Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-11-17

ooll, AiI' AInreW IN, parentheti-
ealiy; land you always said YOU would
m ne3e 1t, and never have. Is there q
1oek IN 10: house in running order, a
window that does not REQUIRE a nrac.
tlced hand to open or close. or \ door
that shuts as it should? We are used tn
Skipping the third back step. because
the landlord won't mend It: but would
a stranger take kindly to that method
OIL descent? He might like blinds Chat
iasten either one way or the other. and
40 not have to be nailed according to
o9e season, and a furnace that is not
always coming to pieces in the coolest
weather, and a front door that has not
gap Of half-inch between door and
SUI, and a diningg-room where the house
mas not settled so that there is an in
cilned plane you could coast on from
the window to the stove" Iwound nm.
breathlessly. Np'
Apparently our united objections
aao negatived the plan beyond ques-
ton. For full five minutes We sat in
silence. Then: ~ -
~ wonder if he would mind a cold
dinner washing days?" said a voice
uHAVWJ uOOlWdy.
"He will not be here to dinner or
through the day; that is the best of IT,"
said Matilda. thoughtfully.
~ shall have nervous prostration if
we don't have somebody threatened
Lou. II will not be left alone"
"But we will not have lust ANYBODY.
Ii we are really to have a boarder, we
must have one that will suit us exactlv-
1 will tell you the kind we want"
But they don't keep intelligence
Offices for boarders." objected Jack.
"Ihat need make no difference Ha
can be found" and leaning back inmy
1avorlte low chair, l proceeded to give
the necessary qualifications in our de-
fender: "a thick, brown mustache.
There is nothing 1 dislike more than a
thin, sandy one. He is to show no sus-
picion of badness. What a pity it is so
many young men are fast getting bald!
Easy to talk with, handsome teeth, me-
dunn height, and rather slender. There
is something positively oppressive IN a
big man about a small house. Dark
eyes, too. l never did like pale ones.
And be sure his hat is nice. If it is not.
we shall have nothing to say to him.
quoting half to myself from my favorite
writer,
Virtue may struggle in a bad cravat.
hat;'"
and before I reached the end of the last
line it dawned upon me, to nv sud-
den horror, that [ had been describing
somebody the exact opposite of Jack
Walcott.
But luckily he had not noticed. He
was not one who did notice such thinos.
and indeed midway in my description
had begun to occupy himself in clean
ing his pipe, preparatory to another
good smoke, from the unusual amount
Of care he seemed to be bestowing upon
it, till we were undeceived by his put
ting it. in his pocket and rising. ssNot
going" in chorus. Yes, he must. Oh.
yes, he knew it was early, but he had
writing to do at home; and he
went off, fondly accompanied by Billy
the end Of the street, leaving behind
him the promise that he would find the
boarder for us. We felt at ease
that point, for what Jack promised,
it had been the discovery of the
north pole, was as good as accom-
plished. Three days later Billy left us,
agreeing with manly indifference to
home when he could and write
when he had time" Not for worlds |
would our brother have had it appear
he would want to see us as much as we
should him. His farewell present, with
q derisive grin, was a brass chain for
front H0nrs r. rroo ,,ooosrol L-~~
ever, in quite another spirit, and speed
lily became Louis greatest comfort, she
even putting it up when we were at
or she was left alone five min
utes in broad daylight.
For our Reign of Terror had begun,
and the brass chain was but one of the
many expedients of the fertile feminine
course it was the invention of
feminine mind-has devised that
thieves Shall enter not, and at which a
burglar with any sense of humor must
smile as he calmly strips the house of
it's valuables. Every night at shutdown
we made a round of the house, and
locked all the windows we could. Upon
those which could not be locked-thanks
to our landlord again-were placed flat
The back doors were likewise
secured by a continuance like a huge
hair-pin placed over knob and through
key. There were nine of these. Lou
had them in charge. At bedtime a
careful inspection Of our chambers was
made in a body, not ven the cabinets
and small closets being overlooked, all
the dresses in the latter being probed,
no man might Turk within their
folds. Every night all the silver was
in a basket and hidden under a
pile of comforters; the few valuables
that still remained-relics of other days
slowed away in various odd
They might almost as well
have been stolen, for the next morning
v could remember where we had
put them, in our terror the night before,
while each of us had a particular object
for which we cared, and about which
our fears tenderly lowered.
Every night, the last thing, Lou would
90 to the spare-room closet and look at
her best bonnet. Why, we did not
know, unless possessed by the idea that
the burglar wanted it for his wife. And
the visit was regularly accompanied. on
opening the closet door-after the exer-
else of much strength, for, like the rest
our doors, it did not work rightly