Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-08-29
JOCASTA-A MISTAKE

JOCASTA-A MISTAKE.
Jocasta went on peeling potatoes with
q calmness born of long and inveterate
practice, and perhaps a little despair as
we'll; for, when Jocasta saw stretching
away to the left an acre or more of the
same thrifty vegetable, and reflected that
she would most likely have to peel them
all, what. pray, was more natural than
despair? 1t was curious, as well as
growing young Lockridges absorbed
into their composition; but Jocasta was
o. weary and dispirited just now to re-
fleet much upon the scientific aspect of
the phenomenon. At present she could
get no farther than the inconvenience
arising from it.
Mrs. Lockridge had scolded vigorously
all the morning, and had just delivered
one of her most emphatic %perorations
on useless luxuries in general and step
daughters in particular; and Jocasta's
spirits, if she could be said to have any,
were quite as low as the door-sill upon
which she was seated. Once more she
had been frankly assured that she was a
needless expense to her hard-working
step-mother, who was gradually Shaving
herself to death for other peoples
children, and that her appellation was
exceedingly appropriate, she being ga
mistake in every sense of the word.
All Of which was delivered with an
amount of energy that carried convic-
ton with it; but the participating went
IN bravely, just the same, Jocasta being
too miserable to cry.
1t all began about a picnic to which
Jocasta had asked permission to 20,
with the daring audacity inspired by
youth and a dammed-up craving for the
pleasure and merry-making Of which
her young life was sadly bare. Sally,
the youngest daughter of Mrs. Lock
ridge No. 2, and namesake and niece of
Mrs. Lockridge No. 8, the present in
cumbent, was not only going, but was,
at that very moment, engaged in max
ing up a new dress in which she was to
shine upon the festive occasion, and with
her natural charms thus REINFORCED
calculated upon being able to fix the
unanchored affections of Henry Banks,
who was looking for a wife and had
been observed to cast a speculative and
shcepish eye upon Jocasta on one or
two occasions. To be sure, Mrs. Lock-
ridge was anxious to get rid of Jocasta
in almost any legitimate way; but
Henry was "well fixed" and the pru-
dent lady was much too economical to
allow him to throw himself away upon
Jocasta while her favorite. Sally, with
cred unplucked upon the parent stem.
Perhaps, before going any further, it
would be well to explain how Jocasta
came by her wet-blankct of a name.
Briefly, the facts We're as follows:
The first Mrs. Lockridge had possessed
among other family relies an affluent,
childless aunt. with a most unnatural
and implacable aversion to girls. 1t is
possible that she might have been q
p%etticoated Herod had she been sur
rounded by circumstances more favor
able to the abnormal development of
individual prejudices; but as it was she
was obliged to content herself with the
sternest kind of a warning to her
nephew-in-law, Samuel, that She would
never, no never, bestow her well-fed,
carefully-groomed fortune upon a mem
Der Of the female sex! She did not an.
prove of them. The less encourage
ment they received the better. There
fore, if Nephew Samuel was ever to re-
ceive her fortune into the bosom of his
family it would only be when a son and
heir had been added to the alarming
array of girls already clustering around
the paternal knee. Now Samuel did
feel a very strong inclination to chaper-
ON Aunt j ck's money, SO when Jocasta
made her appearance upon the stage of
existence, out Of the exceeding bitterness
of his spirit he had the babe christened
Jocasta, that her inadequacy might be
q standing reproach to her through all
the days of her life. Andto make a bad
matter much worse, Mrs. L%ookridge,
being appalled, at this last awful calam-
i,y, gave only one little sigh and fled
straightway through the gates ajar,
where it is safe to suppose she was ac-
corded pardon for even this last crime
against the public veal. To be sure,
other Mrs. Lockridges came after, but
they want none o her kim" Aunt
Jack remarked contemptuously, and
turned her crooked old back upon the
whole family with evident satisfaction.
Not long oftcrward they heard that
she had patched up an old quarrel with
another branch of the family tree lucky
enough to possess a masculine twig; and
that all parties were walking very cir
cumspectly indeed, hoping that the mel
low fabric of Aunt Jacks tickle favor,
if not strained unnecessarily, would this
time out last her distressingly vigorous
constitution.
Samuc! heard the news with a groan