutly
to her father, received her new governess
as she would have received the gift OF
some wild and unknown animal, whose
claws or talons or teeth it were well to
beware of.
Mr.. Rainor, glancing at his watch,
found that he was too late to 60 through
the rooms and look over school-books, as
he had intended; but he said, kindly, as
with Martha's fond assistance he was
putting on his overcoat to 60 down town,
-" You will examine the ground to-day,
Miss Jennings. Matte will assist you
There will probably be some things that
you will want. Perhaps you had better
make ont list, and give it to me this
evening""
Nine o'clock at evening. Mr.. Rainor
seated at his reading table in the library,
book in hand. Enter Amy, timidly, but
with secret bravery.
"Miss Martha has retired, because
her head still troubles her. I had her
feet bathed in hot water"
"Poor child, she inherits that" said
her father. He meant headache, not
hot water, although that element had
been conspicuous in the rule Of the late
Mrs. Rainor.
"And have made out the list" said
Amy. Mr.. Rainor took it, and after
drawing an armchair near the fire and
placing a footstool for Miss Jennings,
resumed his place at the table and
adjusted his eyeglasses. He started
slightly as he began to read the list, and
his expression, as he. proceeded, varied
from astonishment to amusement; he
looked over his glasses inquiringly at
Amy, who regarded him steadily with
grave dignity. Then he read aloud as
follows: "Two canary birds, six house
plants, order at florists for fresh flowers
twice q week, six children to dance,
wood fire in the school-room, battle
door and shuttlecock, a new piano."
:: 'The battledoor and shuttleeock,"
said Amy, "are the French verbs. I
throw q verbsyou know, at Miss Mar
tha, and she catches it and throws it
back to me. In this way we go through
the lenses, and they become Impressed
upon the memory without the tedium Of
leaning over the book" :
"Well," said Mr.: Rainor, pleasantly,
ct don't know. that I should object to
such a French exercise. Matte has
had some trouble with her verbs. But
how about the children for the dance? is
it necessary that we should have six chill
dren, Miss Jennings p
eyes" answered Amy, decidedly,
"because each child will bring its own
defects and its own graces the defects
will be warnings, and the graces will be
models, and the correction of many blum
ders will make more complete order,
as failures build up success. It took
forty women, I have heard, to suggest
the modelling of the Greek Slave"
Mr.. Rainor did not perceive the pre-
else application of this illustration but
Miss Jennings evidently did; 30 that
point was settled, and they returned to
the list. "And the flowers" she said,
care to be copied in water-color, and
to exhilarate us at our tasks.
"And the piano?"
"It has all false notes a false note
makes trouble in q house. think that
q false note, even one, puts everything
that it reaches out of tune, Mr.. Rainor,
lam sure that you sing"
"Sing? Oh no. I haven't sung for
years." He paused, and strange bright
light came into his kind eyes. He added,
hesitatingly, "I believe there is pile
of my old music packed away in the
house."
"Iknew it," said Amy, "and it would
be very good for Miss Martha if you
could sing with her. I can play accom-
paniments, and we could have music
evenings"
"I feel inclined," said MIR. Rainor,
after studying the list more carefully,
and with mere serious air than at first,
"to accede to these requests. And
books ?" .
ssBooks9" repeated Amy, rather dis
mayed. "Really I forgot; in fact, we
haven't gone so far yet as the books.
Mr.. Raynor,," she said, rising to bid him
goodnight, and faltering from her dig