Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1885-06-19
THE BUG MAN,
BY FLORAL ". srANFIELD.

by FLORA i. W. srANFIELp.
The proyerbial straw had broken the
metaphorical camers back. The pau
ence of Charlotte Brantome, usually
equal to the exigencies of the OCCASION
was exhausted. The twins, as a mat
ter Of course. were the culprits. Ihey'
however. with the complacency natuf-
al to boys of six or thereabouts' were
Indifferent to the tempest of despair
which ragged within their sisters
breast. They had CONSIDERABLY re-
Trained from adding deceit to theiF
guilt but had confessed, fully and un-
reseryedlv, to rihing the canary nest
to tearing Jacket, and losing uaV
down the well, to eating the strawber-
ries that we're saved for supper, ana
to catching their most faithful hen
with a Gsh-hook. The h5h-hook rep
resented the straw; Charlotte the cam
el She could have borne anything
better than downright cruelty develop
ed so early in,one of her own blood.
She never was boy
oAnd a man was here" said Popsey.
"a big man." volunteered Wopsey'
the other twin. "And he asked US
about everything. and we said our
mother wasn't very well and our sister
was an old maid school ma'am.
Charlotte WINGED Where had ne
picked up that expression? And had
it come to that?
"You must not talk to strange men
about mother or me. What did he
want?"
"He wanted to see you" a
.Nfe9" Visions of tramps, &c
ing burglars. only they yhad MOTH
"burgle,' as Popsey had said one day
came into her mind. GLOW did he
look ?"
"He was beautiful" "IIe was dread
full" said the twins in duet.
Further questioning elicted these
facts: He was young; he was old; he
was short; he was tall; he wore spect-
acIes: he wore a mustache, and was a
bug man In the last and crowning
fact the boys agreed.
Practice had made Miss BrantOme a
tolerable clairvoyant, SO far as reading
those two small minds was concerned.
She jumped at the conclusion that
some wandering naturalist chasing an
elusive bug had CHANGED that way. and
gave the subject no more attention
She had other things to think of than
bug men or any men, and the prob
lem of how to provide new hat foI
Wopsey and how to instil remorse int
the hearts of her charges drove other
thoughts away.
Sitting down on the low doorstep oi
tae house that had been home to hel
for six and twenty years, she tried t(
reason it out The sun was yet high
the DAYS were at their longest BehinC
her flowed the tireless river; in FROM
Of her across the prairie, the hills werf
green In the field of rye over the way
cleaned white wooden cross HeI
grandfather. in whose veins flowed
some of the blue blood Of France, nag
bought home in this western conn-
trv when the remnant of an Indian
tribe had still property to sell. Inc
deed of sale provided for the preserya'
ton of their little buryingsFoun'
The grain grew thick around, bat tnc
,inv village Of the dead was never DIS
turbed by spade or plough
Old Pierre. however, had never pros
nered Neither did Pierre the young
er; and one night, when riding home
his horse SHE'D in the moonlight aa'
,h,aw him with his head against I
stone. he left no legacy but the home
stead and a debt to his wife ana c'p
dren. There was gap OF I"eHp
wears between Charlotte and the 'Hp
babies and Sue really had thIro Y
FAINT on her hands, for her mother "T
nothing more useful than Iha' a. II
lar husbands death. She was ~
feoble-minded exactly, but paIai'p!
venue-strange and unaceount'OF'
' rher,o,ts sbouldered her bardr'
With brave heart. Her French 4.
: nant @,,t' for Grandfather Brantons'
nieod had never filtered through Ca1'.
~ 3,r0 nrought her employment N
= school town near by. The long W. g'
hack and forth kept the roses bloom,
~ 'ar,at,mss~and ,'s, she. being busy Y@
happy, 1t requires leisure "
cessfully miserable. .o to b.,
!. The 6urying.g.@ana 9an IT tyPPya priyate ). j T.
the tos "ua,,y uam os looking at it, her heart e'
lges En,.1e the NEW 'ss,. ns' Tsrs ~ae'4 more
tIl,s, nal1l.. 9p,S2 Tins IN the garden, the ', la
W, would lay more eggs stass the jo'bsa had p
be mended, and old SPe'N'' ~