Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1883-07-13
AURA's FOLLY.

|. I'll tell you exactly how it came
.,out, though | am sure as l look back
. il all think l must have been
'azv. At any rate, | know if live to
~ one hundred years old shall never
nase to turn hot and cold every time
elink of my folly.
0 My room mate at Miss Hough's
was Ellen March. ! did not
Axe her at first. She was one of those
loisy, ill-bred girls, who rasp your
aerves and make you feel every place
is too small to hold both YOU and them.
We had a small room, almost closet,
and being the two eldest boarders and
i'm the same classes, Miss Hough al
lowed US a good many privileges.
. She said to me: :" put Ellen March
With you, Aura. because you are one
IF the quietest girls in school, and she
5 the most boisterous. There is really
ho harm in her. and she seems to like
you SO much that | think your in
yuence will tend to make her more re-
u ned and ladylike.'
IN That was the verdict we all pro
bounced on Ellen March No harm
n her"
She was given more money than SHE
needed, and was generous with every
phing she had. Beside this, she wa;
@,bliging and good-natured. and O
course was noe 70 DTan1e II ner Peopf'
we're uneducated and vulgar and hao
lot taught her good manners.
4 But it would have been better for
Sne if Ellen had been a termagant in
temper and as mean and selfish as Liz.
lie Carnes. who was a byWord with
every girl in school.
1t was contrary to the rules of the
school for room-mates t) talk after 90
ng to bed, but Ellen would insist upon
keeping up whispered conversation
or hours and hours, when we should
nave been asleep.
At first | would not answer her, for
up to that time | had never broken the
'ules of the school, Still, | listened.
which was just as bad. She talked
about balls and parties that she at
ended, but her fayorite topic was
)eauX, particularly two young men, to
both Of whom she said she was en-
gagged.
"You see, Aura, she said, Its the
greatest fun to see fellows making
fools of themselves about one. It's
just delightful to make them think
each is the favorite, and then see them
glare at each other whenever they
meet. Don't | have fun when one
happens to call when the other is with
me They're as jealous as cats, and
so polite to each other / wouldn't
miss it for anything. l don't know
yet which III marry Perhaps l won't
marry either of them, but | wouldn't
be without two strings to my bow,
anyhow. How many beaux have you
got ?"
"Not one, and I'm glad of it," an
swered, Indignantly. "Do stop this
Don't you know you're
breaking a rule|
81 don't care if am, - she answered,
placidly. 81 didn't come here to be
tied to rules, and pas too rich for old
Hough to be too strict with me. But
just to think! You're sixteen, and
you're prettier than l am, and you
haven't got a beaul Why, I've had
beaux ever since l was thirteen. And
people say if you're not attractive tC
gentlemen when you're young yor
never will be; and then, ten chances
to one, you'll be an old maid. Why
I'd be wretched if the fellows didn't
fall in love with me and | with them
You think, no doubt, l ought tC
have been disgusted with this cOnver
sation. | was at first But by degree;
| began to be interested, and out of Gu.
riosity read Ellen's loye-letters, which
she used to get under an assumed
name, and in the spirit of fun ever
helped her to answer some of them
You will hardly believe it, but after {
time, under the influence Of her con
slant talk, ! began to feel almost
ashamed that | had no beau. l think
Ellen must have read my thoughts, fol
she soon began to praise her cousin
Guy Reeves. "Such splendid fel
low y she said. "All the girls are des
s,,.,.-e obo,lt him -Ynn arc inst hi
oes.