Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-01-03

served. The memorable part of the
girls form was her hands. These were
slender, Waxen, almost transparent. and
she managed them with an unconscious
grace that drew attention. it was an
ldylllc poem to see her hover Overa peep
ing rosebud, as she struggled with an
exaggerated sympathy for nature that
urged her not to pull it.
Whence she came nobody knew bat
the head of the household. Child
though she was, the girl had been dis
Greet enough to foil all covert attempts
to trick her out of the secret. Curious
as was the addition of a young Girl to
the bachelor merchants family, which
had Included only an old housekeeper
and cook, nOta breath of scandal was
raised. Cotton Mather stood upeH a
plane far above calumny.
To friends who merited the confidence
he volunteered the statement that he
had accepted the charge under circum-
stances Of peculiar sadness and solemn
obligation. The frank and reVerent
tone in which this information was inn
| parted always caused the conversation
to take a new channel.
He stated the facts tersely. Two years
/ before we see her at "The Willows" Cot
/ ton Mather had taken the girl, ill-pre-
/ pared as he was for the care, to his din
/ gy apartment in one Of the duilest streets
\ of old Boston. At that time her educa-
/ ton was as UndevelOped as her figure.
\ But refined young woman had been Sc
| cured as gOverness, and the improve
ment effected was a subject of daily de-
| light to the bluff merchant. Pupil and
| teacher became greatly attached to each
other. The instructor essayed not to
check the impetuosity Of the girls ma
ture, but to direct it in the channels Of
/ observation and study. The highly ina
i aginatiVe mental organism of the pupil
1 was turned loose into the green pastures
of art. Latent inclinatiOns to VOlubility
u was enriched with French verbs until
she read that language of romance with
comparative ease. Nothing in the way
of instruction was accepted without ar
gument, but once convinced the pupil
never forgot.
! With the governess the question Of
the young girls place in the household
never arose. Socially they treated one
another as equals, and Intellectually the
pupil soon OvershadOWed the teacher In
any attractive branch of study, however
new or difficult. But there were others
under the merchants roof with whom
the struggle for supremacy was one of
brute force against clever fence.
Mather's first impulse was TO severely
reprimand his ward. But he did moth
ing of the kind. Cotton Mather, whose
ships had often engaged the pirates of
] / LL6 GLOW C6a lurQ6L Ob4GI Sailing
maSters), struck MS cOlOrS without even
sounding the call to quarters, and sur
rendered. From that hour the girls do
, miniOn in that house was uncontested.
The mystery of her presence ia the
family was equaled by that of her name.
This was pathological paradox-MOOtia-
1t was OF no consequence that the house
keeper argued with the cook that there
was no such name; that only an imp
we'd frka n
it. That was her only name. She had
been christened Martha. Infancy had
corrupted this into Matte. In child
hood she intOned her name according to
b a quaint and charming euphOny Of her
[ own by which it became " MOOtia." Thus
alone did she speak of herself, and she
affected not to hear when otherwise ad-
dressed.
Cotton Hather tried to humor her in
this Whim as IN others, but when the
price Of "NO. 6, brown" was dropping 80
fast as to threaten a panic In the
sugar market, or a brig sent out to Rio
with q light cargo returned in ballast,
he was liable to spell Of absent-minded-
ness.
On one of these occasions this novice
in raising children was suddenly aWak-
ened to a realizing sense of the task
he had undertaken. This is what hap
pened:
Cotton AIather one day met his little
ward in the drawing room just before
dinner. Thinking it good opportunity
to engage her In conversation, he adj
dressed her several times goOd-hUmOred-
~, as he walked to and fro across the
floor.
"Do you still like the governess, Mar
thar" he finally said.
"Nol You mean, nasty old witch
burnerp she retOrted
Mather stopped as though he had been
stricken with palsy. Then he looked
toward the speaker in almost Imbecil6
amazement. 1t was the first time he had
ever been reprOached for this name Of
his own selection.
''What-do you s-say?' he found voice
p to ask.
"Why do you tease me, then7"
"Iease your"
eyes, me, i" with emphasis.
"HOW? When?"
'When you speak to me"
81 never call you names"
"You never call me anything"
''Why, look here, my child"
'NoW you say my child Areyou,
sNo-no, indeed, the man said, slowly,
and with a show Of sadness. Call me
Uncle Cotton"
"Well. my names all have. ana
Only I1lOOtltA--BLlslL VI ACALAASs -a-5A-oA
less and motherless girl ought to have
{ her own way ia some things"
Z "
The signal officer on the summit OF
< Pixies peak says the highest velocity Of
7 the wind ever recorded there was IIs
4 miles per hour, when the instruments
e broke and cordWood began flying down
p the mountain. The guide adds that
when the winds velocity is seventy-hVe
miles per hour it viii lift mule out OF
r the trail