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

"Pretty morals. Because she's pretty
you approve OF this singing and dancing
at all hours, this perpetual tripping down
TO that tent, this rambling off upon the
meadow and into the woods alone with any
| one OF those young follows"
"Safety i'm multitude or counsel" said
| old lady Browne.
this coming i'm late at night wet
with dew, this laughing like a chime of
bells-n
Exactly like a chime of BELLS"
"As loud, said"
"No, you didn't, Miss Evans. You Just
said chime of bells. Aud say chime
OF bells-as sweet as a chime of bells"
III never heard a sweet chime of bells
yet; they are usually deafening nuis-
ance In any neighborhood."
"Then you never heard the bells of Shan
don, Miss Evans, nor the old Limerick
bells, nor those evening bells, those even
ing bells.'" And by this means they came
round to some other topic; and Miss Evans
smoothed her ruffled plumes latter by re-
marking that old lady Browne was certain
ly losing what little mind she ever did
have.
"Ben always tells me 60 have good
time when he is away" said Miss Pulsifer,
sitting on the grass at my feet. "If think
OF him moment get to crying, and it
makes me i'll to cry, and-and L don't let
myself think. just plunge into this mad
gayety." And then she laughed, as il at
buo iucu "a tucTt any RayeIy Ill III.
ppm saddest when sing" she sang.
ut seems to me-" answered, "that
there is considerable gayety; if not mad,
yet Miss Evans would say reckless"
"Oh, Miss Evans! She says anything
but her prayers. Now. seriously, do you
think it a wild dissipation to build fire on
the shore with parcel of boys you've
known ever since they were born, and roast
clans by the red rising moon, and they all
begin TO scramble around fortheir painting
things to get the difference between that
freight on the wet sand and that moon
light, and then they all cry: ooh, pshaw
oh, shopo and go back to their clans, and
go home singing 'Ubidee, with the watch
mans rattle in it! Awful celebrating,
isn't itg Then it's almost as intoxicating
to go into the woods with Pinckney and
Delaware-Pinxit ct Delineavit-and get
your shoes in the mire, and lose your way,
and get TO crying, and hear the sheep bleat,
and find you've only been on the other side
of the garden wall all the time, with Mrs.
Colman shooting you away under the inn
preston you are the neighbors' cows try
ing to break through the fence. Oh yes,
it's mad and reckless way of spending
the time till Ben gets back, and the only
comfort in il is that ! can't lose my reputa.
ton"
She said it so soberly that a little guilty
flush rose in my face. "Can't, you know"
she said, looking up at me rouguishly. "Be-
place really isn't large enough TO lose any
tang in, not even your heart? Poor Miss
Evans if had lost anything, she'd find it;
she keeps such look out How surprised
shell be-" And then the little lady went
off i'm peals of laughter. sob, your good
old Mrs. Colman." she exclaimed, without
the least apparent relevancy. "She's a
jewel. And isn't she too funny? l don't
know that any one ever gave me SO much
amusement as she has. Pm going TO give
her my third best black silk. If she pieces
IL up with cambria, and opens the waist
with couple of cores and vest, it will
really fit her; and you know it's a poorfoot
that won't shape its own stocking. And if
the dress is once made, she can be poured
in somehow-she's usually in state of
liquefaction. You'll have TO help me about
it, though"
AS look back on that summer | wonder
what we did before the little Pulsifer
joined us, and to what degree of stagnation
we should have fallen. She did not bring
her young painters up to the house; but
she gave us endless themes for converse
ton by going down TO them with such
friends as she had raado and as she chose
to take with her, and by the utter indie
pendence of her behavior.
Totally indifferent to good opinion"
calculated Miss Evans.
And to Slanderous gossip" answered
old lady Browne, who, when she did fight,
gave no quarter.
AT such times as the little witch staid in
the house she would sit at the rafting
piano for hours together singing us the old
songs that she knew in endless succession.
"You won't laugh again at this piano when
| tell you it is half like the one Beethoven
used to play" she said. Beethoven used
to play at piano all of whose keyboard
was silent, you know. And only half of
this keyboard is" She had, too, an mex
haustible store of new conundrums which
CHI a N n fem al 4 In oc
were little dull.
"They're worse than the mosquitoes
said Miss Evans, bustling from one seat to
| another, her ribbons as lively as whole
fleet when busy with private signals
"Only think, Miss Cooper" picking out the
bows, show different il was before the
house was givenup to this sort of nonsense.
think she must sit up over night to make
Them"
"You mustn't think so much, Miss
your head. AT any rate, yon mustn't ask
Miss Cooper TO think. By-the-way, why is
Miss Evans like"
Thereat Miss Evans nounced out of the
room. The little enemy laughed. ~
wasn't going to say anything ill.natured,"
she was like lily of the field And it
wasn't because she tolls not, neither does
she spin, but because Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed in anything like
that new gown of hers"
Whenever IL raincd she came down with
a new gown of her own, to vary her usual
green flannel field suit; some aesthetic won
der of her own continuing, now en-
broidered fit for Japanese princess, now
covered with quaint paintings, and now a
creation of puffs and frills as pretty rs the
dress of q French marquise in an old pic
ture.
"The most barefaced little flirt | ever
met" said Miss Evans, surveying the
latest toilette one afternoon when several
weeks of our acquaintance had progressed.
always getting herself up for admiration.
It's really disgraceful the way she carries
on"
"It's hurting the house," said Miss
| Cooper.
"Certainly it is" said Mrs. Bedlow, the
ather gay widow who had been wont to be
| the object of consideration with-the ladies
| of the house. Sooth to say, there were no
gentlemen before the Pulsifer arrival. 81
| shall not think of coming back next year
unless Mrs. Colman puts stop to these
proceedings"
"Yes, Just look at her" said Miss Evans.
81 suppose she's going to traipse out on
| the meadows In that rig to make point in
| the landscape for some OF her painters,
aud not to be at home till midnight.
don't know how Mrs. Colman can expect
respectable people to remain in the house,"
said Miss Evans, with every ribbon brist-
| ling.
| 1t was pretty rig of the little minx's-a
pale pink muslin with full shoulder puffs,
| belted just under the arms like one of the
| Empress Josepnine's gowns, and falling
straight down to the little high-heeled shoes
| without ruffie, the round neck filed i'm
/ with strings and strings and strings of
pearl beads till you hardly saw tho pinky
pearl skin beneath. She came running in
with an envelope in her hands. so, | have
| n telegram from Ben" she cried. "And
! he'll be here before | expected. Isn't ii
| lovely of himy I've half the mind TO go
over and surprise him-he'l be in Hills
borough on the five-o'clock train. Pm
always in such a hurry. What do you
/ thinkW
81 think you're half beside yourself"
$50 am. don't want TO be foolish, but
Pm so glad and happy. Perhaps it's fool
ish to be happy in such a world as this
with a sigh of pleasure. And the contrast
made by herself in her beauty and radi
ance, and her words of disillusion, was
sufficiently piquant. "At any rate, it's
adding just so much time TO ones happi
ness so think I'll go. And perhaps the