Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-02-15
TWO YOUNG C~ONSPIRATORS.

TWO YOUNG CONSPIRATORS.
Where are you going Barbie?"
l am already halfway down the lane,
and l take care not to stop or turn
around as answer, shortly: clown to
the orchard"
Cant I go, tooP"
''No."
"Nor me ne ther?"
I shake my head, still walking, and
add by way Of excuse: 81 want to be
quiet, children"
"You ant obliged to make any more
noise just because we 60"
That is good sound reasoning, still [
persist in be'ng impolite, and only COM
promise by adding, "You can come
down just before supper, and walk home
with me-"
Two hours later how 1 wish 1 had
taken those spirits of mischief, my little
brother and sister, with me! Anywhere,
ANYHOW rather than to have left them
with the threads OF my destiny in their
chubby fingers, and only their own
sweet wills to guide them. Afraid of
another interruption, Or detention, un-
less | speedily disappear from sight, 1
hurry forward until Ihave let down and
securely put up again the old gray bars
that serve as c~loister doors between nv
little world Of home life and small du-
ties, and that sheltering retreat of all
my girlhood days, the orchard. With a
\ sigh OF relief | toss my hat on the
ground. throw down the books, wise
and otherwise, which l had brought
under the pretensc that l shall improve
my time by reading, and give myself up
to the luxury of being alone and uncom-
Portable. Softened by the many leaves
OF the l~ow-branching apple trees, the
hot July sun falls with a tender, dreamy
light upon the green grass at my feet;
stirred by a gentle breath of fragrant
summer air, the green leaves whisper
soothing words OF peace and rest; a
saucy squirrel on a twisted bit of fence
is cooking up his tail and winking at me
with one eye in the j%olliest, give care
the-go-by manner possible; but though
heartily ashamed of myself l am still
unhappy and only take comfort in one
thought, that neither the dear old trees,
twisted and gnarled by many a years
contest with wind and weather, nor the
twittering birdsl IN their branches, young
and silly. nor the squirrel risky and
care-free, will criticise me or reason
with me. They do not know that l have
suddenly discovered hat l am twenty
-four years old, and that the village gos-
sips have decided that the minister is
gong to have an OLD maid in his family,
after all. They do not know that for
the first time rude hands have swept
across the wires of my sensitive girl ma
ture and set it all a iangling and out of
tune; they do not know how l have been
longing to run away from them
ever since mother came home
from her round of parish calls
the other day, on which, contrary
to her usual custom, she had taken
Vic and Bobbitt. the two angels to be-,
whom we entertained in our home and
whose company l refused this after
noon.
Dear little mother takes a day now
and then and goes calling about doing
her duty as minister's wife in a large
and proportionately mixed-up parish;
mixed up OF a small pinch of good, SEN
slble people, a large proportion of the
gossipy, Troublesome one-else's-busi-
ness sort, with a sprinkling of monde
scripts, who do not give either favor or
sweetness to the compound but serve to
mold 1T together. There is not a single
thing which we as a minister's family
90 not know about the duties of minis
ters' wives; for first, there is mother,
who has been steadily at work for thir-
ty-1lve years: then Ruth, Kate and Mar
garet, my three older sisters, have each
one taken unto themselves ministers and
their parishes for husbands, and are
struggling on, each one morally sure
she Is in just the path marked III for
her' and comfortably settled in her
MN that she is doing her duty and full
1illlng her destiny. 10 be sure there is
a distinction with a perceptible amount
OF difference between them. Ruth has
a country home like ours, and is living
just such another life as mothers; Kate
ministers to the wants OF a wealthy city
congregation; and Margaret and her
husband are progressive, as they say
nowadays; they are hard workers,
Looking out for the manner and morals
OF their people, their bodies as well as
Their souls, to say nothing of attending
to two or three religious papers and
periodicals.. and running a missionary
enterprise by way of recreation.
but all this has nothing to do with
mothers calls, the other day, only that
II was because OF Jul being such a min
"a