The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-07

how to make her pie-crust short without
no shortenin', and never offend nobody.
But don't you be discouraged, Lupiry!
1t amt every girl that can get minis
ter, especially when girls is plenty and
men is scarce, as they be now"
And with another assurance that she
would be over bright and early Friday
morning to cut the laylock silk, the
dressmaker took her departure.
Lupiry did feel a little discouraged.
Speaking in meeting and cooking up
for the conference brethren were du-
ties pertaining to her future lot upon
which she had not cared to mediate
deeply.
just then Seth Jones, the dapper,
curly-headed clerk in the village store,
drove by, looking eagerly up at all the
windows. Lupiry drew back, blushing
" do declare, wish Seth was Luke
or Luke was Seth, or-something!"
That was only murmur in the depths
of Lupira's inner consciousness, but she
shuddered at her wickedness the next
minute, and thought she must be fall
ing from grace"
1t was such "privilege " to be a
minister's wife, her mother said.
Then she resolutely banished from her
mind the prayer meetings and the con-
ference brethren, and all the unpleasant
aspects of the position which had been
conjured up by Mrs. Smallidge's lively
Imagination, and reflected upon the
agreeable ones-the lilac silk, the envy
of the girls who had not been able to
"get minister" the "gentility" of
the city church, and Luke always at
hand to tell her how pretty she was. So
she became cheerful again, and set her
mind at work upon a mathematical
problem which she had not failed to
calculate at least once day ever since
Cleopatra, the great black turkey,
Matched her wonderful brood of fifteen
lusty young turkeys, so many turkeys at
so much each, so many yards of silk at
so much per yard.
Every day Lupiry's calculations grew
more cheerful. So many more pounds
of turkey, so many more yards of silk.
If there was any thing that Lupiry hated
it was ga scant pattern" Scant pat
terms of the good things of life were so
common in her experience! Now, on
the eve of the fateful day when Abner
Ransom was to sell the turkeys, Lupiry
calculated that there might even be a
little money left for gloves and trim
mings. Laces and ribbons fioated be-
fore her eyes in dreams all night, and
at the first peep of dawn she arose and
hurried down to the poultry yard. The
whole fifteen turkeys were to be slain
and prepared for market before eight
O'Clock, and Lupiry wished to see them
once more in life. Not that she had
become attached to them, or felt any
pity for their sad fate in being martyred
for her gain-Lupiry kept too close an
account of profit and loss to leave any
margin for sentiment-but she wanted
to assure herself once more that they
were fat and well favored.
Poor Lupiry She was only one of
the innumerable company who, follow
ing in the footsteps of the far-famed
milkmaid, reckon up the profits of their
eggs before they get them to market,
and are often destined to bitter disap-
pointment. There lay the whole fifteen
and Cleopatra, their mother, stark and
stiff on the ground. They were not de-
capitated nor had their necks been
wrung. Some distemper seemed to
have carried them off sat one fell
swoop."
Lupiry pinched herself to see if she
were awake. 1t seemed so like an evil
dream!
Ichabod came out of the barn door.
"Pisoned, and no mistake, Lupiry!"
he remarked cheerfully. Qchabod was
one of the aggravating people who are
cheerful under all circumstances sit
don't seem as if nobody could have
been so ALFRED mean as to have done
it purpose. | expect they got hold of
some of that last medicine of fathers
that he throwed out of the sett 'n-room
winder. faint no use takin' on. sAc-
cerdents will happen in the best reger-
lated families. :"
And Ichabod went about the milking,
whistling as gayly as if wedding dresses
grew on every bush.
Lupiry sat down and cried. Granny
Hopkins green silk had proved too
scanty, even if she could have braved
the awful perils of wearing green; to
be married in her old alpaca, which had
been her best dress for more than a
year, was not to be thought of. Matri-
mony without the lilac silk was not al
Turing to Lupiry. That had seemed to
cover as with mantle the unpleasant
duties in store for her of which Mrs.
Smallidge had reminded her, but they
doomed up fearfully against the back
ground of the old alpaca.
81 shall write to Luke this very day
and tell him that we can't be married
till spring. He won't like it, but
shouldn't want him to be ashamed of
me-though 1 don't suppose he would
notice what l had on, with his head
always up in the Clouds"
just then Seth Jones drove by on his
way to the store, and looked back so
lingeringly that his horse ran into the
fence and upset the wagon. Lupiry felt
a little flutter of satisfaction at this mark
of devotion, and she laughed as merrily
at the catastrophe as if her matrimonial
plans were not also upset. She wrote
to Luke Rankins that day explaining the
necessity of postponing their wedding
until Spring.
Luke is terrible eager and impa-
tient," she remarked to her mother, as
she read the answer to her letter, which
had come after the smallest possible