The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-03-07
YOUNG MR.. GORDON.

young Mr.. Gordon will be here next
week, Pansy."
Miss MolIie Henderson, familiarly
known as 'Pansy," presumably because
she did not in any respect resemble that
Glover of thoughts" being of an ex-
~ceedingly vivaciOus temperament and
addicted in the earlier days of her exis-
tence to top spinning, marble playing
and other amusements popularity sup
posed to be the exclusive property Of
boys, looked up in a very placid man
ner as her father made this announce
ment, and answered it fully and etfec-
lively by a very decided pouting of her
small mouth. Then she placed the
book which had been engaging her at
tention on the sofa by her side, caused
her small feet to swiftly describe a
semicircle, and when the flash of brown
hose was over she had assumed a sitting
posture, her previous attitude having
been one Of comfortable but rather I'M
dignified redundancy. She then placed
her elbows on her knees, regarded her
father complacently, and said:
lis the Arapahoe coming, too?"
Mr.. Henderson's manner changed at
oece yes, he replied, ''Mr. Gordon
will accompany his son, and 1 want you,
Margaret, TO treat him with every re-
spect; in fact, / shall expect You to do
So"
The figure on the sofa saw that a mis-
take had been made early in the cam
paign. When her father addressed her
as Margaret" it meant serious displeas-
ure on his part. 1t also meant
that he mus; be placated at once, for
Mr.. Henderson was one of that rather
numerous class of men in whose minds
a real or fancied injury continues to
magnify with each successive instant
until it finally wraps their whole exist
ence in an artificial but none the less
effective gloom. Mollie was well &C
quainted with the disease, and on equal
ly intimate terms with the remedy.
Consequently she at once bounded from
the sofa, flung her arms around the pa
ternal neck, squeezing that useful por-
tion of q mans anatomy until a fracture
of the cervical vertebra seemed immi-
nent, bestowing at the same time upon
her sire alarge number of kisses, these
ways doing everything in the world for
her. And then, having finished this
wild futter of DISCOUNTED English, Miss
Mollie nestled closely in her fathers
arms and indnlged in that never failing
panacea for all the woes to which fe-
male flesh is perpetual heir--a good cry.
"H's all right, Pansy, darling" said
Nj. Henderson. stroking gently the mass
of brown hair that lay upon his breast.
IT was a little hard on you, perhaps,
but YOU know Mr.. Gordon is a lifelong
friend of mine, and / don't like to have
You allude to him in a careless or jest
ing manner
The face raj slowly withdrawn from
beneath the paternal arm and looked
up at Mr.. Henderson. 1t was not ex-
actly a pretty face, there being a tip
tilted nose somewhere about the mid
die of it, ana the features were not at all
regular or classic. But the big brown
eyes and their long lashes would have
attracted attention from any one not a
professional cynic OF misanthrope, and
when these, looking up appealingly
called to their aid a dropping mouth,
white regular teeth, and lips that
seemed quivering with the agony of
great mental suffering, the immediate
and complete capitulation of whoever
constituted the opposing force was a
matter of course.
And here a little explanation is
necessary. From the days Of her In
fancy, when. her mother having
died, she was regulated to- the
care Of a maiden aunt whose spinster-
hood in view Of the fact that Mr.. Hen
derson had lopSd his wife very dearly.
and did not at all desire to replace with
another helpmeet, appeared to be q
special compensation In favor of the
motherless little girl, Mollie, had been
treated by her father to remarks con.
cerning Mr.. John Gordon, who, he was
informed, had gone to the far west sew
erai years previously, and been left d
widower with one child, a boy abou'
Ave years older than Mollie. One o.
the first facts impressed upon the child
mind was that Mr.. Gordon lived in Ida
no. Subsequently IN the ~infantile pc
rusal Of the newspapers-which at Til
age Of ten she read regularly, and Will
great fidelity tn detail-she CLEANED fhs
rfnrr,ot;n~ tt.n+ T1aIn xrnS fL4 tosu,