The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-05-23
MISS DOLLY CORNERED.


Il shouldn't be surprised any day to
see David Wiggin tying his horse at
your gate" said Mr.. Blounts roguishly,
gathering up the reins.
Nonsense, brother! Anything the
matter with his own hitching-post p"
retorted Miss Dolly, turning in the door
way.
Mr.. Blount laughed. Everybody
felt bound to laugh at Miss Dolly's
crisp sayings. She had kept her
friends in good humor these forty
years,
"And when David does call on you,"
pursued Mr.. Blount, more seriously, Il
do hope, Dolly, you'll give him chance
to do his errand. Thatu be no more'n
fair, and the man won't be easy until he
has freed his mind"
"What mischief are you the forerun-
ner of now, James Blount?" cried Miss
Dolly, facing about like soldier on
drill. What upon earth have to do
with David's errands?"
well, his wife's been dead a year or
So" said Mr.. Blount, suggestively, shut
ting one eye and squirting with the
other down the length of his whip
stock, "and lately he's been asking about
you. You can put that and that to-
gether to suit yourself"
"Fiddlesticks! said Miss Dolly, en-
ergetically.
Il shan't say have hir,, or don't have
him-though there isn't ikelier man
living than David-but L do say, Dolly,
you ought to give him hearing" and,
having convinced himself beyond a
reasonable doubt that the whip was all
right. Mr.. Blount tickled his sleepy
horse with it, and drove away.
ooh, my sorrows!" calculated Miss
Dolly, closing the door with an afflicted
oountensnce, and sitting down so quiet
ly for once that photographer might
have copied her then and there. Not
that he could have done her justice, for
her expression was too quick and varied
to be caught by any trick of chemicals,
and without it Miss Dolly's physiogno-
my would have been rather character
less but for her prominent Roman nose.
This organ gave tone to her face. By
which would not be understood liter
ally as saying that she talked through
1T in nasal whine. mean simply
that, in metaphorical sense, this bold
feature spoke loudly of energy. And
Miss Dolly had always had abundant
need of energy-else why the nose !?
Every two years during her childhood
she had been tiptoed into the east bed
room to see a new baby, till, at Ter
mothers death, five little brothers fell to
her charge to be coaxed and scolded
into manhood.
you can't bring up them boys"
.croaked dolorous aunt. They'll run
square over you, Dorothy Almeda"
Dorothy Almeda was Miss Dolly's
baptismal name, but it was so manifest
ly too big for her that most of her
friends would as soon have thought of
labelling tiny homeopathic vial with
a quack-medicine advertisement as of
calling her by it.
Let 'em run over me, so long as it
doesn't hurt emil" laughed Miss Dolly,
skewing her faxen hair with a goose
quill, and tying tow apron over her
calico long short, preparatory to bring
ing up" said youths.
Rrom that day forward she went cheer
lily on, making the best of everything,
though it must be confessed she often
had odds and ends to work with, as
people usually do have who are born
with faculty. Somehow she found time
for all her duties excepting matrimony.
If that were duty, it was one she
couldn't and wouldn't attend to while
her father and the children needed her.
Divers young men thought this great
pity, among them David Wiggin.
"a Don't be silly, Davidp said Dolly,
when he limited as much to her, where
upon David went off and straightway
married Olive Searle, the plainest girl
In the parish.
This happened thirty years ago, and
now David was again wifeless, and again
the current of his thoughts turned to-
ward Miss Dolly, who still lived at the
old homestead near the foot of Bry-
ants falls. Her father had died some
months before. OF the boys, James
and Ezekiel had settled on neighboring
farms, and the remaining three were out
in the West. Davids benevolent heart
warmed with compassion as he remem-
bered Dolly's lonely condition. and he
Eelt that it would be exceedingly kind
in him to offer her home, especially
as he owned as good a place as you'd
find on the river, while the Blount cot
tage was fast falling to decay. He
wouldn't let her former refusal of him
tell against her, for, now he looked back,
he really didn't see how she could have
married anybody at that period. She
ought to he rewarded for the devotion
she had shown to the family, and, for
his part, he felt magnanimous enough
TO give her second chance to accept