The Red Cloud chief., 1879-06-26

"Asked Tilly?n

BAto5 &e0EAO SsSS ~
looked unuiterable things. Miss Posie
Green took of her shutdown and famed
herself vigorously with it. She looked
warm; her face was flushed with feeling
no less than with the weather. She and
her sister were no longer as youthful as
their names suggested. Moreover, ir-
ritaticn brings out the lines and wrinkles
of a face, and it is un~questionably irri-
tating to be passed over for q slip OF a
thing with q doll-baby face, not ones
own flesh and blood at that.
"It's all pas fault" Miss Rosie pur-
sued, presently. "He does spoil that
girl SO abominably. There will be no
enduring her presently"
81 shouldn't be one bit surprised il
MIR. Leonard makes so much OF her just
to please pa. Men are such time -serv-
ers. OF course it's to his interest TO
keep in pas good books"
"There they 60 nOw!" cried Miss
Rosie in an excited whisper, flying TO
the window, and peeping through a
crack in the shutter.
"For goodness sake, don't give her
the satisfaction of seeing you look at
her."
81 don't care whether she sees me or
not-nOt a rush. That old pink calico
on! l do think she might have had the
decency to make herself look respecta-
bic, riding out with pas young man."
"Pa's young man! What a way to
put it,"
swell, isn't he, for the present?
He's reading medicine in pas office,
- L. &11. &hn v,ncconna
that are left, and tells pa afteTward.
For my part, l think he is bound to be
civil to pas daughters"
swell, he is civil to n of them"
eyes. That's the worst of the way
pa treats lilly. It's real unjust to US.
Hateful little piece!"
A case of cruel step-sisters, you are
thinking. However, there was no tie
either of blood or of marriage in this
instance. DIR. Green had adopted lilly,
brought her with him when he moved
to Woodbridge Is year, ago She was
a mere baby then, and his wife was still
living, and cared for the child as her
own. She was a motherly soul, and
loved babies. Her own girls had left
infancy half a score of years behind
them. Since her death life had not
been so smooth for lilly. Perhaps the
Green girls would have been kind to
another person in the same situation,
but they certainly made life q burden to
their little adopted sister. There is no
accounting for likes and dislikes. 1t did
not prove lilly morally deficient be-
cause she aroused the worst feelings in
ROsie's and Posie's natures. 1t is an
unpleasant mystery why certain antag-
oni.tic natures should be subjected to
certain exasperating frictions. There
are those whom it sets wild to feel the
down of the peach Others bite through
the skin with unalloyed enjoyment.
MIR. Leonard-he hoped to be DR..
Leonard this time next year drove a
fast horse to a shining new buggy. 1t
was a bright day, and he had a pretty
girl beside him. His spirits rose
to the level of the occa-
sion. lilly and he laughed and talked
in a way that would have driven Miss
Posie frantic. 1 specify Miss Posie, be-
cause her sister had acquired two or
three years. additional resignation in
which to bear the ills of spinsterhood;
wall Towering had become almost a Sec
ond nature. But lilly laughed on re-
gardless. She was happy. John Leon
ard was the h~andsomest, the best-man-
nered, the best-dressed young man she
had ever known, and he had singled her
out for his especial favor. She was will
ling to believe any thing of IN auspi-
oious fate.
john Leonard compared her mean
while to a wild rose, her bloom was SO
exquisite, her whole effect go dainty.
Her large dark eyes were wonderfully
bright and shining. l am afraid she
was quite unaware how much. they
avowed as she raised them to Johns
face now and again. Prudence should
have kept them averted.
81 burned my finger today" she said,
displaying it, "taking the baked custard
out of the oven"
"Why, the poor little finger! And
such bad stuff as custard is, after ALL"
"Do you think so? Pa likes it."
"Yes. So did my mother. She al
ways considered it an especial treat. l
was a tender hearted chap. 1t made me
unhappy because l hated it; it seemed
ungrsteful."
lilly thought this q delightful trait.
1--WE often have custard," she pursued.
cts so hard to think up new kinds of
desserts"
"And q great waste of brains"
"Perhaps it is. I often wish l had
more time for improving my mind"
"You should take the time," dogma
tized John. He had had it on his mind
to say this. 1t struck him that Tilly's
education was shamefully neglected.
She wrote q wretched, scratchy little
hand; she stumbled in reading aloud an
ordinary newspaper paragraph; she had
once committed herself to the opinion
that Vierna was in France. 1t was
strange that beauty could be so ~illiterate
strange, and a shame. The poor
child was kept drudging from morning
till night, cooking, sweeping, busting.
Why didn't those two sisters of hers put
their shoulders to the household wheel?
1t wa all they were good for. Some
one had said that lilly was not old
Green's own child. The more fool she
to ear herself out in his service; but
women were apt to be fools; they would
slave themselves to death for any man
who gave them q kind word. At least
so his mother had always said. And
old Green was certainly affectionate
enough to the girl. Poor little thing,
who could help being good to her? All
this. while he kept up at the same time
an animated conversation with lilly.
Nor wa thar the last drive they took
together. He asked her all the oftener
when he saw it made the "wicked sis
ters," as he dubbed them, angry. As
it proved, he asked lilly far oftenert than
good for her. This was only an
episode with him; with lilly it was the
most real experience of her life. John
Leonard seldom talked of his plans. but