Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-01-16

"Didn't know anything could melt year
Ice" muttered old lady Browne, sottO roce,
opening and shutting her own door "a Miss
Evans iluttered by with the ribbons of her
wrappe streaming after her. Miss Pnlii-
fer had once whisperingly declared that
Miss Evans had bought out n ribbon shop
at some indefinite past period, and was
spending her life wearing out the stock.
At breakfast Mrs. Colman began TO
fidget. ~ don't know whore Miss Pulsifcr
Isl" she complained into the IL eAhs of the
teapot, stirring the grounds with spoon.
"And here's everything a'getting cold"
~ can tell you where she II not, aud
where she hasn't been all night" said Miss
Evans, bridhng with conscious virtue.
"You needn't trouble YOURSELF" said
Mrs. Colman, trembling. 81 know all
about it, an great sight more'n you do"
"Well, declared" said Miss Evans.
"You always are a-declaring," said Mrs.
Colman.
The day wore on; IL was a day OF soft
dull sky and fine incessant rain, and din.
ner came and went as dinners do, and still
there was no Miss Pulsifer.
"I'm half worried TO DEATH" murmured
Mrs. Colman.
81 never knew anybody else to worry
over an elopement," said Mrs. Bedlow.
~ never knew such a hardhearted set
OF women, IL do get my living out OF
'em," said Mrs. Colman, In high state of
e ekIapepatip ION e VI docs Sne want 10
"Well, IL she hasn't, it's pity she hasn't,
that's ALL" said Mrs. Bedlow. "She went
of yesterday afternoon with that Mr.. Del
aware, and it's twenty-four hours since,
and she hasn't come back. It's very
poor piece of business for your house, Mrs.
Colman, at any rate"
"Pshaw!" said Mrs. Colman. sold lady
Browne and me amt the only ones anx
ious. The young men down there are in
great fright, and are scattered all over the
marshes, and are shooting their rifles and
blowing horns and getting ready to build
worried, just as l said, e'en-a'most out of
my wits, for one. | thank the Lord
warn't made with heart like a neither
milestone whenever pretty girls in ques-
ton" And banging the door so that the
house shook Mrs. Colman added, when
safely in the hall, that she didn't care
mite for such boarders, il they never came
back.
confess / was quite as much concerned
as old lady Browne and the rest of the Pull
sifer party, as dark came down again and
that'gay voice and vision were still wanting.
And there were no lights down in the tent
under the willows, and here and there, far
out on the wide wilderness of meadows,
saw faint CLEANS of fire struggling with
the rain and mist and going under, and
realized, indeed. that the little Pulsifer,
with her attendant, was lost in the marshes,
and perhaps dying of hunger and expos
ure.
AS the night settled, even the Evans
party announced n cessation of hostilitles,
and Miss Evans herself began TO fit un-
easily about, her agitated ribbons playing
the part of flags of truce, and it was she
that suggested the house should he lighted
from top to bottom, as she began to haunt
the window where Mrs. Colman was al
ways wiping the pane and peering out UNI
der the shelter of her hand. Mrs. Bedlow
came and sat down by me, saying she
really felt quite creepy as she thought of
that poor little thing fainting and perhaps
dying out there in the rain and dark. Old
lady Browne took the occasion to read
them lecture as to the past, with doxology
of forgiveness at the end; but the more
anxiety they now expressed, Mrs. Colman
stiffened the more Indignantly. lawful
soft.hearted at last" said Mrs. Colman.
"For my part, Pm just as vexed with her
as can be, the hoighty -toighty little sim
pleton, galivanting off OH this mash that
amt got point of the compass about it
But, soft-hearted or vexed, II didn't sig
Nifty. There was no answer to our lights
or our gongs, and at last we went to bed,
although don't imagine anybody slept;
and we were all up, on one pretext or an
other, by daybreak, when the sun rose as If
he was not aware there was thing the
matter, tricked out with all his beams, aud
the earth was glittering and green aud
beautiful 81 vum," said Mrs. Colman,
sits a sin and shame to see the weather
so smiling, and that little thing, for all we
know, dead out on the mash, or fallen into
some of the bitches, or tired out and
dropped, and overtaken by the tide and
drowned. My sakcs alive! If that amt her
now"
And there she was-there she was coming
up the long lawn with the young gentleman
known as Ben, whom we had seen only in
the carriage on the day he brought her;
and all the others, too, clustering about her,
as sorry looking set, it must be said-un-
shaven, miry, mouldy, streased with earth
AS one could fancy out of nightmare;
but she herself laughing, dimpled, blush
ing, innocent, dragged, and her shoes clods
of marsh mud. III her dress ever had been
pink, you would not have known it now,
smeared in yellowish-green from hem to
waist with mud and water and eel-grass
the silken stockings, the strings of pearls,
the hat with its rosy pompons-thcy were
all but part of n Shiny ruin that made you
marvel the more at the round and rosy
she cried-"perfectly right! But l can't
put my arms round anybody's neck in this
plight. | can't kiss any of you, and say
how glad l am to see you, till tear Off
these lendings and have bath and some
clean clothes. know your glad to see me-"
said Miss Evans suddenly to her next
neighbor, dropping as dead as n plummet
from her recent heights OF magnanimity.
"Out all of two nights without word of
explanation. I've been expecting some
thing of the sort, and here it Is, just as l
always said it would be-"
"And that, at any rate, is satisfaction"
said old lady Browne, giving Miss Evans
one of her sharp little glances, such as the
old gypsy i'm the "Flight of the Duchess"
might give out of her disappearing eye.
holes. "But Pm afraid it's all the satisfac-
ton you'll have. Here, my DEAR" to the
little Pulsifer, "you needn't wait for a
clean dress to introduce your husband to
these ladies'"
"Your husband" cried the Evans party,
with one voice.
"Who did you suppose it wasp said the
enemy, turning OH them coolly. "Who did
you suppose it was that was so sorry to
part with two months ago! My brother!
Brothers and sisters are very good friends,
as you see. Here, Pinckney, Delaware,
Gordon, Spencer-iny brothers, the Messrs.
Carroll-Mrs. Bedlow, Miss Evans, Miss
Cooper, ladies all But brothers and sis
tiers don't make quite such fuss at parting
for two months as husbands and wives do.
As you are so interested in my family mat.
tiers, will add that my other brother Is
commander of a vessel cruising with the
Asiatic squadron, the one don't expect to
hear from for n long while, Miss Evans.
And he'll regret the loss of such an oppor.
tunity of making your acquaintance"
"Why in the world"
ooh. don't mention it, she said, with
flashing eyes. "Good Mrs. Colman's ma
| tive pronunciation of the word Mrs gave
me a chance of incorporating as a girl
again, and told the truth TO her and dear
| old lady Browne, and ran for luck with the
| rest of you, just to see how IL would seem
| to he n girl again, and to be talked over by
A.
"Come, come, come, now, little Pulsifer!"
said old lady Browne, sharply.
Eyes, little Pulsifer," said Ben, laughing,
although demoralized, "it's quite time you
came. Ladies, IL you'll forgive her, she
will, forgive you, and we will take cup of
coffee together presently, when l will re.
| count to you the true and strange adven-
lures of young lady aud her brothers,
| who went hunting for her husband across