The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-05-24

Sne marked spot on Jne size OF Une
door, smiling curiously, walked back
and looked at it. That's about the
height I'm to look up to all my life, l
suppose. John reaches there, and if
my brother is as tall-but what odds
whether he is short or tall. It's all one
only he might have told me. It's a
grand secret he has made of it every
way. A,Id hen be here to-naOrrOUn'
She looked across the river at the
hilltOps, where quiet stretches of farm
land lay in the broad, warm sunlight;
as the columns of smoke vomited from
the great chimneys near, and which
sometimes shut out the beautiful land
scape, darkening the sky. Then again
she was recalled to herself by the
silence of the house. Where We're the
children? She looked out of the
window. At considerable distance
from the house, something that might
be child head or a dog was moving
back of log. Then another object APP
peared and disappeared, but the instant
of time sulficed to satisfy the maido
all-wOrk. The children were playing
in the open field near the house. But
where was the nurse? Strolling a long
distance from the little heads that were
bobbing up and down between the logs
that We're scattered over the open field,
Nelly Moore observed a familiar figure;
beside her, moving an arm as though
he were switching the air with cane,
was another form almost as familiar.
The nurse evidently was proud of her
conquest. 1t was not every girl in her
sphere who could boast a lover who
carried cane.
The maid-o'- all-work turned back
from the window, renewed the fire in
the range, and sat down at the table
with the paper she still held in her
hand. Producing piece of lead pencil
as long as ones finger, she bent over
the paper.
AS she drew curious lines upon the
paper, her thoughts ran this wise:
The new suit, the cravat, gloves,
hat and boots must wait JAMES COM
ing. SO long as the main thing-the
MONEYS provided, I'm noways I'M
easy. There enough and to spare
it'll be my lookout to set him off so that
no one will call him Paddy, al
though there no disgrace in it-only
when one comes among strangers
there S nothing lost by putting the best
foot foremost. Many pain and ache
would have been saved these seven
years past if somebody had thought for
and provided for me beforehand. |
hope Jamie will never experience what
Eve endured, and nobody any the
wiser. Therer looking sideways at the
onNya,.oI ,,-itI, IL
lines crossing each other "That'll be
Mowers mills up there by the dam. |
think I've not got it too near Drexels
mills. He'll never lose himself once he
is in sight of either. That's the short
side of the city. too. If he'll get Penn
Avenue set fairly in his mind, the long
side will be as easy to learn. But l
must make the near cut plain-the near
cut across to the South Side. And the
bridges-that'n be all that's needed.
There's not mill left out"
'Nellyn' voice cried at that mo-
ment. 1t was Mrs. Britt who stood on
the landing.
where are Mary and the children?"
''ln the open lot"
''Is Mary with them?-the fence is
down now, and they must not be allow
ed to 90 near the railroad. Tell her to
be very careful. | am going to my
room and must not be disturbed"
Mrs. Britt spoke like woman ac-
customed to implicit obedience Mrs.
Britt, well-meaning woman who had
never experienced hardship nor misfor-
tune-one of those people who are born
to ease and plenty, and accept them as
a matter of course rather than as bless
ings-sat down before her eScrit0ire,
waiting for the inspiration which expe-
rience justified her in assuming nine
times out of ten was belated ere it
reached her pen. The best incidents,
the extraordinary condolences and
dramatic situations were always worked
out by other people. In her leisure she
had written many verseS--perform-
ances that occupied her time, were ad-
mired by her friends and dreaded by
the editors of the daily papers of Grits-
burg more than competitors PROPOSE
ton to compare circulation. Unfortu-
nately for Mrs. Britt and the editors, two
or three of these performances got into
print, and ever after they were COM
PEELED to do penance. Mrs. Britt's life
was as placid as pool of water in
prairie, but like many whose lives are
barren of incident she was forever in
quest of the intense; her disrelish of the
commonplace was so great that she
was in the habit of declaring lit posi-
lively amounted to disgust" Time
ard again she began intensely thrilling
poems and stories, but she never got
farther than five or six verses or as far
as the middle of the first chapter.
Fragments of these performances lit
tered her eScritoire and amused her hus-
band. Of the tragedies enacted every
day about her, she had no conception.
She sought incidents in the new West,
in flood and battlefield and in the wake
of lost steamers The drudgerv of
every day life could not supply her with
heroiSm.
Mrs. Britt had at last found thrill
ing situation: All it required was
good management. There was the
great steamer with its machinery dis
abled, the signal guns firing, tremen-
dous cliff within biscuit-throw of the
steamer, the steamer pounding on the
rocks, and breakers foamingall around
the hapless passengers. 1t required
some deXterity to reach this point and
eXuicate the half-dozen passengers es-
sential to Mrs. Britt's story after com