The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-05-29
HOW SHE BEGAN.

1t was a strange experience for two
young girls-this going out from the
quiet of their isolated home into the
hustle and danger of great city;
stranger still that they should have
been allowed to do it. But Aspiration
and Ignorance are staff in either hand
to the young.
Neither Wanda nor Bertha had any
idea that theirs was an unusual venture
They took leave OF home almost gayly,
and if an emphatic tear or two de-
manded recognition it was but CURLY
and impatiently given, while the fleet
INCEST, ficklest smile received elusive
encouragement.
''It is the loveliest day ever knew"
said Wanda.
And the patient, toil-worn mother
said: eyes; [ think it is an omen;" at
which both girls laughed, finding mer-
riment in their mothers gentle super
.stition.
The train moved of. The little group
ON the platiorm-the quantity. dinghy
dressed mother, the burly, prosperous
father, and the half grown. pretty sis
ter-disappeared as they rounded a
curve, and the two wayfarerS were
launched upon their voyage to an I'M
known port.
1t was mid-October, and the sun
shown red through the smoky cir.
Miles upon miles of corntields flew past,
great expenses of rolling prairie melted
and vanished. as On they clattered. and
Fumbled, and sped. 1t was a monot-
ony of motion to a throbbing. endless
tune of engine and wheels.
81 like it." said Bertha.
at is the beginning of music" said
Wanda.
This journey had another motive
than pleasure. 1t had work; it had the
future. Life on the great Kansas farm
might be satisfactory to the middle
aged, especially as the profits were so
substantial and the details of manage
ment so absorbing. but this new gener
alton was born with stomach for
culture. Painting. music, embroidery
and French must be their diet, having
already nibbled at these dainties, with
all the relish of inexperience, in their
ID al hools and clubs.
The parents cOunseled together over
the wishes of their daughters. There
was money enough. Why not send
them to a city for the sake of better adj
vantages? There was Mime. Muller,
an old acquaintance of their youth,
who, early left widow, had maintained
herself by teaching music in Chicago,
and had made modest fortune out of
it Why not confer with her?
She was applied to forthwith. In re-
Spouse came this letter: ''Send the
girls to me for a year. live in hotel.
but will take charge of them and in
-struct them. The very room they need
is vacant. Shall l engage it?"
The answer was: Engage the room.
The girls will come"
And now they were actually on their
way.
Hegel was their name-Wanda and
Berth Hegel this the picture they
made seated together in the railway car:
They were of pure German stock.
though for two generations transplant
ed into American soil. Wanda had the
real fiax-fower color of the Fathcrland,
blue eyes and tow hair, while the pink
of an ancestry that drove their herds
up the mountain slopes to feed in sum-
mer and set their girls to watch them.
thus securing the finest oxygenation of
the blood. glowed on brow and cheek
and found ruddy efflorescence in the
lips. Bertha, on the other hand, was
smaller and dark. with dense, shy lsshes
over her eyes, so heavy that some
thing of q muscular eXertion seemed
actually necessary to lift the lids. She
was clear brown and had delicate
brown hands.
They had already discussed Chicago
so exhaustively during their prepare
fions that, though it was now so soon
70 become reality. they had nothing
more to say of it. True to their prac-
teal training they beguiled the time by
making sensible comments about the
country they passed through, its fertil-
ity and adsptability to various crops. its
deficiencies compared with the Kansas
farm and the general loneliness and
desolation of its homes in contrast with
the centralized aud important charac-
ter of their own.
81 don't see any farms like ours, do
you Wanda?" was Bertha's keyaote
-'No; none so pleasant and weIi-cared
for, am sure" was Wanda's refrain.
Frequent recourse to bountiful
1unch-basket kept them from being al
most dreary. An me! thirty-six hours
OF this tedious expectancy was indeed
securing esthetic advantages st the cost
of great fatigue! But it passed; and Just
at nightfall of the second day they saw
the ''cloud by day" of Chicago.
Their coming had been arranged for
in all its details. and in due time they
were safely ensconced in their sky
parlor, their dinner eaten, and Nine.
Muller's final instructions and good
nights given. Then they were for the
first time alone, and prepared to go to
rest at once.
A pillow was more welcome to either
head than new Paris bonnet would
have been. And they went straight to
bed without the usual girl lettering over
she toilet
80. dear-oh. dearw sighed Waada.
'Homesick, WandaP"
-'No, only dead tired"
81, too, and yet I'm almost sure
shan sleep. feel so fidgety."
sit must be ten o'clock. they're
abed long ago at home"
''YeS-oil, dear-of course they are.
Mother is Lonesome, too, L know"
This memory made them both silent.
"A iuil of vehicles on the street made
audible the rumble and grumble of the