The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-04-07
PANSIE.
CHAPTER /.

Mot drum was heard, not funeral note"
"Chubby, If you say that out loud again
III"
"well, suppose must learn my lessons
stoopid!"
know that Chubby is putting on a detest
able and impudent face and shooting out his
lips abnormally. ] know that Nell, with eyes
ablaze, is glarng at him across the table, as
she looks up from the delights Of Ivanhoe,
and yet will not raise my head from the pa
per whereupon my pen is hurriedly tracing
words that some ones eyes will gloat over to-
morrow morning.
It Ia more than week since | have been
able to find O moment to write to Dick, and
he will be hungry for letter; at least think
80, Judging by my own sensations, when
three or four days go by without bringing me
a big envelope, directed in clear hand to
Miss Merivale, Morncliffe, near York" 1t is
a good thing am the eldest Of the Merivale
family, for my Christian name might pro
woke the postman into n disrespectful smile.
"Pansie' a quaint name truly, but mother
and know what it means, and we love 1t; at
least she does and love it because it sounds
SO sweetly from her lips when she tells me
that am her "Heart's-ease." Well, as was
saying things have seemed to come In a
crowd OF late and mother has been suffering
more than usual, SO that | have left Dick
without letter for more than week.
Not drum"
Crash
Ivanhoe has taken flight through mid air,
and Chubby is "hard hit
There Is O Mortified gasp from Maud, who
is seated by the window hemning pocket
handkerchief, and pricking her little pudgy
finger at every third stitch, and then she
filings her work upon the ground, and lifting
the corner of a not particularly clean pima
fore, makes strenuous efforts to wipe poor
Chubbys face, wherein combined tears and
dirt are tracing sorry streaks of woe.
look up at Nell, and see her standing be,
fore me veritable figure of penitence; her
head droops, her long black lashes lie upon
her rose-hushed cheek. What beautiful
picture of shame and sorrow the little lassit
makes!
But / am In no humor to appreciate the
picturesque side of things just now. One d
my rebellious fits is on me: feel all one pro
test against the atmosphere Of discomfort
that pervades Morncliffe / have none of q
heroine's pleasure in trials and annoyances;
am simply weary of petty strife and misera.
the youngsters seems to be the last straw
that is doomed to break the back of that
sorely tried camel my patience. Instead
therefore. Of reproving The combatants, as IL
duty bound, leaned my head upon my hands
and splash goes tear upon the paper before
me, making great blur on Dicks letter.
"Pansie-Pa nsie-oh, dear-I am SO sorry.
Thus Nells voice, broken by sobs, pleads
for rTn n
nsI think it's me you ought to say that to,
puts in Chubby, setting grammar Mt defiance
as he sits on the floor ruefully rubbing his in
"Well, and / am sorry-there!'' says thu
offender, and then falls to hugging me again
NELLY ish solly,"' proclaims baby Mauc
triumphantly, smiling at poor Chubby, ant
standing a-tiptoe to investigate the nature o
his injuries.
"Tm sure Nelly is sorry" l echo with al
air of grave conviction, and now she viii
help Chubby to finish learning his poetry
Nell's bright eyes look somewhat pitiful as
stoop to pick up the PROSTATE Ivanhoe, and
deposit him on the bookshelf above my head
but she accepts my. suggested expiatlon
of her wrong doing, sits down bravely by
Chubbys side, and the two little dark heads
bend over the same book, and attack the diff
culties of Sir John Moore's famous obseques
IL wish they hadn't never buried him al
ALL" mutters Chubby, as these difficulties
prove hard to surmount.
You mean you wish nobody hadn't never
written about it" reioins Nell, with all thu
superior wisdom Of twelve over eight and
quarter.
But / refrain from rebuking the super
abundant negatives contained in these re-
marks. l am writing at railway speed
writing to tell Dick that at last the obstacles
in the way of my leaving Morncliffe. for foul
whole delightful weeks seem to be over
come.
Aunt Emily, mammals only sister, Is com
ing to take charge of the house and children
wonder how she and my dear undisciplinet
Chubby will hit it off /! and so, for the frs
time since can remember. am to go ava!
upon visit.
A long way, too, down to the Cornish coast
where, In a grand old manor called Merle
wood dwells Mrs. Colquhoun, Dicks marriee
sister have never seen any of Dicks rela
tions yet, 50 this visit is rather formidable
affair to me; but fer all that look forward
with great delight to the change. | suppose
1t is that when one is young, aud in faultless
health, the instinct that leads one to wisl
the vista of my seventeen years, cannot sa.
that have done much in that way hitherto
You see, what with the children, ant
mammals bad health, and blls-and-well
and other things, too. that papa and know
of-there isn't much time to think about en-
joying oneself.
Our old nurse Janet, who has lived with u
ever since can rem neutrality-suspicious. gettin,
ner wages at SpaS1noulc Intervals, SOIneGllne
going wageless altogether-says that tn
worst piece OF i'll luck that ever befel the Mer
iyale family was Cousin Stephen leaving
Morncliffe and five hundred year to papa
Until that happened he used to work in
desultory kind of way, but still protitably, a
his profession; after wards, he just let hi
connection drop and took to trying to live lik
independent country gentleman; develope
a taste for the turf, and-weh, it is hard t
tell the rest.
Mammals health gave way under the cease
less pressure of anxieties. and SO it cam
member ever feeling young. AS soon as
had sense enough to think, it seemed as
mamma and | We're all at once the same ag'
and weighted down by the same burden.
marty mart, weaker, and and Suffered more an
more bodily pain, seemed to grow the eide
of the two, and it began to feel sort OF 81
To lat things come to her knn1yadua il cOll