Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-06-11
ALICE BOMBS CASTLE.

"Come in the house this instant and
scrub the floor. / never, in all my life.
saw such a lazy, shiftless girl! Do you
hear me .
es, aunt"
"There you go! It's yes aunt, from
morning til night. I might call till
my throat was sore, and that would be
all the answer I'd git. What on airth
air you lookin' at ?"
g / was watching the clouds, Aunt
Hester. Do come and see this one in
the form of a castle"
GA castle. Good Lordl Just as if
them lumpy lookin' clouds had any
Land sakes, how some folks magma
ton runs away with 'em!"
4 fair young girl, with great wistful
brown eyes, turned reluctantly away
from the beautiful scene she had been
contemplating.
"You're jest like your mother was"
continued the aunt. "She never had a
spark of sense. You'll make a smart
wife, won't you, for man? Iwonder
what Ezra Barnard would think if he
could see you now. [ think, If was a
girl, and had SIGH likely fellar, I'd try
and have little git-up about me, and
not be as stupid as a beetle, with my
head way up in the clouds the hull
time. Mrs. Barnard was over here Wis
terday, a-askin' about you, and the way
had to falsify to her, made me 'shamed
for it."
"You need tell her no untruths on
my account, Aunt Hester" said the
girl firmly; ~ shall never marry her
son."
WHAT
:" shall never marry Ezra Barnard.
| do not love him."
oval, I've heerd of fools in my day,
but you're the biggest one | ever see.
Not marry Ezra Barnardl I'd like to
know what you air a-.hinkin' about! A
young man with a plenty of money, a
good farm, an all the girls for miles
around a-dying arter him. Not marry
him! I can tell you one thing, miss,
you can't live on me much longer for
Pm a-gittin' pretty tired of a lazy thing
like YOU"
Alice Bond had been left an orphan
when she was so young that she had no
recollection of either father or mother.
Her father had been soldier, and had
fallen during the last year of the war;
and the blow had broken her mothers
heart The child had no nearer relative
than an aunt, who lived on sterile hill
side farm, far up among the mountains.
Here Alice had vegetated from the time
she was two years old until she was
nineteen. We say vegetated, for her
aunt was wholly of the " earth, earthly"
and had no aspiration beyond laying
acre to acre." Books were strangers to
: the house, SO were periodicals. Nothing
was considered of any value that did not
bring money, and bring it directly.
Amid this hard, dry. material life, little
Alice grew up like one shut fast in a
cage of iron. She was naturally of an
imaginative mind, fond of reading, and
possessing keen sense of the beauti-
fol. Her only happy days were those
when she could escape, barefooted as
she was, out on the hills to gather Wild
flowers and grasses, and lie there, gaz-
ing at the far-of clouds, seeing castles
and cities in their changing outlines,
and dreaming dreams of impossible
felicity. She had always been pretty
child, and she grew up rarely beautiful.
Her great brown eyes; her long, dark
lashes; her rosy mouth, her wealth of
rich chestnut hair; and above all, her
refined and speaking countenance, the
expression of which varied with every
passing thought and.ernotion, made her
the belle of the neighborhood. Among
all her numerous suitors, Ezra Barnard :,
however, was the richest, and, if pos
sible, the most boorish; and Alice fair
~ detested him.
MAYBE you're expeciin'," said the
aunt, sarcasticaly, some knight, as
they say in story books, to come along
and take you to that castle you were
talking about"
'sMay | trouble you for glass of wa
ter, madam" interrupted voice at this
moment.
door stood a young man, clad in hunt
ing costume, with his gun slung care
lessly over his shoulder. He must have
come up the back walk. and, perhaps,
had overheard the conversation.
ave had but poor luck" he said,
smiling pleasantly at Alice, "and am
very thirsty"
The girl glanced timidly into. the
frank, manly face, with its broad, white
forehead and dark, gray eyes. "He
isn't one of u.s." she mentally deter
mined, as she went for the glass of
water.
Thank you, he said, taking the brim-
ming glass from her hand. Then, turn
ing to Aunt Hester, he added: You
have fine old place here. May ask
if you know of any one in the vicinity
who would be willing to take a boarder
for few weeks?"
81 dunno" replied Aunt Hester,
slowly" I've got spare room that amt
in use. Perhaps / might. Is it you p
Yes; I've come up among the hills