Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-08-29
Of despair, and renouncing an hop,i,

O0UhAA
about the corner-grocery where liquic
consolation was dispensed by the gal
lon only, while Mrs. Lockridge. a,
home, managed the farmland fam.
lily, within an inch of their lives.
The other Lockridge girls, Jecasta'.
sisters, had all married or died-which.
ever seemed to offer the speediest and
most convenient escape from the shrew.
ish tongue of Mrs. Lockridge No. 2 and
her elder sister, Sar' Ann, who had taken
her abode in the already sufficiently
stricken family; and Jocasta, who was
too young to marry, being q hardy
little animal, had actually outlived one
and made a good beginning
seated upon the doorstep peeling pota-
toes.
Notwithstanding her acidity and gen.
eral unlovableness (Which he perhaps
understood better after marriage than
before), Mr.. Lockridge had married his
wife; but his third wife had mar
MI. Lockridge. Sar' Ann consid-
cred that she had a better right than
most people to James husband and
children; and though Mr.. Lockridge
himself, after his recent experience,
have desired to sample some
other family, Sar' Ann conducted the
with SO much strength and skill
the fortress, having the besieger
its very walls, surrendered with
out any unnecessary delay, and Jocasta
began to find herself a greater mistake
than ever and to wish that she could 90
a decline like her sister Liza, or
marry a convenient Job Smith like
Ann. 1t is possible that the new
Mrs. Lockridge wished the same.
Mr.. Lockridge had been dead almost q
year now-the neighbors said Sar' Ann
jawed the life outn him-and Jocasta
was still wearing faded black calico in
CHASTITY commemoration of the event,
from motives that were decidedly of q
mixed nature. She possessed an incubus
of affection that must be lavished upon
one and, lacking a worthier OBJ
ject, had bestowed upon her father con
siderably more than he really deserved,
and therein was the black calico insiG-
MIA of woe. But We must also remember
how slender was Jocasta's wardrobe,
and that Mrs. Lockridge regarded a de-
sire or even necessity on her part for
as something akin to crime; and,
regarded in this light, her shabby calico
was an emblem of tyranny. It is quite
useless to assume that Jocasta could not
have mourned for her father quite as sin
and far more comfortably in a
becoming garment. But we can afford
pass the more lightly over this injury
when we reflect that Jocasta was a
pretty girl in spite of being a shabbily
clad mistake. 1t was owing entirely to
this fact, and most feminine good for
is, that Jocasta wa finally touched
with the fairy godmother's magic wand,
and rolled triumphantly out of her old
life, not in a pumpkin-coach, but q
Pullman car with reclining-chairs and
Westinghouse airbrake, as well as sun
dry other improvements which tradition
does not mention rs being on the fairy
godmother's list of attractions. But 1
have in a manner eloped with Jocasta
and left my story behind.
1t was both oppressive and warm the
Jocasta took her basket of
toeless stockings out under the silver
leaf maple, where a rude bench had
been fixed against the trunk of the tree.
She took the last new baby with her,
too, a bouncing t~wo-year-old, who
was quite p%resentable when the
stratum of gingerbread which usually
obscured his c~ountenance was cleared
away. In fact, after he had curled
up and gone to sleep among the
n1nuo,.- h1Occor, nf TD1oe%,t, f,ot lo
looked much more interesting than any
body had a right to expect of one of Mrs.
Lockridgc's descendants.
1t was the afternoon of the picnic.
Sally and Jane were miles away, out in
understanding woods, probably
lunching Oft damaged provisions with a
pleasing admiXture of dust and investi-
insects. Mrs. Lockridge was
making horse-covers with the sewing
machine out on the back-porch. So
when wandering artist who was spend
ing a few weeks at a neighboring farm
house passed that way and craved per-
mission to make q little sketch of the
|ow-eaved house. the maple tree, her
'elf and the sleeping boy, Jocasta did
not say him nay. Mrs. Lockridce
most likely, have set the yellow
dog at him had she been aware of the
proceeding, but the machine buzzed on
with little intermission, and she had
finished two ''head-stalls' even to bind
.ng the staring eye-holes with scarlet
braid, when the stranger completed his
work and, thanking Jocasta, went on
Down the hill.
He returned to the city 500 after
ward, and a friend pulling his summer
about found this bit of careless
and straightway took an unac-
countable fancy to it.
Take it, Jack, if you think it's worth
5aking," Tom Fields said, lazily. He
lad heard something of Jocasta's his
DRY from the ncighbor-folk and now
he commonplace little tale served to
While away an idle hour in the telling.
But Jack Walker did not even smile at
lis friends grotesque account OF MI.
Lockridge's despair and the old aunt's
Indignation at the advent of another su-
D%ertluous girl; and when Tom effectively
1escribedJocasta S fricndless and forlorn
condition Jack looked angry, ashamed
md uneasy all at one and the same
line. He was silent for at least five
minutes after Fields had concluded his
narrative and occupiad biroc,1f with