Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1879-01-15
TOM.
An EVERY DAY INCIDENT.

al suppose | must call Eleven
o'clock, The old gentleman said !
was not to stand upon ceremony, 50
10 III run down to day. II Is dismal
ly lonesome here, and somebody said
the Lawlor girls were the bellies OF the
place. Who was il that told mo that
Julia Lawlor was the belle OF Rushton
and that Dolly was tho incest little
thing in the world 7 III so down
and prove the assertion"
All this in soliloquy, as Mr. Thomas
Bardell donned his daintest walking
dress, drew on his lavender kids, put
on his gloss,est silk hat over his crop
curling hair, and surveying his hand
some faultlessly attircd self in the long
mirror sailed forth,
Rushton was a collection OF country
seats, a mile from populou' borough
and the Bardell Place was one Of tho
most stately of the many superb
houses of which il was composed,
Thomas Bardell, my hero, was the
nephew OF the late,owner Of the Bar
dell, Place, and on the death OF the
gentleman had Inherited his entire
property, greatly to his own amaze
ment, Mr.. Julius Bardel, deceased
having quarreled with every relation
he had in the world, had announced
his intentions of leaving every dollar
to u charity.
That he did not but relenting, made
a will in his nephow's favor, which
brought Mr.. Thomas l'ardell from a
college in Germany, where he was
finishing his education, to Rushton.
He was twenty-four, m orph'
an, hansome and talented, and had
some private fortune before his uncle's
death. That he was unspoiled, mod
est, and one that held women as little
lower than angels, may be attributed
to the fact he had a mother who was
a true Christian lady, who loved him
and whose death, when he had just
attained manhood, was the heaviest
sorrow of hi. lite.
Rushton was an unexplored country
to my hero, but DR.. Lawlor being the
only physician in that place, bis resi-
dence was easily found.
The hail door stood open, the par
lor door was also stretched invitingly
wide, and after vainly waiting for the
ring to be answered, Mr. Bardell step
ped inside the vestibule.
A voice high above his head, and
in the parlor called:
"Tom is that you?"
The speaker, Dolly Lawlor, whose
name, be here recorded, was Mable,
but had been called Dolly from her
cradle, being at the top Of a high step
ladder, scrubbing the paint over o
French window, heard voice say:
"It is Tom certainly
"Hand me my soap, that's a good
fellow" said Dolly, from her lefty
perch where she was seated, facing
the back window "you know am
afraid to look down or tuln around
on the ladder, ] am sure to be gid
dy."
"Where is the soap'" came a
voice muftled by laughter.
"Close down the ladder where it
has just dropped. Don't dare to
laugh at me, sir for am in the depth
of affiiction. Pa has invited the heir
of that splendid Bardell Place to drop
in without ceremony. Did you ever
and we just in the midst OF spring
cleaning? So l left Jane to finish up
stairs and came down myself to make
the parlor deacent. There goes my
brush hand it up that's a dear:
The brush was handed up, Dolly
not daring to take her eyes from q
level, already feeling her head spin
ming with giddiness.
ave cant be grand of course, and
the house will look mean enough
after Bardell Place, but we can be
clean," she continued scrubbing vigor-