The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-09-09
A SPRING CLEANING.

gar Villas, CambeTwell New Road, had
been turned upside down and inside
out. as poor Mr.. Clayton declared.
It'll there was no rest for the sole OF
ones foot. and each morning as be
started to catch his train At kenning-
ton Church with his son. he vowed
that never again would he undergo the
agonies of "a spring clean. But the
afternoon of the last day at length ar
rived. and Mrs. Clayton and Wini-
fred. her daughter. with their one
servant, were busy as bees putting the
finishing touches 10 the household ar
rangements. though it must be said
that Winnie. who had just finished her
last term NJ boarding-school, and who
was not yet fairly domesticated. was a
more ornamental than useful element
However. she had not been idle. and
at last all was finished. and rather tir-
ed and flushed with her exertionS.
Winnie went upstairs after a somewhat
makeshift dinner with the best inten-
tions possible OF clearing out the closet
IN her room
If it had been hnen-closet. or a
china-eloset, or preserve closet, or
anything but the closet it was, there is
no telling what Winnie might have ac-
complished.
But those four rows of dresses.
hanging smoothly down from their re-
spectiye pegs, proved fatal. They
were dresses of her ante boarding
school period, and she had had hardly
a glimpse of them for two years or
more.
Trying them on came next, in the
natural course of affairs.
Ii was an amusing process. They
were woefully out of style, most of
them buttoned behind, none of them
reached below the tops of her shoes;
but it was very absorbing, and she
could hardly believe her ears when she
heard her mother calling to her up the
stairs 20 come down to tea
She was arrayed at that moment in
white spotted muslin. which she re-
membered TO have worn for the first
time on her fourteenth birthday.
1t had sash which tied in an impos-
ing bow behind; it had row of white
pearl buttons down the back; and it
was several inches shorter than-sup-
posing there had been anybody to OBJ
serve-would have been strictly desir-
able.
Winnie giggled. A sudden idea had
struck her. She pulled out her hair
pins hastily. braided her hair in long
tail, and tied it with a blue ribbon;
she had discovered a string of coral
beads in her drawer-she had worn it
at the age of six-and put il on; and
then she giggled again delightedly, and
went downstairs.
ua,. I;t.l1
tent, highly successful.
Her father looked at her with exact
ly the degree of bewilderment she had
anticipated; her mother set down the
teapot and gazed at her in Just the as
tonished, half-remonstrating way she
had known she would do; her brother
George emitted the explosive chuckle
she had expected But there her tri-
umph ended.
For next her own vacant place.
spreading his napkin across his knee,
and regarding her calmly from pair
of handsome blue eyes, there sat a
young man whom she had never seen
before.
Under ordinary circumstances Win
ME would have been rather gratified
than otherwise at the unexpected ap-
pearance of a nice looking young
man.
But now the blood rushed to her
face in torrents. her breath came in
gasps; the light fairly danced before
her eyes.
Thre was nothing to be done. She
was halfway across the room; they
were all looking at her; the precipi-
tate flight which she had meditated
for wild moment was not to be
thought Of
She clutched a friendly chair to
steady herself, darted a fierce glance
at George, who was stufling his napkin
jestically as her limited skirts would
allow.
''My friend. Tom Bradley You've
heard me speak of him, Winnie. My
sister,, said George from behind his
napkin.
Mr.. Bradley turned his blue eyes up
on the figure at his side.
1t had twisted its chair away from
him as far as possible; it was bending
low over its plate; it was evidently
bashful
The young man smiled paternally.
do you 90 to SCHOOL," he began. in
the patronizing tone young men as
sumo toward small girls.
Winnie murmured something inaudi-
bly;-George gave violent snicker,
and covered it hastily with a cough.
Tom Bradley, being a kind-hearted
fellow, and unwilling to see anybody
uncomfortable, talked industriously to
his timid neighbor. in the hope Of re-
lieving her embarrassment, though she
was certainly the most diffident child
he had ever seen. But he Observed
and it was an unusual thing, he said
to himself, in girls at that interesting
age-that she was decidedly pretty.
We'll. we're very good friends al
ready, aren't we?' he said encourage
ingly, as they arose from the table.
There was no response other than
sudden swish through the air of
brown braid tied with blue ribbon,
and glimpse of a short, white skirt
flying through the door.
What peculiar little girl she was!
If he had seen her at that moment,
probably he would have thought her
more peculiar.
She had rushed upstairs and into
her own room, locked the door. thrown
herself on the bed, and commenced
what the girls at school call good
cry"
If he had been old. or ugly, or disa-
greeable--if he had been anything but
the soft-voiced distractingly cookbook
ing fellow he was-she could have
borne it with fortitude.
Why had George brought him at
A. i. L Il, LIZ
upon this particular day for that idiotic
performance? Why was he not red
haired or cross-eyed, or-something?
She would not have minded it in the
least in that case.
There was a tap at the door, and
she heard Georges voice, not yet quite
composed, begging her to let him in.
His mirth disappeared before the
woe-begone little person who opened
the door to him, and stood mopping
her eyes
.'Oh. well. nowr' he began. COM
fortingiy. you don't mean to say
you're broken up like this about lit
tie thing like that?''
"a little thing.' cried Winnie, chok-
ingly. .-Oh, George! what-what VIII
be think?''
s.Neyer mind what he'll think
said George. calmly. 1T was good
joke, and that ought to be enough for
YOU
That did not seem TO console Win
ME. She only sobbed into her hand
kerehief the more wildly.
..Why did you bring him?' she mur-
INJURED. in heart-broken way. "Why
didn't you bring somebody that wasn't
500 nice?o
..Oh. well, he observed. trying to
speak in an off-hand way, don't wor-
nv abt,1t III he'-he,s unarr;adp,