The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-05-23
TILLY.

Miss Rosie Green, for all answer,
looked unutterable things. Miss Posie
Green took off 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, II
ritaticn brings out the lines and wrinkles
of face, and it is unquestionsbly irri-
tating to be passed over for slip of a
thing with a 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 If
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 q
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 rush. That old pink calico
on! l do think she might have had the
decency to make herself look respecta-
BILE, riding out with pas young man. :"
SPAS young man! What q way to
put it,"
swell, isn't he, for the present?
He's reading medicine in pas Office,
I'm sure, and he takes the messages
that are left, and tells pa afterward.
For my part, I think he is bound to be
civil to pas daughters
swell, he is being civil to one Of
them.''
"Yes. 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 years ago. She was
a mere baby then, and his wife was still
living, and cared for the child as her
own. She was q 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 80 smooth for lilly. Perhaps the
Green girls would have been kind to
another person in the same situation,
but they certainly made life 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'5 natures. It is an
unpleasant mystery why certain antag-
onistic 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.
Mr.. Leonard-he hoped to be DR..
Leonard this time next year-drove q
fast horse to q shining new buggy. It
was bright day, and he had q pretty
girl beside him. His spirits rose
to the level of the occa-
sion. lilly and he laughed and talked
in way that would have driven Miss
Posie frantic. Ispecify 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 Sec
ond nature. But lilly laughed on re-
CARELESS. She was happy. John Leon
ard was the handsomest, 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 an auspi-
cious fate.
John Leonard compared her mean
while to a wild rose, her bloom was 60
exquisite, her whole effect 90 dainty.
Her large dark eyes were wonderfully
bright and shining. 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, stalking 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 q tender-hearted chap. It made me
unhappy because I hated it; it seemed
lilly thought this a delightful trait.
"We often have custard," she pursued.
"It's so hard to think up new kinds of
desserts"
"And great waste of brains"
Perhaps it is. I often wish I 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 Tlly'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 Vienna was in France. It was
strange that beauty could be 50 illiterate
strange, and 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?
It was all they were good for. Some
one had said that lilly was not old
Green's own child. The more fool she
to wear herself out in his service; but
women we're apt to be fools; they would
slave themselves to death for any man
who gave them q kind word. At least
30 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 was that the last drive they took
to0ether. He asked her all tha oftener