The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-29

tering them. But he never gave her the
little gold pig-your Christmas gift to
him-never! How she got it can't i'm
agine, but he would have explained if
you had given him chance" And then
the absent mother, gone to Aunt Emo
rvs for two days visit, came in for
share of reproach. eff she had only
let our engagement be known,
instead of insisting upon our
waiting until Rick was twenty-one and
I had not been obliged to carry my en-
gagemelt ring in my back hair, the only
place where it is safe from Baby's-
Goodness, gracious! Baby" And Let
ty suddenly remembered that ever since
| Rick came III to make a morning call.
knowing Mrs. Lounsberry was absent
poor fellow! he'd nave staid away if he
could have foreseen his reception-Baby
had been sitting alone in the dining
room in the middle of the big dining
table. surrounded by all the pickle and
marmalade jars and fruit cans and cat
sup bottles and jam pots out of the store
room. For it was the monthly house
cleaning, and the storc-room fell to Let
TVS share, the foreign help being gifted
with too great talent for smashing and
breaking, to say nothing of an equally
great talent for abstracting and devouring
both sweets and sours. Lefty sprang
from the lounge, thrust her feet into her
| shippers, and fastened where duty had
been calling her for some time. Baby
sat, as good as gold, nursing bottle of
tomato sauce, snugly wrapped in dish
towel in the very spot where she had
been when Kicks ring summoned her
sister to the door. Only one small flask
lay broken on the floor, filling the air
with the subtle fragrance of garlic.
"That won't be missed" said Lefty.
"Thank fortune, there's no worse mis-
chief done" But the "thank" was
scarcely uttered when her eyes fell upon
the last jar of the famous peach MARINA
lade, the secret of the making of which
died with grandmamma, and which was
being carefully kept for Aunt Emorys
(Aunt Emory was old maid worth thirty
thousand dollars) birthday. There it
stood directly in front of Baby, with
more than half of its thick paper hat
torn of, and a yawning cavity made in
its precious contents, by little scooping
fingers.
"Oh, Baby, why couldn't you have
taken any jar but that?" asked Lefty,
reproachfully and dramatically.
But Baby evidently had no excuse to
offer for not doing so, for she kept on
grooming to her bottle doll, while her
sister hastily fashioned another paper hat
and tied securely over what remained of
the original covering.
Then said Baby, "Rick tiss I-nice
Rick?'
Oh, that was what he was doing when
she foolishly imagined he was waiting
for her to come and implore his forgive
ness-bidding goodbye to Baby. She
might have known it, for he had always
loved Baby dearly.
"Yes, Baby; nice Rick, good Rick,
dear Rick; but for all that, the ring he
gave me goes back to him tomorrow, un-
less I hear from him tonight. How
dare he wish that we had never metz"
But she did not hear from him that
night; and the next day the little band of
gold was released from its hiding place
in her thick brown hair, and a too faith
full messenger placed it in Kicks hands
as he left his place of business. But,
ahl what silent, sorrowful maiden wan
dered about the Lounsberry dwelling
thereafter! What listless, weary voice
repeated the nursery rhymes that Baby
demanded fifty times day!
"No nice mo more" said Baby, miss
ing the merry tones and the happy
laugh.
But Mrs. Lounsberry was not at all dis
pleased with the turn affairs had taken.
Brougham Brown suited her much bet
ter as prospective son-in-law than Rich
ard Creighton. One was wealthy young
brewer, the other poor clerk in a count
house.
Lefty will soon get over it," she said
to Letty's father, VIII ose heart ached at
the sight his daughters sad face. "A
frst-love disappointment is always hard
to bear fer awhile. thought should
have died when Stephen Ford married
my cousin, but didn't I lived to marry
you and have seal-skin cloak and Mrs.
Ford hasn't even a jacket.
And so Brougham Brown, who was
really a manly, generous, good-hearted
fellow in spite of his beer and wealth,
encouraged by the maternal head of the
house. began devoting himself in the
most ardent fashion to Lefty; and she,
seeing her mothers pleasure thereat,
and hearing no word from Rick received
his attentions in passive, unresponsive
way.
| Three months went by, and it was
Amt Emory's birthday, and that eccen-
tic old lady had decided to divide it