The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-11-21
"COUSTN TOM"


tonish her friends and relatives.
Miss Ruth could hardly credit the evil
dence of her own senses in the hazy glow
of the August morning, when She came out
of the shadows of the little south porch,
and discovered that yonder moving object,
half way up among the branches of the
huge old pear tree, was not a spray of
leaves nor a cluster of sunny-cheeked pears
swinging in the blue empyrean, but Miss
Mary Thorne, comfortably perched i'll the
crook of the old tree, her curls all fecked
with the sifted rays of sunshine that came
down through the shifting canopy of leaves,
and a book in her hand.
Il don't eare.'' said the little damsel,
laughing sauey defiance. Its the incest
place i'll the word up here. | feel just like
a bird, with the leaves fluttering against
my face and the wind blowing SO softly,
and intend to stay here. Wouldn't you
like to come up here, Ruthy? It's easily
done. Just put your foot on that knot,
aud then
Ruth, who was thirty and weighed a
hundred and sixty pounds bristled up with
amazement.
s.Mary Thone you are crazy? Come
dowd this Instant
''Indeed shan't,'' said naughty Mary,
tossing the silky shower of hair away from
her forehead, and CHANGING down with eyes
that shone and sparkled like two blue
jewels.
But we are going"
eyes, understand; you are all going in
triumphal procession to the depot to rem
der an ovation to the great Professor La
Place, the wisest sagest and grandest of
mankind, to whom the Thone family have
the unutterable honor of being second cou-
sins, and to escort him solemnly to a
months soiourn at Thorne Hail. Oh,
DEAR calculated Mary, 4 wish I could
run away and hide somewhere. hate
this paragon of prim precision. | shan't
marry him if he asks, and | mean to be-
have so badly that he won't dream of it,
No, am not going with you. | hate the
close barouche, and it's too warm to ride
on horseback | shall stay at home'
And Mary settled herself so snugly with
one tiny, slippered foot swinging down,
and her pretty head close to nest of blue
speckled birds eggs, that Ruth gave it up,
with a sigh of despair.
'sWell, then, have it your own way, you
incorrigible romp. l wish you weren't too
big to shut up in a dark closet, or to have
your ears we'll boxed"
at is a pity, isn't it?'' said Mary, de-
murely.
cot course it is, Mary II Cousin Tom
Bradley comes this morning, be sure to ex-
plain to him why we are absent-and be-
have like young lady mind!'
GAIL rightr' said Mary damtlessly. Il
always liked Tom. We used to have
grand romps together
She sat there in the old pair tree, prettier
than any hamadryad that might have
haunted the messy old veteran of the gar
den, her cheeks touched with sunshine and
carmine, her dimpled lips apart, now read
ing a line or two from the book in her lap,
now looking up, rapt in girlish reverie, in
to the blue sky, as it sparkled down through
the ever moving leaves, and now breaking
into soft little MARBLE of song, to which
the very robins themselves put their heads
to one side to listen
The carriage had driven away long
since She had watched it beyond the
curve of the winding road; the dark man.
tie of shadow was slowly following the
creeping sun-glow across the velvet lawn
below, and the clock in the old church
spre among the far off woods had chimed
out eleven.
And still Mary Thorne sat there in those
forked branches of the old pear tree
Suddenly there floated into her leafy
sanctum pungent, aromatic odor, which
made her look curiously forward, shading
her eyes with one hand, the better to pene
trate the green foliage below.
Not the late monthly roses, not the anne
thyst borders of heliotrope, nor the spicy
geraniums-none of these distilled that pc
culiar smell.
''My PATIENCE said little Mary; cts
cigar"
A cigar it was, and the owner thereof
she could just see a white linen coat and
tall head covered with black, wavy curls-
stood on the porch steps quietly smoking
and indulging in a heightened view of the
garden slopes.
CHATS Tom Bradley" said Mary to
herself. "Now if he thinks I'm coming
down out of this delicious place to sit up
straight in the hot parlors, he's mistaken.
Toni she called out in silver accent of
imperative summons, and then burst into
merry laughter at the evident amazement
with which the stranger gazed round him,
vainly trying to conjecture whence the call
had proceeded, you dear, stupid Cousin
Tomr' she calculated, "Don't stare off to-
wards the cabbage beds Look straight
up here. You may come up if yon please;
there plenty of room for both. You are
Cousin Tom, aren't your, she continued,
as sudden misgivings crossed her mind.
"Of course | am; and you are Mary, |
SUPPOSE
ssMarv herself. Up with you, Tom!