Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1879-01-23
Miscellaneous
The Old Cream Jug.

a few apple-blossoms,"
STUFF and nonsense" said the
Widow Wallis, ~austerely; haven't
you got work to do-milk to skim,
butter to work over, dishes to wash,
and two dozen shirts just sent in from
the laundry to finish off before din
, ner-time? Go about it at once and
don't let me hear any more folly
about apple blossoms"
For Mrs. Wallis belonged 10 the
working brigade of the world and
did not believe in aesthetics of any
kind.
Buttercups and red sunsets and
many tinted rainbows had always
been a standing problem to her, and
she could not understand how a man
of sense could possibly prefer golden
hair to red, OIL a daisy pink complex
ion to honest freckles.
And her two elder daughters
Naomi and Miranda Ann, agreed
with her entirely on this as on all
other subjects.
But Ruth was different. Ruth
treasured Up haAs.apen rosebuds in
surreptitious glasses of wateS;se#;ad
absr seeds under the dairy win
dow, read poems in her own room
and cried when the honeysuckle
vine was RACED from before the porch
pillars.
aRotting all the posts and harbor:
ing earwigs and SPIDERS" said the
widow, severely.
"But the flowers ire so pretty
pleaded Ruth.
Pretty" snorted the widow, as il
the term were a synonym for all
absurdity and weak-mindedness. II
do think, Ruth, you are almost a
fool"
So upon this golden May morning,
when the lilacs were nodding their
purple plumes and the apple-blossoms
spread their sheets Of billowy pink
over all the orchards, Ruth was con-
demned to milk-skimming in the dali
ry and the finishing Of the shirts in
the kitchen.
She was standing in front of the
milkroom window, busy with her
shining pans-after all there was a
certain poetry in the occupation
when all of a sudden a whiskered
and mnstached face presented itself,
all framed in the easement.
Goodness mel" cried Ruth, with a
violent start which had nearly upset
one of the vessels, and then recover
ing her presence of mind she added :
"What do you want ?"
81 beg your pardon" said the ap-
parition-anl Ruth began to per-
ceive that it had rather fine ives
and was no longer a very young ap-
parition-"I am afraid 1 startled
you"
eyes, you did-rather," admitted
Ruth. "But if you're a tramp,
please go on.-for we never give to
tramps. And if you're a sewing ma
chine agent, or anything of that sort.
it's of no use. ADD
"You are mistaken" said the own
er of the dark eyes, with a comical
curl Of his lips. II am none Of these.
I AMIN the china business
"Oh," said Ruth, beginning to
comprehend Vases, and little dogs
and parrots, for cast-off clothes. But
we wear all our things out, and
mother makes rag carpets of them
afterward."
VERY laudable other, I am sure"
nodded the stranger. "But-may I
ask what you will take for thattwist-
ed cream-pot on the shelf just yer
your head ?"
Ruth glanced up with startled
eyes.
cit was my Grandmother Crocus',"
said she; land it's so old-fashioned
we never use it. Mamma keeps rad
ish seed in it."
Exactly" said the stranger. at
is very old, and that is the reason I
want it."
Ruth thought of the men who had
been reported as traversing the coun-
try in search of antiques, old furni-
ture and articles of vertu. Could
this be one of them?
ats nine" said she, coloring deep
ly. my grandfather Crocus left it
to me in his will"
"Wouldn't you /, Their have ten
dollars to buy yourself 9 new hat ?"
saidthe stranger, coaxipgly.
"Oh, a thousand tirss. cried
Ruth, eagerly.
"Then it is a bargain said the
gentleman, taking out a~Poeket-book
which scanned to be perfectly apo
plectic with bank notes.
mo, it isn't" said Ruth. I'll
couldn't sell it, indeed.
"Ah," said the stranger: perhaps
here are old family associations con-
nected with it2"
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