The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1884-10-15
OUR TELEPHONE.

We were among the first in Deepcliff
to have one. Mother thought it would
be $50 useful to us, a household of wo-
mem" aunty thought it would be "as
good as a man in the house, and not
half the trouble" We girls agreed
with the higher powers, of course, with
the additional reelection that it would
save us many wet, windy, or warm
walk after forgotten trilies, which in
our housekeeping were not few. Only
Lulu laughed and laughed again, break
ing at intervals into ecstatic chuckles,
and picturing mother and aunty with
vocabulary of telephone slang, calling
out, ''HellO! hello. do you get it?" etc.
you're Just inviting the world, the
flesh and the devil into Spinsters' Snug
HarbOr, - she said-a remark which
Mortified aunty, who said she had no
idea one would be obliged to use such
language. But mother did not hesitate.
declaring in her stately way that she
should leave all personal contact with
the thing to us girls; what she thought
of was the convenience and the safety
So it was decided, and the man came
on Saturday to put the wire up There
was some discussion as to whether we
should have a bell which should ring
only our own call, or one of the less ex-
pensiVe ones which sounded the call of
every one on the line. The latter was
finally decided upon. 1t would be
company, aunty thought, to hear the
little musical tinkle; and, after all
there were only seven subscribers on
each line. Mother, with a dignity
which forbade all suspicion of curiosity,
inquired who the other subscribers
were.
"The Ormes," " the man said, "and
the Peytons and brakes were all, so
far; but he was to 90 to Dyke House on
Monday to see abOutit They had not
yet settled on it. ~
We girls exchanged glances. Lulu,
who was sitting on the lowest step of
the staircase, chuckled with fun and
mischief; mother drew herself up and
concluded the conversation. We all
felt it a sort of triumph that our tele-
phone should have been put in first
There was bitter feud lOng-stand-
ing and deadly, a sort of Montague aud
Capulet affair, between the Macartnevs
of DannemOra, and the SOmerindykes
Of the Dyke, beginning, of course, in a
dispute over property in old days when
the families had intermarried, and CON
tinued, by iudiCiOus litigation, to our
time, i'm the shape of q dispute over a
perfectly worthless piece of land-a
mere rocky gully which divided the
two estates. In our early years there
had been a rotten bridge over the DYKE,
which a fearful fascination led us to
prefer as a playground to many prettier
spots. And there had taken place
meetings, more or less clandestne, for
the purpose of playing 'jack" and
other innocent games with the one hope
and heir of Dyke House. But the
bridge had long since fallen down,
Frank Somerindyke was away over
seas, we had grown up to the family
onmity, and the Dyke was crossed only
by warlike glances.
The man was to come on Monday
morning to put up the instrument ia
the hall
Lulu continued 10 giggle and chuckle,
aud to produce more choice bits OF
slang, learned Heaven knows where
she said from her Sunday-schOOl boys
until at last on a Sunday morning,
when she informed us that the church
beAAe WNHAN AAuElhE uD AHH lnbLlANt
ruled sternly that not another wOrC
word was to be said about telephones
until Monday. So the subject was
dropped, though think i'm her hearto
hearts mother felt that she had added
one more cause of pride to the list o.
her triumphs over Mrs Somerindyke
before whose envious eyes, rs she sal
in her lonely pew, she week by weel
paraded her five blooming daughters
For once, however, this amiablt
triumph was not complete; the lady o
Uyko House was not alone. AS We
rustled and hutteced up the aisle, Z
handsome, manly head appeared abov,
the high pew door, and scanned u.
with merry blue eyes.
There was some subdued excitement
among us; we noticed an additiona
shade of pink in Lulu's checks, anC