Weekly Chillicothe crisis., 1884-07-10
MISS T0MBOY.

There is no more harm in her thai
there is IN Il three months old kitten
to which creature indeed Miss Tombo,
has II curiously close resemblance
When she runs, because walking is $,
slow, and skips as n variation in he
running, she means no oilensc to mic,
nor men, albeit her manners have no
the repose which marks the caste o
We're dc We're. With these We're d,
Veres, indeed, Miss Tomboy ha
neither sympathy nor affinity. Sh,
would not be one Of them if she could
and she could not if she would; for he
own abOunding, free and frolicsom,
life has not \ line Of likeness with tha
OF these living statues and breathing
mummies, 50 contracted, parchcd ant
pinched as it is. And the stiffness
which is the acme of good breeding t,
the one, would be as unnatural Il.
mutilation and as painful Us imprison
ment to the other.
The supreme necessity for Miss Tom
boys existence is movement. She ear
not be still for the life of her Sh,
dances at night and plays lawn-tcnni,
by day, and never seems to feel the
need ofrcst outside her healthy and un
broken sleep of nine good hours by tn,
clock. She does well all things need
ing vigor, boldncsS, courage and
agility. She climbs rocks like goat
swims like fish, rides like an Amazon
independent of skirt and Indifferent to
stirrupS. She shoots at a mark with
wonderful accuracy of aim; and can
swarm up II smooth tree like the boys.
She angles and takes wasps' nests with
the boys; and knucklcs down at mar.
bles as well as stands to the wicket, as
if she answered to the name. of Jack in.
stead of Jane. She likes nothing 50
much so as to make herself "a sight
for rags and rents, according TO her
old nurses pathetic lament. though al
so she approves of dress when She is
ION view," as she calls it, and likes
pretty things with the best. 1t is TO be
confessed, however, with some degree
of shame, that she does not take care
of her pretty things when she has them.
A ball dress seldom lasts more than a
couple of nights, and her best walking
dress becomes her worst in less time
than Miss Prim's over the way takes to
look rs if it had ever been worn at all.
But what can be expected from such Il
young creature, who gets over the gate
in preference to opening it; who never
sees the puddles in her path, and has
an heroic disregard for thorns and
briars, and who thinks scratching her
way through the tangled brushwood Il
far more agreeable manner of walking
than the clear highway or even the free
lane? Of course her wardrobe suffers,
but her checks gain what hci silks and
stuils and muslins lose, and the fresh
ness of her face makes amends for the
destruction of her gowns.
When at last the days glad Joy, pro-
longed into the nights brisk pleasure,
has ended, and the world goes into
torpor and silence, rs she lays her
curly head on her pillow Miss Tomboy
smiles with satisfaction. After all, bed
is pleasant place, she thinks--vcry
pleasant when one has been on ones
feet for fifteen hours. with only the
break of sitting down at meals And
with the smile still about her rosy
mouth, and, almost before she has
quite settled her head on her pillow,
she is fast asleep. There she lies, like
a great human flower, OF like big
child-which is the same thing-warm,
flushed, happy in her faint conscious
ness of delicious rest, like the beasts
and the birds and the insects, which,
in that marvellous garden where the
sensitive plant was the favorilc child,
were
In an ocean of dreams without sound,
Whose waves ever mark, though they never
impress
The light sand which pavcs Inconsistencies.
And when the sun calls her to wake
and begins again the joyous round of
her innocent delights, she springs up
as if she and all things had been new
ly born that night---as if the days held
no sorrow and the evenings never
brought death; us if pain and parting
tears and MISUNDERSTANDING, and all
other human ills, were unknown, and
she and creation were freshly minted
on this happy gala day. 1t is gala
day because she is young and life has
still the charm of novelty and fresh
ness. 1t is u gala day, whether the
sun shines or the rain falls whether
the snow is on the ground and the
frost has wrought each lealloss tree in
silver, or whether the earth is green
with vernal grass and llecked with sum.
lher flowers, and the blue sky overhead
is laced with golden thread and fleck-
ed with shining clouds. 1t is gala
day, because she is innocent and glad
and of the kind to find pleas
ure everywhere, and to make it out of
her own abundant sweetness when she
cannot find it ready to her hand.
Miss Tombov is not u flirt, as the
world counts ilirts, and yet she has n
code of her own, which comes to the
same thing, barring intention She
means nothing, and would be serious
ly embarrassed were she taken in earn
est. II Is all fun with her, and she sees
no rock ahead, warning her to be care
ful in her steering. She likes "chafl,"
and gives as much rs she takes; but |
she would not pain the most sensitive
Tor all the fun in the world, and If br
chance she goes too far, she is so sim
,erely sorry, so prettily penitent, that
not the surliest old Rustifusticus extant
San forbear to forgive or fail to make
friends once more. Fond as she is of |
Ill kinds of innocent amusements, Miss
romboy can give up her own diversion
ior the sake Of others; and when she is
5he daughter of the clergyman of the
parish, as sometimes happens, she is TO
oe counted on for all her duties as GER
tainly as If she had no other desire
than to visit the sick and read to the
Did, and carry moral sunshine and
spiritual ozone wherever she appears.
When the mother asks the children Of
The neighborhood to come and be made !