Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-02-10
Old Shoes in an Old carret.

Old shoes. Only old shoes. Shabby
all of them; many quite worn out. The
last things in the world to make TO
nance of; and yet, as 1 stand in the
old garret, looking at them, find my.
self thinkig about them; and it began
in this way: felt sure, so sure that
that pretty pair of pink slippers, with
rosettes on them, belonged to the lady
whose portrait is in the parlor. Forty
years ago the picture was painted, fol
the date is on it, with the artists
name.
She was a belle then, eighteen OF
twenty at the most; and these slippers
match the pink dress she wears. !
think she wore it the night she went
to tho ball with her cousin just from
Europe on visit. There are his
pumps, not far off. He was tall and
slender, and had dark eyes; and OF
course they fell in love with each other
as they danced; and they would have
been so happy if these square-toed ties,
in which an old gentleman-the young
lady's father-once walked about, had
not interfered. And how unhappy
they were then!
But here are the soft, fiat slippers of
the maid, who went up and down the
house so quietly; and who, when she
dressed her young lady's hair in those
wonderful puffs we see in the picture
below, sometimes had a letter in her
pocket.And so Onenight the coachman-
there are his boots in the corner-I
think tie dark-eyed cousin gave him a
new pair-drove the coach, in the dead
of night, down to the old church in the
valley there, and another cousin-there
are his clerical shoes, firmly buckled-
married the lovers, with the ladys
maid and a bridesmaid-the little
thing who wore those number two
black satin shoes-for witnesses. |
think the square-toed ties forgaye them
very soon, the soft, mOtherly slippers
have settled down so costly beside
them; and / believe that those shape
less, red kid baby shoes are the first
grandchild's.
Now, whose are these long, flat boots ?
/ can imagine their owner a cousin ST.
las-sleek, thin, constantly smiling. con-
stantly writhing about in his politeness.
tiattering his pretty cousin, represent
ing himself as the best friend of all his
relatives and hating them all in secret,
while waiting, waiting for those great
easy shoes in the corner there, grand
fathers shoes; for the old gentleman
was very rich indeed when he trotted
about in those shoes yonder.
But what do l see here? Trim kid
boots, always neatly laced in the fash
ion OF the day; heels worn evenly, toes
almost mrubbed-even new; the boots
Of Mrs. Checkers, grandfathers house
keeper-fat, rosy, black-haired, and
forty-five. Cousin Silas waited in vain.
At eighty odd, grandfather's shoes
trotted into church beside those of
Mrs. Checkers, and she Outlived him, a
rich widow. Those indefinite boots
belonged to various poor relations, who
spent summers here. How they abus-
ed herl How they resolved that she
was designing creaturel And whence
come these prunella boots, edged with
fur? can see them just below an
edge of alpaca skirt. They were
worn by the spinster, with a little
money, whom Silas finally married.
In the rage for old furniture people
have carried away the spindle-legged
tables, the tall, narrow bureaus, the
queer escritoires, the spinning wheels,
and the rest of the old garret; but the
shoes are left, and fancy comes to me
that in the night when the clock
strikes twelve, they may all go patter-
ing about the floor with ghostly feet in
them,playing their old roles over again,
loving and hating, fearing and hoping,
as they did of yore.