The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-12-15

/ named her Hildegartie. She had
long yellow curls and lovely hands and
feet, and every body said she had the
most bedutgM eyes they ever saw on a
doll.
Now, we girls were going to have a
May-party; we'd had May-parties be-
fore. but this was going to be different
from common ones.
In the first place, we weren't going to
invite everybody, but just have about u
dozen or So and we said we'd all take
our dolls and have fire in the woods
and cook regular supper, and have it
different.
Well, | went home and told about il.
and Uncle John half spoiled it the very
first ing, by saying we oughtn't to
have a fire unless we'd let Jack go
along to see that we didn't set the
woods on fire, nor anything Jacks
my brother, and he's fifteen years old
and I'm eight.
So told the girls, and they said they
guessed we could get along with Jack,
as long as he wouldn't be but just one
| boy.
The day finally came, and began to
dress up Hildegarde, and while / was
doing il mamma came along and said
What are you going to do with your
new doll?"
why" I said, "I'm going to take
her to the May-party."
! Mamma said: aren't YOU afraid
something will happen to her if you
! do?"
"Why, no." 1 said; al shall take
Uery good care of her."
| No, "a 10, 4 -,
satin-sttch-she's perfectly crazy over
strickland she said:
That doll will be ruined just as rnre
as you take her."
! 1t made me provoked to have Marian
| say that, and so / said. real cross:
well, guess she won't!' and then
they didn't say any more, and took
! her.
! Twas lovely outdoors that morning,
and we found splendid place in the
! He said he'd build our fire, and we
went off to hunt up sticks, and | laid
Hildegarde down till got back. But |
went further-Fanny Jones and did
Z than the rest, and when we came back
Jack had got the fire built, and what
do you think? That dreadful boy never
saw Hildergarde at ALL and he'd build
the fire close to her, and her nose was
melted dreadfully. Jack felt real bad
when he saw it, but he guessed he could
fix it so it wouldn't show much: so he
took her and pinched her nose Just
very little to get it back into shape.
and, oh, dear it all came off, and he
couldn't get it on again, and she looked
perfectly frightful. 5.t
Well, after awhile we had our dinner,
and it was pretty good, and | tried to
enjoy it and not think much about Hill
degarde--and then the rest of her looked
just as well as it ever did, and thought
if | held her kind o. careful folks needn't
always see where she hadn't any nose,
and / wouldn't lay her down another
time that day, but I'd hold her tight
every time | stirred.
BY and by we went for flowers to
crown our Queen, and, of course, | took
Hide with me, but it did seem as if
everything was determined to happen
to that child, for as was running by
some bushes, they caught her hair and
jerked her so that about half of it pulled
right off by the roots, and of course that
spoiled the back of her, and then | sat
down and cried!
The girls felt awfully sorry for me,
but that didn't help much, and | kept
thinking all the time about Marian
and what she'd saw | was glad, and
kind of sorry, too, when twas time to
90 home-but when | got there, what
do YOU thinkp Marian never said sin
gle word! think I'd have felt better if
she had.-N- y. Tribune.