The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-10-27

| PnlSl1erS uSoQ W SOAhO 90
| throw themselves down at the feet of the
| neutral party, and we had charming time
together. was the neutral party.
"Really," said Miss Evans, a weekor two
. from the declaration of war, stroklng hel
ribbons as bird plumes and preens her
self, "for the perfect paroxysm OF grie
that this young person was IN on the 9e
parture Of her brother, she is consoled thu
most quickly of anything ever saw. Llgh
doesn't travel half so fast as the change IL
her emotions does. Any one of the youths
| in this young painters camp, or bear gar
| den, can console her, and she Will let them
| never saw such manners-in and out al
if she were one OF them: wonder MRS
Colman doesn't put a stop to it. DOM
| see how people who think anything Of
themselves can countenance this worse thar
hoidenish girl. Such behavior will actually
ruin the house."
"What behavior, Miss Evans~
"This freedom and unconventionality
don't say it's anything wrong; but it GER
tainly looks anything but right, and for
one have not been used"
"We all know that, Miss Evans" said
old lady Browne. "If you had been used
to have half-dozen fine young fellows at
| your feet, as the little Pulsifer has, you
| would be less censorious now. And want
you to understand that |, for one, think a
good deal of myself, and see nothing to dis
| countenance-"
"Then l must say that her influence is
very injurious. Coarse herself, | did not
| suppose her capable of coarsening every
| one with whom she comes in contact. Be-
| fore she came your voice would have been
as loud as any if Elise Goodenough-"
"Elise Goodenough," said old lady
| Browne, "is cross-eyed and freckled and
| bald and ill-tempered, and can do anything
with perfect propriety."
"Pretty morals! Because she's pretty
you approve of this singing and dancing
| at all hours, this perpetual tripping down
| to that tent, this rambling off upon the
meadow and into the woods alone with any
one of those young fellows"
"Safety in multitude of COUNSEL" said
old lady Browne.
this coming in late at night wet
with dew, this laughing like chime of
bells"
EXACTLY like chime of bells"
GAS loud, said"
"No, you didn't, Miss Evans. You Just
said chime of bells. Aud l say chime
| of bells-as sweet as a chime of bells.n
81 never heard a sweet chime of bells
yet; they are usually deafening NUS
ance in any neighborhood."
"Then you never heard the bells of Shan
don, Miss Evans, nor the old Limerick
bells, nor those evening bells, those even
ing bells.'" And by this means they came
smoothed her ruffied plumes latter by re-
| marking that old lady Browne was certain
ly losing what little mind she ever did
have.
"Ben always tells me to have a good
time when he is away" said Miss Pulsifer,
| sitting on the grass at my feet. "If think
of him moment get to crying, and it
makes me i'll to cry, and-and | don't let
| myself think. | just plunge into this mad
! gayety." And then she laughed, as if at
the idea of there being any gayety in it.
''l'm Saddest when | sing" she sang.
at seems to me-" answered, "that
there is considerable gayety; if not mad,
| yet Miss Evans would say reckless"
sob, Miss Evans! She says anything
but her prayers Now, seriously, do you
think it wild dissipation to build a fire on
the shore with a parcel of boys you've
known ever since they were born, and roast
clans by the red rising moon, and they all
begin to scramble around for their painting
things to get the difference between that
freight on the wet sand and that moon
light, and then they all cry: 'Oh, pshaw
oh, shopn and go back to their CLANS. and
go home singing 'Ubidee, with the watch
mans rattle in it! Awful exhilerating,
! isn't it? Then it's almost as intoxicating
to go into the woods with Pinckney and
Delaware-Pinxit ct Delineavit-and get
your shoes in the mire, and lose your way,
and get to crying, and hear the sheep bleat,
and find you've only been on the other side
of the garden wall all the time, with Mrs
Colman shooting you away under the i'm
preston you are the neighbors' cows try
ing to break through the fence. Oh yes,
it's mad and reckless way of spending
the time till Ben gets back, and the only
comfort in it is that | can't lose my reputa-
tion."
She said it so soberly that little guilty.
A11cl ~, e.. =,
she said, looking up at me rouguiShly. "Be-
cause it's gone already? Or because the
place really isn't large enough to lose any,
thing in, not even your heart: Poor Miss
Evans! if | had lost any thing, she'd find it :;
she keeps such look out. How surprised
| she'll beo And then the little lady went
| Off in peals of laughter. sob, your good
old Mrs. ColmanH' she exclaimed, without
| the least apparent relevancy. "She's a
| jewel. And isn't she too funny? | don't
| know that any one ever gave me so much
amusement as she has. Pm going to give
her my third best black silk. If she pieces
it up with cambria, and opens the waist
| with couple of cores and a vest, it will
| really fit her; and you know it's poor foot
| that won't shape its Own stocking. And if
| the dress is once made, she can be poured
in somehow--she's usually in a state of
llquefaction. You'll! have to help me about
it, though"
| As look back on that summer wonder
what we did before the little Pulsifer
| Joined us, and to what degree of stagnation
we should have fallen. She did not bring
her young painters up to the house: but
| she gave US endless themes for converse
| ton by going down to them with such
| friends as she had made and as she chose
| to take with her, and by the utter indie
pendence of her behavior.
"Totally Indifferent to good opinion. ,,
| CALCULATED Miss Evans.
And to slanderous gossip" answered
| old lady Browne, who, when she did fight,
gave no quarter.
| AT such times as the little witch staid in
| the house she would sit at the rattHnc
piano tor hours together singing us the old
| songs that she knew in endless succession.
~ on won't laugh again at this piano when
L tell You it is half like the one Beethoven
used TO play" she said. Beethoven used
to play at piano all of whose keyboard
was silent, you know. And only half of
this keyboard is" She had, too, an mex.
haustible store of new conundrums which
| she used to scatter in fen de j0ie if things
were a little dull
They're worse than the MOSQUITOES. ,,
said Miss Evans, bustling from one seat to
another, her ribbons as lively as a whole
fieet when busy with private signals,
| only think, Miss Cooper" picking out the
bows, "how different it was before the
house was givenup to this sort of nonsense.
thlnK she must sit up over night to make
"You mustn't think so much, Miss