Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-05-19
Select Story.
The Illuminated Dress,
Harper's Bazar.

DbIhFs
It's an awful nuisance to be poor,
that's fact And to be poor and to
be pretty and to be proud-hard lines
can 60 but little further, and l had
gone to the extremity of hard lines.
l suppose you'll think no good Of
me for saying that I was pretty. But
l did not say it first. The glass said it
every morning. And when one sees a
cheek like the rosy down on a peach
eyes soft and dark as a black pearl,
their dark fringes almost too heavy for
the white lids to lift, feature like sculp-
ture, and yellow hair shining like sat
in folds in its braids, and all that sort
of thing, one would have to be a fool
not to know whether the picture was
good, bad, or Indifferent. And so
knew that was pretty but l didn't t
take much satisfaction in it it never
gave me thrill of what l call vanity
it was the source of almost constant
modification, on the other hand, and
would rather have been plain as Susie
Winckworth, and have plenty to wear.
Drab doesn't show the dirt, and so
my dresses were always drab. Rem
nants are cheaper than whole patterns,
and so my dresses were combinations
of two or three remnants. AS for bon
nets, l don't believe I'd ever had an
entirely new one. l made my own
gloves-but it's of no use :. going
through the category of my wants
wanted everything.
And then you can't keep a pretty
girl shut up from the rest of the hu-
man race, unless you put her in con-
vent; people will find her out; and by
people Imean John Rokesby, and Paul
Ventnor, and all the rest. To tell the
truth, | didn't so much mind John
and Paul and all the rest, because they
had known me as little rag-bag ever
since l was born. and dear old John
would have been only too glad to take
me for better or worse, rags and all
and Paul | wouldn't have had you
know to save his soul-besides, Susan
was in love with Paul.
But when whole parcel of gay and
wealthy people came to the lovely lit
tie town for two months visit, some
at Rokesbys', and some at the inn, and
some camping out on account of the
survey Of line they were running
from somewhere to nowhere, then it
was different. l knew the first thing
they'd say would be, What a pretty
girl y and the next thing would be,
But isn't she quite too awfully shah
BY And l couldn't keep out of their
sight; for l had to so for the mail, and
to the store, and to the mill, and to the
station, and had to be seen out doors,
experimenting the boys in picking and
boxing and packing; for all the income
we had, mother and I and the chill
dren, was what we could make from
our strawberry beds, and orchard, and
it was mighty little any way, and moth
er was delicate, and l had to see to
everything.
1t happened that l was down at the
station, arranging with the freight
agent for my strawberry crates, on the
day those people came and l saw
them, every one, and all their gay
hustle, and all their pretty dresses
the girls, Imean and suppose they
were travelling dresses, too - very
likely the worst they had, and their
worst so far surprising my best that
they didn't seem to belong to the same
order of things. had heard Susan
and the Rokesby girls talking of the
arrival of these people, and Of all the
fine doings there were to be; but I saw
at glance that I could have no share
in the fine doings, unless it should be
in a pillow-case party, or something of
the kind, where everybody looked
alike. They had never heard of me,
and so l looked at them with impunity
that day at the station, and decided
that the tall, dark fellow was Mr..
Paget, and that frightfully stylish, tall,
sallow girl, in dark blue foulard, all
puffs and ruffles and shirrings and
laces and ribbons, was his sister Mlrl-
am, and that the blue-eyed beauty was
Miss Mervin, and the red headed girl
was Marcia, and the straight young
men were the surveyors. l needn't
have spent much time in guessing, eth
er, for my ears are as good as telescope
tubes, and couldn't help hearing
what some of them were saying, as