Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-18
q wrote sedatcly: 81 shall be h.pp,

" "ocePt your lnvitAtiOn.n
one tnen sat down with her bonnet
On ana her veil cast back, removing
ner gloves while she watched Camilla
maklng tea and taking baked potatoes
IRON the oven of the Complicated stove,
Mhlch showed an open fire between
1ars, n yet seemed full of kettle holes,
drums aud secret panels.
m swished about with house,
wi1ely fervor, adding to her board q
loaI OF cake, canned meat and three
picked peaches from a cupboard in the
Wal. Then indicating with q sweep
OF her hand the chair opposite her own
which she wished the passenger to
.ake, she brought the teapot from the
love, and they sat down with proper
formality.
"How msdyq" inquired Camilla,
tapping the bowl with her sugar-tongs
and holding up three fingers as a sug-
In reply the passenger held up two
%3lnggers' insisting by gestures that three
Pumps We're more sweetening than she
could bear. She was therefore helped
10 two, her hostess murmuring aloud,
IN unconscious soliloquy: '.She looks
as II she'd never used enough"
bougghs slashed against the windows,
n the storm ratified and roared down
the rafters. Within, silence must have
been blank had not sounds broken out
at intervals in several KEYS, now
quavering, now shrill, and now full
voiced.
Eyes. yes" responded Camilla to
each piping.
She examined her guest with %specula-
tive eyeglasses and turned her head
toward a corner of the room. Finally
she made a sudden rush, and came
back to the table with bashful undula-
tons to set beside her plate a minute
wire cage containing three black field
crickets.
81 hope you'll excuse me-" she pc
titioned to the passenger. 81 always
feed them when i eat. They'd miss it..''
If the passenger has made use of
common speech, some explosive would
have accompanied the expression of her
c~ountenance. She looked as if she
longed to shout: ga cage of crickets!
Who ever saw such a ridiculous thing!''
'She doesn't like it, said Camilla,
aloud. "Well, she's not such very
lively company herself that she need
grudge me my crickets. Cheep, JAS
per! CURT, Tommy! Here, Dinkum.
your muvver will give you the first
crumb you're the baby. Bess UNI old
lives of 'em! Needn't be cared at old
cross lady it's only your g'an'-muvver
come to visit you. Sing for your sup
pers, children. Che-e-ep!"
But, instead of singing, the children
grabbed their suppers, and in the man
nerapeculiar to them began TO stow por-
tions of it within their glittering black
cases. The time had been when they
refused to eat beneath her eye, lugglng
their crumbs out of sight, or refusing
morsels altogether. She felt it a great
privilege, therefore. to hang over the
cage and bring her glasses to bear
upon their movements, and to regulate
their manners by inserting a teaspoon
handle between the wires of the cage to
rap Jasper on the back. He vas a
large cricket, and wished to take all the
supplies behind his own legs, and prob
ably to issue such rations as he saw fit
to his companions. He sprung from
the spoon handle, and came down in a
corner of the cage, lifting his long
antenna like two Interrogation points,
and making his three tail bristles ex-
press petrited aston;shment.
The passenger, drinking tea and eat
ing with the relish of a healthy appe-
tite, kept a penetrating gaze upon Ca
milla.
"She doesn't like to see me feeding
the beasts raw meat with my naked
hands," ruminated Camilla aloud,
'.and some folks consider that the finest
part of my circus. Dinkum, it's a bad
night outdoors. If you lived there
now, you'd have to wedge under a
stone, and your poor knees would just
CHATTER together with the cold. Tommy,
have you tori the rutfie of your brown
petticoat? Your muvver wouldn't
mind it or scold you if she could sew
you up another. But these suits have
to last you all winter, and I don't want
to see you frayed round the edges and
out at the elbows. Oh, now that you
turn, 1 see. it isn't torn a bit. Beg Tom
my's pardon. Oh, 1 beg your pardon,
toon' she exclaimed to her passenger,
as that lady presented her with the tab.
lets. Upon these was written: "You
muSO Uo Vc1y AouCAy AOAo"
Camilla took her own pencil from
her pocket and 1ndited, for reply: ':Be-
cause 1 play with crickets?"
The passenger took the tablets, shook
her head, and set down: because
you are too young and pretty to live by
Yourself"
"Cheep," piped up Jasper while his
muvver read this statement, shading
her face with her hand.
She then wrote back: II have only
lived by myself a few months. The
crickets are lots of company. I found
them over in the graveyard. They
lived by a certain head-board, and when
the weather became frosty L brought
them home. May be you noticed nut
talking to them and myself. l always
talked out loud, audit is an idiotic hab
it, which please excuse"
The passenger nodded her grave head
over this, but still insisted, with a rapic
hand: .'It is not a fit thing for a young
girl to be keeping q railroad station
and living alone in the building"
.'Queek!" piped Tommy, giving him.
self a hirt to meet Camilla's fixed gaze,