The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-05-05
THE COLONEL.

Few families could be in more desper-
ate straits as to money matters than the
Dilloways were, and in few could the
facts have been taken with more diver
sity of opinion. There was Mamma
Dilloway a stately, gray-haired matron,
who felt SO wronged by circumstance as
to be on the edge of quarrel with the
universe. There was Margaret, the
beauty, who was in too miserable health
to care about monny matters andpassed
the day on the sofa in languor and in
difference. There was Kate, whose
situation as teacher was the mainstay
of the house. There were the younger
ones, Ethel and Fred and Harry, on
whom the world was just beginning to
cast shadow, whose appetites and
whose legs grew with every day beyond
the bounds of provisions and trousers.
And there was Brooks, the proud and
suffering eldest son, whose beginnings
had all come to naught-who cursed
poverty as it had cursed him; and there
was Maria, the other daughter, who
was not beauty, but who, neverthe-
less had that quality of absorbing and
rejecting sunshine which brings sun
shine into shadow, and who rather
relished the tussle with their wants, and
always expected victory.
1t seemed to Mamma Dilloway, on the
morning that Brooks was summoned to
Colorado to take the books of an old
friend who had fallen ill, that now the
see her son again.
''On the contrary, mamma" said
Maria, who was performing a pas seal,
1.-The universe, you must think, is not
such very ill-managed affair after all.
Perhaps we couldn'tdo better ourselves.
King David was quite right" said she,
pausing in her waltz. 1.-The dance is
the expression of joy, and just now,
I'm sure, of religious joy; for if ever
anybody was thankful-n
"Marian exclaimed her mother.
"You know, mamma, you're as glad
as /"
81 don't know any such short-sighted
thing, said Mrs. Dilloway. Colorado
is a long way off, and mining life is very
rough, and mines are very uncertain;
and if Brooks falls ill while all alone
there with nobody"
I'll tell you what, mamma; I'll go with
him. Mrs. Byrnes offered me enough
for grandma's cashmere shawl to pay
my way, and | need an outing, and may
find something to do myself!'
And before Mrs. Dilloway fairly
knew what had happened, Brooks and
Maria were on their westward wav,
having left the whole family aghast at
the vision of lonelipess, oppressed with
anxiety, and wretched with something
like grief. They could scarcely have
told you how they dragged on an ex-
istence through the first dreary weeks.
The weather fitted with their feelings,
and nothing broke the monotony of
their trouble.
you'll have to come back, Maria"
wrote Kate. 1.-The house is getting so
damp with mammals tears that the
walls will INDEPENDENTLY. Margaret,
too, turns her face to the back of the
sofa, and the tears roll down, one by
one, for dreariness. The gloom has
even infected Ethel, whose dolls are
always going to funerals. There seems
to be nothing to do, nothing to ex-
pect, nowhere to go. My quarter hasn't
yet been paid, and we have short COM
mons, can tell you. The table en-
phasizes our low spirits three times a
day; but mamma will have it set, if
it is only potatoes and milk. You were
all the life and comfort we had, and
now you are gone. But you have had
your outing now, and unless you want
me to go to an insane asylum, you will
have to come home and leave Brooks to
his fate"
The answer to this letter was of a
fortnight's later date. "Come home,
indeed" said Maria, ''when I'm having
the first good time in my life! Such a
new and strange life, too! Such an at
mosphere, and such scenery world
OF pictures. l suppose you think of us
in a desert; but can you muster dozen
superb young Sauls, Englishmen and
others, every morning with galloping
across country, every evening with
music and dancing? You know so many
English of the first water come over to
hunt the buffalo, and some to take up
land for ranches. There is Mr.. Choi-
sister, and Mr.. and Mrs. Cecil,
and don't know how many others, first
and last-a new one always turning up.
So you see the time passes quite differ
emily from time at home, where you so
seldom see a marrying man, that when
you do, you think he belongs to another
species. o and | must not forget the
COLONEL Now, what do you think of a
real British nobleman, of family titled
since the Conqueror-or is it the FloodP
Colonel Sir Guy Temple! Perfectly
charming and rich beyond calculation
tin mines in Cornwall. BY the way,
didn't Brooks write you that he has a
little mine HIMSELF He has given me
half of it."
And so the letter ran on, and great
cheer it brought into that dull place
where it was read.
"The Colonel" said Mrs. Dilloway,
rehectively, as Maria knew she would.
"Colonel Sir Guy Temple. Those old