West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1878-08-03
Kitty and I.
LIIn.InnALI nniN Tm...


girls; IL was when cotton delaincS and
tallow candles were fashionable. TO
night when | think Of il, il seems So far
in the distance, the time when we rode
behind slcighbels and went To surprise
parties and played consequences and
romance i'm private, that I wonder IN
am Polly and she is Kitty.
Twenty year, ago the silver moon
hung drcamlly over our sleepy village
when we went TO parties, candy pull
ings and rag-cuttings at seven O'Clock I'm
the evening; the bark of startled dog
or the scraping of saw or the sound of
an aN at some neighbors wuodpile was
all that broke the stiffness. The boys
then all cut and split the wood and
carried il 10 the kitchen woud-boN for
mornings, and brought in fragrant moss
covered chips for Hndling they remcm-
ber it,
The stars were our lamps while we
girls dressed in our tidy sevcn-yard
calico frocks and aprons How we used
TO shiver while the fire seemed so slow
and how beautifully Jack Frost wreathcd
our little square panes with his fantastic
ferns and tlowors2 Nothing 50 lovely
now. Has distance lent enchantment?"
Perhaps 50. How the iCc-crusts on the
door latches skinned our tender fingers;
FOR houses then We're not air-tight. How
we dreamed fantastic dreams while we
thawed the ice i'm the water bucket, and
awoke walking in the rosy dawn to the
barn for an egg To clear the coffee
Coming up the yard, ! used To stop
and laugh TO see Kitty across the palinr
catching her breath and painting over
the basin of water that, in January
brought such lovely roses to our checks
What crisp mush we fried Alas
those tender buckwheat cakes: that
amber coffee, rich with cream; those
vanished breakfasts i'm the little low
ceiling dining-room! After breakfast
we girls put on hoods and mittcns and
swept the snow from around the house,
or the litter, If there was no snow; while
the boys went down town to open up
the stores" Those brisk winter morn
ings we swept and busted, and rubbcd
the brass andirons and candlesticks, and
baked and did everything; but in the
atternoonB--it seems 10 me, lately, my
eyes are growing weak, for | can't tell
now where my pen is running Paul
says we are growing old, but Paul is so
prOsy, not a particle of sentiment about
him; he will persist in calling my pot
of mignonette my crock Of fennel.
though j have tried for seventeen years
To show him the diilerence--eyen rot
out my old botany one day and analyzed
them for him, and told him one was a
Hover and the other weed -
those sunny afternoons Kitty and sat
IN our village parlor, hers or mine, and
embroidered flouncing, built air-castles
shaped our future homes, and fashioned
our shadowy husbands to suit ourselves.
What AdOnises grew up before that
blazing, roaring old wood fire Even
the girls Of the present day would make
big eyes at them. So noble, so maics-
tic, so learned, so brave, Cornelia might
have claimed them. DeCourcy and
Montmorenci were the names of these
phantoms, or what in the more re-
fined language of the present day
would bc called spooks. But DcCOurcy
and Montmorcnci, after keeping US
IN expectation like pcusivc love
lOrn damsels for some time, failed
to put ON tangible form. i'm
fact, like Copperlield's sister Betsy,
neglected to put in an appearance. Our
Adonises could not be preserved even as
anemOnes between the leaves of our
portfolios. The small comfort Of look
ing at them in this dry way was denied
us by cruel fate SO at last when one
I -
Seth Brown, we took off our rosc-colored
glasses, as many girl had done before,
and laid them by forever. We put on
green spectacles looked these two sub
stantial stern realities Of two hundred
pounds each sguarely in the face and
took them for better or worse. We put
by our idols, our castles melted i'm thin
air.
Kitty, with her sunny eyes and haxen
curls, presidcs over hickory mansion
in Hooppole County, Indiana. The
lawn before her house, extending ~ far
as eye can reach, is quite marshy, and
covered with green scum at times, and
the frogs sing her 10 rest on summer
nights She has nursed six little tow
haired HoOsiers through measles.
chicken-pox, and whoopng cough
The most old-fashioned sticklers for
wOman's true mission could ask no purer
life Of domestic usefulness than Kfttys.
] am proud 10 make this tribute tO
true woman.
Her coach, OF unique design, is 80
cOmmodious (she always hinted 10 should
be after the old style) that besides the
family Of eight and a hired hand it
will convey divers old harness, broken
chairs and clocks, bags Of flour, crooks
ol DulNi5 turkeys, ana 50 iOTtu, 70 the
neiphbOring cOunty-tOwn on market
days, or, in fact, on any day ~ all when
the team is not ordered % the field by
Mr.. Brown.
Paul is kept pretty busy feeding and
shOcIng seven growing Buckeye. Ills
time isn't entirely consumed in teach .
ing the olive branches Latin and GER
man, and mythology and poetry, az De
COurCy's was to have been. And
must confess the little Joncses haven't
all marble brows, and golden curls, and
Grecian features; in fact their nosc-
are all slightly rcfrOmsc-Paul SAYS pug
their haIr is neither n decided black
nor yet auburn, and they are all iu.
clined to- ircckIc like other children
But HOrteu-c, the oldest girl, rubs their
faces, before retiring. with tansy leaves.
stepped in buttcrmiIk My evening cn-
tertainments arc chiefly confined To- the
children and Web ler's spelliug-book
Pauis spirit is generally In the land Of
dreams by eight O'Clock. But when my
son, DeCOurcy, comes home from college.
with some of his friends we have gay
times. insisted on giving the boy this
name for fha ga L.. .I ,.II ft.... ...