The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-11-13
THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.

One Case Wherein 1t Did Run smooth.
"Oh yes,'' said Phoebe Ann; "that
is what l thought
She looked back over her shoulder as
she spoke and then trotted on with a
3 water-pail in her hand and pink calico
49, 'tlog-cabin = on her head, down along
the worn foot-path, where blue asters
nodded to stately shafts of golden-rod
that seemed to dip with sunshine, and
where crickets made merry among the
clover leaves and fringed gentian.
Overhead the poplar leaves stirred
and rustled to each other, though all the
other trees were still. Something was
going on in the air that none but they
knew about None, unless it might be
Phoebe Ann. Little enough went on
u sabOve or below that she didn't know of
---ror at least guess at.
s'Yes, this is what thought and what
expected and what 1 said,'' she re-
peated, as she stopped to fill her pail at
the spring,
1t never made any difference to
Phqbe Ann whether she had q listener
.,sany more than it did to the poplar leaves,
: for she was always sure of one sensible
nearer. ..-. .-.....- ,-.
However, when she came back with
the pail dripping and spilling on the
knot grass and plantain leaves all the
way, She found Eugene MOsscroft sitting
onthe hen-coop shaping spoon out OF
a slender stick of lockwood.
s'@r. s'Swhat said, - remarked Phoebe
Ann, noddipg Hospitality when she saw
him.
Ten yeirs.before there was no such
boy as Eugene MOsscroft, for all
l., i Il, Ill 81 in, ha
.ssworld always and always would be,
looking siust so out of his cat-shaped
eyes. But here he was now fast enough,
come to live with his aunt, Mrs. Pru-
dence MoSscroft, in low, Quaker-col-
ored cottage behind the Westinghouse.
Mrs. Mosscroft was a small woman
." with a slender nose, and a bunch OF
silver-grav curls on each side of her
face that looked like clusters of Malaga
grapes. She ought, herself, to have
been born a Quaker, but her mother
didn't know il, so she was born a Meth
odist She had had a husband and
srfna6v children, but they had long been
lying in a green row in the graveyard
on the hill and she had lived alone with
Quaker-colored cat, flock of Quak-
er-colored hens and some Quaker-col-
ored khitting-work till Eugene came to
live with her And Eugene came and
O.. went so softly that he added not mucl
. more to the noise OF the house than the
o. tick of the old eight-day clock and the
puITing of the old cat. ...... ...-. .-
And now here he was. sitting. on
Phebe AIMS hen-coop, looking as
much at home and in his place as
though he grew. there, like the Hchens
and moss on the great rock by the
Spring. . -r
- "Said what?' said he, nodding back
to Phoebe without looking up from his
work.
Sad! Why, I said that sooner OF
later, we should have Perrin's girls or
our hands, whether or no. Tell me
Wen, knew all the time, as well as
know now, that in the end Perrin would
get uneasy for salt water and off he'd
go again. Not but that we'd rathe-
have the children to ourselves, mother
and I; risn't that. Only l do hate tc
Esee folks so simple. What did he want
to 60 and lay out good money to Bug
that place for when he was sure TO want
&c sell out just when prices are al
down. That is what always said ano
always shall say. And sol The fool,
sain't all dead yet,n continued Phoebe
Ann with violent shake of the head
walking away into the house and pay.
ing no more attention to Eugene than i
he were bit of iichen, sure enough
and she had been only talking to Therselt
all the while. Eugene looked after hel
with little wild wonder, and then at s
eat-bird iHthe cherry tree over his head
But the eAtbifd had her eye on a honey
bee that she proposed breadasting up
on, and paid no more attention to Eu
gene than Phoebe had donei and as
Phoebe Ann did not appear again, Eu
.-gepe turned back TO his whiting ano
whstling till the Westinghouse bel
rang for noon, and then went home Il
dinner.
He found out about Perrin's girls very
soon, however. 1t seemed that Perrin
was Phebe4Ann's brother, a sea-captain