Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-08-18
Whose Photograph was it.

|
her father.
"But II don't want to !" sobbed
the poor little girl, with an April tenn
pest of tears sparkling all over her face.
''It's my belief that you don't know
what you do want r. rejoined the colo
mel, magisterlally. ''Girls never do.
And it's my business to know for you.
Good gracious! what would you have,
l should like to know? A rich man,
with money enough to indulge your ev-
| vTy wnrn--a ocdoon IN Uno -OauIOu-a
most desirable match in every respect ?
Just look at the lucky series of events
that have led up to this affair. Here
are you, great girl, eighteen years old,
beginning to think Of supporting your
self by teaching school. Here is my old
college chum, Smythe, planting cotton
and orange trees down in Alabama,
writes to me that he wants a wife, and
says he'll be up North in the month of
July. l write back to him that l have
an eligible and highly educated daugh-
ter who"
"Papa," cried out Rachel, sits a
shame !"
"Eh ?" said the colonel. "How +?
What's shame?'
"That | should be hawked about in
this sort of way !" said Rachel, hiding
her scarlet face in her hands.
81 don't know what you're talking
about" said the colonel, with stare of
amazement. as he adjusted his eye-glass-
es and took snuff. To him matrimony
was as much a business matter as the
sale of stocks and bonds. Don't be a
a fool The man may be few years
older than you, but just consider what a
splendid opportunity it is to settle in
life."
''But suppose l don't want to settle
in life !" cried out Rachel, fairly driven
desperate.
Every young woman ought to want
to settle in life" oracularly remarked
her father. YOU'D want to, fast enough,
if it was young Oriel instead of Jonathan
Smythe, who .H
"Papal''
But the colonel shook his head, SOL
emnly. la
"It's high time," said he, "that that
boy.and-girl Irritation was broken up.
And, by-the-way, Rachel"
"Yes, papa"
Il have been writing to Smythe. this
morning. and promised to send him
your photograph"
Rachel bit her rose.red lower lip; an
ominous color came into her cheek, and
a glitter to her eyes but she uttered no
word, as the colonel went blunderingly
on: s.f Lo4.
"The letter is on the library table. 1t
can't 60 until the afternoon mail now.
Put in the photograph-that last one
you had taken, with your hair brushed
back, and the black velvet coat or jack
ct, or whatever you call it. Smythe
will like to see what sort of looking
wife he's going to have. Ha, ha, ha
There goes the girl now-as quick as a
lucifer match Well, l shall be glad
when she's safely married, down in Ala.
bama. with Smythe. 1 never could un-
derstand the ins and outs of girls ma
ture"
And he leisurely lighted cigar, and
took up the latest periodical, while his
daughter, flying down the broad, old
fashioned staircase, never paused until
she had reached bowery nook in the
garden, where the boughs of great
apple-tree dropped, like a green tent,
nearly to the ground, and a carpet Of
delicious violets covered the grass with
q purple mist.
Here she flung herself on an antique
bench of rustic cedar boughs, and rested
her burning brow against the messy
trunk of the old tree.
"Oh, dear, dear" she pondered
"what shall l do? But l never, never
will marry that horrid old Southern
planter III never marry any one but
Oliver Oriel, if live and die an ole
maid, no matter what papa says! AL
papa cares is to have his cigar anG
champagne bills paid, and to get me
safely off his hands. Dear me, Bridget
what is it now %
ats me. MISS" answered the red
armed maid-of-all-wo ,plunging through
the green labyrinths of the garden, will
wide-open blue eyes, broad, freckled fac
and mouth like that of good-tempere(
shark. "Me Photographs has come hom
) an wouldn't yez like to see 'em Sur
they're as like as pays, an the iligan
goold chain an earrings put in gratis
an the stripes on the alapaca dress a
, plain as daylight, miss an the yer.
, wart on the chin of me. as they Nigh
3 have had the manners to leave out ~
Rachel Reade brushed the tears fror
her eyes, and smiled family.
: "Let me see, Bridget" said she
"Yes, they are very like. Bridget.
! I with sudden inspiration, 81 should lik