The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-11-01
Mary Russell Milford.

Many years ago some Americans
who were travelling In England took q
post-chaise, after the old-fashioned way,
and had a morning drive to pay their
respects to an Old-fashioned woman
who was living in poverty with her one
servant ma cottage not far from the
town Of Reading. The word ,tcot-
tage" must have a little explanation,
for with us 1t is so often made to mean
quite capacious house, almost man
sion, or a villa on q moderate plan,
This cottage was far enough from being
ample; 1T was small and poor; to be
plain, the rooms In 1T were not much
bigger than closets, and were close and
stutfy, and . in heavy rains tho roof
leaked. AS the mistress Of It once
Wy about it to-. a friend it was a
tight squeeze" and SHE added, "In-
deed my great objection to u small
room always was it's extreme unbe-
comlngness to one Of my enormity.
l really seem to fill it-li1e q blackbird
IN a goldfnch's cage. The parlor looks
all me. Nevertheless, 'the cabin is
convenient as I said before. Its
negative merits are worry great"
She had managed to make lt-as
some women can make the poorest
place-a Every nest of comfort" and
Chls Is the CHEEKY way she describes it
Ill one of those sketches of hers which
80 many thousands of persons have
read:
a cottage-nO-a miniature house.
with many additions, little odds and
ends OF places, pantries, and what not:
all angles, and of II charming in-and-
outness, q little brick court before one
half, and a little tlowey-parh before the
other; the walls old and weather.
stained, covered with hollyhocks, roses.
honeysuckles, and great apricot tree u;
tho easement full Of geraniums (ah.
there is our superb white cat peeDnr
out from among them); the closets Tour
landlord has the assurance to call them
rooms) full of contrivauces and corner
cupboards; and the little gard sn behind
full of common flowers, tulips. pinks.
larkspur, peonies, stocks and carna
tions, with an arbor privet not unlike
4 sentry-boX, where one lives in a deli
cious green light, and looks out on the
gayest of all gay lower-beds. That
house was built on purpose to show
in what an exceedingly small compass
comfort may be packed.
And that description shows the
poetic side, and what a happy faculty
she had, like Gudfrand's wife, of MAX
ing the best OF everything. 1t does
not lock as If the place were poor, but
1t was; though very picturesque with
That old shed and granary overrun, like
all the rest, with untrimmed and un-
trained things-as pretty subject as
an artist could desire.
The American visitors found her
that morning in the bit of front yard
which kept her house from shutting
right on the turnpike road. She was
walking along a passage between two
rows OF geraniums as tall as she was.
shipping off tho decaying leaves with a
par OF SCISSORS. She wore a cap, and
Il snowy white muslin handkerchief
was pinned across the bosom of her
cheap black gown; and Oh her plump
hands she had mitts such as our grand
mothers used to wear land they have
come into fashion again), where the
fingers were all free while the thumb
had a little compartment by itself; it
seems to me that they we're of thick
black Grape with rows of white feather
stitch down the back, and they did look
so quaint, like the antiquated gentle.
woman who wore them. She was short
and stout, a "dumpling of a person."
with face as round and good-natured
as Phebe Cary's; and as she slowly
walked and shipped she was chirping
like canary to Il silky-haired spaniel
who kept close by her gown, and an
ola house-cat OH the window-ledge.
Her voice was sweet; her manners were
charming.