The Newtown bee., 1880-07-21
MRS. BLYsTER'S ROMANCE.


 MRS. BLYsTER's ROMANCE Mrs. Sims boarding school was [ 1 high building and it stood on 8 hill | My room was in it's third-story, and had often sat looking out over the city | from it's slightly "windoWs Gas Peggy | the maid, called them.) The hill was | nearly conical in shape and terraced or | two sides, my side being one of them At the foot of the hill ran broad handsome street, and on prominen! corner of this street, in plain sight from my windows, stood 9 large, rambling old mansion, about which we girls had l woven many romance. We wondered ! who lived there. Ladies and gentle men promenaded through it's pleasant grounds; carriages rolled up to its wide i gateway many times every day; profes- | sional-looking gentlemen went in and out of 1t. What could it bep One day found out There was grea. excitement that day in Mrs. Sims boarding-school. I had been feeling ill tongue was dry and hot. The doctor said at last that I had the scarlet fever and must be removed at once. Better take her home," he said. "She isn't fairly sick yet" Home!" groaned Mrs. Sims. Doe tor, she lives in India!"
 Good gracious!" said the doctor, and he scratched his head thoughttully At last he said: ''I have it! Here's Dr. Dolby's hospital right down here just the place for her." So I was wrapped up and driven to ''Dr. Dolby's hospital" which proved to be no other than the dear, rambling, romantic old house which, with it's wildly over grown but delightful shrubbery, had so long been the object of our specula- tions.
 They put me to bed in large, quiet room. The open fire looked wonderfully pleasant. A quaint, old-fashioned tea service, with cherubs and gillyfowers and various other incongruous designs on it in blue, sat appetizingly Gn the round table at my bedside. Three or four easy-chairs were mingled among the others, and in one of them, after was nicely tucked up" and ready to go to sleep, l beheld-yawning already ana casting wishful eyes toward her own white cot near by-my buxom nurse, Mrs. Blyster, who had been en- gageQ expressly TOT me.
 How fat and good d-natured she looked And how the white cot creaked when she finally sought repose!
 The next morning I was worse, and for several days I tossed in delirium and pain, but by week more the fever be- gan to abate and Mrs. Blyster said, re- assuringly:
 You hain't dead yet, miss, and what's more you hain't goin' to be- not with Sarah Blyster to see to ye!' Then good Sarah Blyster gave me a motherly kiss on my forehead, fumbled over my already painfully tucked in bed clothing in an attempt to express still more torcibly her affectionate zeal for my welfare, and sat down with a sort of good-natured grunt at the back win dow.
 1 closed my eyes and was just about falling asleep when I was aroused by a halt-suppressed sob
 Whats the matterP" l said. faintly. To see happy Mrs. Blyster in tears was too much for me.
 ''She's dead, miss; the woman t lives in the little house back. They're a hevin her funeral this blessed minute. 5
 "A friend of yoursp' I was im- pressed almost to tears myself by Sarah Blyster's manner.
 Claw, no!' said that lady, starting up and assuming her own radiant coun- tenance again. '' And what I'm a whinin' around here and givin' her the blues for, I'm sure don't know. Cheer up, Sarah Blyster, cheer upr'
 I smiled faintly and soon dropped of into the nap which Mrs. Blyster's sob had interrupted.
 A day or two after Mrs. Blyster was .' snivelin'," as: she expressed it, again by the back window. I was stronger
 Not another funeral, I hope, Mrs. Blysterp"
 No" said that worthy lady, still unable to attain her wonted serenity :; but there's boy-her boy, s'pose- a-workin' much inside, and he-and h. -he's shakin' out her clo'es and a-foldin' lem up, and 1t does seem s if some O the female relatives oughter be a-helpin' of 'em."
 Surely it did. There was considerable pathos in the way of stating it, in spite of the " female relatives" which only showed that Mrs. Blyster had mingled much in scenes of woe herself and knew how they ought to be conducted
 I wouldn't look that way,n I said, soothingly; try the other window
 ultl, sdiu AIS. DIySteI, put my eyes would go that way somehow everything shows so plain from here. There was blacF alpaca, as good as new. ! see her out i'll it the very day come here to take care of you She took sick the very next day, I reckon, for I see her curtain was down and the doctor there, and now 1 think she's dead, and there's that alpaca dress re- mindin' them!" and Mrs. Blyster sobbed again.
 I had been sitting up tor some time I'll lie down, now, Mrs. @Blyster,n I said, hoping to divert the good creature from her sorrowful reflections. And in arranging my led and getting the cherubs and gillyfiowers set in order for my tea she forgot the alpaca dress and it's departed owner.
 But only temporarily, for, two or three days after, sitting solemnly and almost tearfully again by the window, she began in the tone which people use when they are telling the {" particulars ?
 You jest orter see them, miss"--for had utterly refused to glance in the direction of tho grief.stricken house. it's so ouchin' like. He's a.siftin the ashes now, miss. She done it that first day we come. She had on an old calikar-they gave it to the woman next door afterward; and then she slicked up her kitchen and put on the alpaca and went out a-callin' or some- thin. She seemed to think lot of her neighbors and they of her. I see they had houseful at the funeral.''
 " Mercy l" I exclaimed, quite out of patience with Sarah Blyster's prying disposition. You shouldn't be look ing in at their windows, Mrs. Blyster :; isn't polite.
 Humph P said the good soul, with some spirit, "I ain't a-looking in at their windows. I see it all without lookin'; can't help seein', they're so close and low like; and I've seen a sight O, trnuhle and death. and if ain,t