The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-09-27


over the seas. I'll bring it.'
Like some pale and gentle ghost she
rose then and went to the bureau
drawer and unrolled from rolls of
linen that smelt of lavender, the frail
relic of Mrs. Capt. Simon Ludkins'
wedding state. 1t was fine embroidered
null, the undoubted product of Indian
looms.
'It's lovely" / said, and so we'll kept
that it will be just the thing for you.
Will you try it on? We can tell then
just what it needs"
Miss Liddy proceeded to dsrobe her
self and put on the spider-net gown.
AS she did SO the changes in fashions
mandates became only too evident. 1t
had no waist TO speak of, and just a
little lace-trimmed puff for sleeves.
Miss Liddy was evidently surprised.
She had not thought of this. / knew
we'll what the troubled look upon her
face meant, and l pitied her maiden
sensibilities. Could it be possible that
her grandmother, Mrs. Capt. Simon
Ludkins, had ever worn such gown AS
this? She said not word that could
indicate the depth of her modification,
but her face was n study for an artist.
There must be sleeves" she MUIR
INJURED, after few moments of silent
and embarrassed contemplation.
"Yes," l replied, cheerfully as my
constrained gravity would allow. And
you might have tfchu and hounce on
the bottom"
She looked down. She had not be-
fore realized that the skirt of the ven
Grated relic lacked full quarter of a
yard of touching the floor
However could they!" she calculated
in an undertone. But she quickly re-
covered herself, and looked up to me
cheerfully over her spectacles.
How ingenious You are!" she said,
with an air of sweet relief. Il knew
you would help me out,
We went out together and bought
the requisite null that day, but when
we came to put it beside the "venerated
relic" of Mrs. Captain Ludk;ns it was
evident that time had so enriched the
color of the latter that the two were
most unfortunately unlike.
1--WE can lay it out on the grass" /
said; these June days are just the
thing for it, and as it will be evening,
nobody will in the least notice"
Again Miss Lyddy smiled gratefully,
and declared that my suggestion should
be carried out.
The Rev. Nehemiah Applebloom-"A
lovely name, don't you think SOP" said
Miss Lyddy, and she blushed and
smiled like a schoolgirl in her teens
had bit a short furlough, and the mar
riage wis to transpire next week, so
the relic was put out to bleach forth
with. 1t had already been put upon
the grass three days and nights, and
had been religiously watered by Miss
Lyddy at morn and noon and dewy
eve, and the next day it was to be taken
up early and put into the dressmaker's
hands for the necessary alterations,
when the dreadful event occurred with
which this narrative opens.
GLORY" / said, do you keep watch
for Miss Lyddy when she returns.
Say nothing about what has happened
unless she misses the gown from the
grass. In that case tell her that /
thought it was bleached enough and
took it up to dry, and You don't know
where have put it. l am going out
now, but if she asks where, tell her you
don't know"
Glory was faithful, and had beside
the natural craft of her race, and L
knew that she could be trusted. As
for me, J. swiftly donned my bonnet
and set out TO find Maj. Hawthorne.
1t was a bright June evening, and my
l. h
grove that skirted Hawthornedean
would have been a more delightful one
if l had borne a mind more at ease.
The Major was a gentleman by birth,
but he lived out his fifty bachelor years
in a gay and careless way that had
seemed TO set the gentler part of his
creation at defiance i'll the lifetime of
his parents. Hawthornedean had been
a beautiful estate. 1t still retained
many marks of wealthy and cultivated
ownership, but it was sadly run down,
as the home of bachelor IS apt to be.
The grove, which had once been the
pride of the place, was grown up with
brush now, and the sere leaves of many
summers growth rustled under my feet
as L walked through it. At one point,
coming suddenly around thick clump
of underground, l heard chorus of
tiny snorts and the scampering of
numberless hoofs, and L knew that L
had invaded haunt of the Majors last
agricultural freak, the very brood of
Berkshire pigs that were the source of
all my borrowed woes. Away they
scampered. their shouts well raised ia
the air, and each with q curl in his tail
that seemed too ornamental to be
wholly the product of nature and to
justify the village rumor that the
Majors own man put those tails in curl
papers every night. They had the air
of spoiled children, every one, and
were evidently the Majors pets. But
that didn't matter: they had ruined
Miss Lyddy's wedding-gown, to say
nothing of other aggravating exploits
which do not belong TO this story, and
was determined to have satisfaction
out of their owner.
1 found the Major sitting on his
piazza, with an after-dinner look upon
his handsome, good-humored face. He
rose to greet me with an air of old
school politeness, dashed with faint
wonder that 1, woman, should have
had the hardihood to approach place
| SO little freuuented by women