Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1879-07-17


never did but you know how much
there is to do this summer, and |
need all the help can get
AS if l hadn't enough to do, my
two nieces came up from Andover,
Jim Vinal's daughters. Bright pref
ty looking girls, but never was less
glad to see them in my life; for they
needed more waiting on than some
folks, and made considerable confu-
sion.
1t turned out that Henriette had
met Mr.. Washburn in Boston and
knew him pretty we'll. She told me
what | had never known before, that
he was rich. She said taat she and
Kate were going to set their caps for
him.
Well 7 thought they did sure
enough. The three We're always frol'
licking around and of-going after
lilies, and for berries, and to the mill
pond to boat, and to Doake's Hill for
straw berries. Mr.. Washburn seemed
to like it immensely. He was always
ready for a jaunt, and when l saw
the girls cajoling around him, | used
to wonder which would get him, and
il either would.
One day something happened which
| remembered afterward but did not
know what to make of then.
l WAS helping Nell make up the
butter, one day, when Mr.. Washburn
came into the dairy, and went out
of tie door to the bench under the
window. lie sat down there, with
his book, and we were going in and
out, Nell and | when all at once he
says
My little girl?' in sort Of fond
way as If he were speaking to a ba'
by. Nell wasn't there; she had gone
into the kitchen; and Henrietta and
Kate wasn't within hearing; so to
find out what lie meant, | just put my
head ont of the window.
Mr.. Washburn, said |, who did
you speak to-
He was just 10 king up sort Of
anxiously at the window, but when
he saw my face looking through the
vines, he looked startled
1 beg your pardon, he sort of
stammered. 4 thought it was-some
one else there.
Kate and Henriette are in the din
lng-room said | and with that he
whips round to tie dining room door,
and goes in.
When Nell came back, | told her
and che turned just as red as fire.
oh, says |, laughing; he didn't
mean you. If you'd heard the way
he said it, you'd know he was calling
some one he was fond Of. | guess he
thought Henriette came cut here he
seems to take mostly TO her, lately
If | hadn't so much to do | should
have noticed what was going on, after
that. TO be sure | did see that MIR.
Washburn talked to Nell considera-
BILE, and | saw her reading books
which | knew he had lent her. And
if | hadn't been half dead with the
head ache, that last week, | should
have suspected something FROM the
way Nell looked, for to tell the truth
Mr.. Washburn was making love to
her. 1t came over me all of sud-
den to find out that Nell was growing
up, and that she was as good and
pretty as any other girl agoing, with
something about her that attracted
Mr.. Washburn. This was the way |
found it QUE;
Kate came to me one day, and said
she had something to tell me. She
said that she saw Nell, the night be-
fore, talking with Mr.. Washburn just
outside the door, and that before they
came in, he put his arms around her
and kissed her.
Now, aunt Hatch, says she, some.
thing shameful is going on. That
Nell has deceived you she is bad
girl, of course. There is no other
way of her being familiar with man
like Mr.. Washburn. OF course you
won't keep her, and have her 80 on
in this way. But the matter must be
arranged carefully. 1t wont do to
get Mr.. Washburn into a scrape, be-
cause he'll go away, and that viii