The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1885-02-28
MISS PENELOPE, SIR.
BY BARBARA YECHTOS.

DIR. Hardy was Miss PeneIope'e
father, and Miss Penelope was aunt to
Penelope Hardy, Jr. They had lived
nearly all their lives in the same old.
fashioned hou e, and Miss Penelope
had never been away from it fer one
night even. There had been a large fam
lily of them, and as all the others were
quicker and more self-asserting than
Miss Penelope, somehow she had al
ways been put aside and burdens laid
upon her small shoulders Ia q fashion
that might have broken down a strong
or spirit; but she never thought about
it at first, and when she did at last wake
up to the fact, the mother had been
laid TO rest in the quaint old church
yard, the brothers and sisters were mar
ried or gone out into the world, and
her own youth was gone. Only Miss
Penelope and the doctor remained-he
peculiar and somewhat OF martinez :;
she, with a simple, seIf-sacrifcine
nature and strict New England con-
science which always kept her keenly
sensible of her own SHORTCOMINGS.
At last the doctor grew too feeble to
practice any longer, and after some de-
muir, sold out to DR.. Joel Sherburre. a
shrewd, energetic Maine man, who set
up his shingle little way of and soon
extended the business as much again as
when he got 1t. He was cheerful as
well as skillful two essentials to pop
ular physician), keeping well up with
the times, and the people were quick
20 find it out. Still, he could not afford
to despise DR.. Hardy's many years of
experience, and was very glad some
times to ask the older mans advice.
which gratItied him and consequently
pleased Miss Penelope. It was such
break III the monotonv of
their humdrum lives to have this
big CHEEKY man to come in and sit
an hour with them, bringing breath
OF the outer world with him, for his
talk was not always of medicine; busy
M he was, he found time to read the
magazines, and many a new idea and
pleasant thought found its way to Miss
Penelopes more than half-starved
brain.
They made coy group around the
open hearth, for DR.. Hardy was as fond
81 roaring wood fire as Charles Dud-
ley Warner himself, and looked upon "a
hole in the floor" as an invention of the
Evil One.
The two doctors talked and argued to
their hearts content, while Miss Pencil
ope sat on the opposite side OF the
hearth. aud knitted or darned and
listened. She was full of kindly i'm
pulses, and observing that DR.. Sher-
burne's driving gloves were ont at fin
gers, she timldly offered, one evening,
to mend them for him, and did so while
ne sat there; another time, in some
mysterious way, she discovered that
there were great holes in his oyercoat
pockets, which also received attention.
and gradually the new doctor began to
have a quiet friendly feeling for the
unobtrusive little woman.
Now Miss Penelope had never had a
beau, that Is, an out and-out one. MANY
years before, when she was il the hev-
day of her youth, and round and pleas
ant to look at, John Miller. the school
masters son, had made one or two adj
vances. On one occasion he had wait
ed at the church door to see her home.
and had made it point to offer her
bali his book IN singing school, but
Miss Penelope had been too shy or in
different to respond, SO finally he went
away, and she never heard ANYTHING
more of him. Her life had been too
full of cares and responsibilities to give
any thought to love or love making. SO
she came to be an undenIably old maid
without ever having been in love.
Affairs were at this stage when Pencil
ope, DR.. came home. In lit of graft
tude for having been nursed through a
severe illness, her mother had named
her after Miss Penelope, but as the
gratitude wore away, it was corrupted
to Pansy, "a silly, furbishy name" said
her grandfather, and never called her
by 1t, though every one else did, even
DR.. Sherburne, although he liked the
old-fashioned name best, and always
thought of her by it. Her mother had
died Years before, and her father was in
California making money, SO the girl
spent her summers with her mothers
people and her winters in the old home
stead
She was happy, winsome Young
thing, and frightened up the old honse
wonderfully. She and DR.. Sherburne
made friends at once. She PLAYED on
the three-legged old piano, and the
doctor suddenly discovered he could &C.
company her on the violin. Such finn
as they had over their duets, such VIC
orous and maSterful beginnings and
such lame and squeaky endings. They
were even daring enough to attempt De
Beriot
Or. Joel dropped in quite often now
aud :, close observer would have noticed
that he wore bis Sunday clothes almost
every evening, was much more particu-
lar IN his general appearance, and al
ways had something to show or tell
Penelope, Jr., IN which that willy LITTLE
maiden appeared to be deeply inter
ested. These days Penelope, Sr. aid i
not feel as cheerful as usual. She fonn5
herself signing and feeling very lonely /
al tunes, and those times, STRANGE 70 /
say, were generally when Pansy and nr /
! oei were practleing duets together. or /
reading out of the same book o. taIi-;, /
oNeI ,nuIuai experiences in the outside /
Sorld. !t d1d not occur to her TO blame /.
eitner OF them, IN fact, she knew OF a /
httie episode IN Pansy's life which baS /
resulted IN the pretty ring on her Ain. /
ger, and she thought the doctor Knew =
and 1t seemed quite natural tha. h.
would prefer the younger woman CO..
pany. She blamed no one, nor tbonobt |
OF analyzlng her own feelings: she o1Iy
knew she was not So cheerful as ps1aI
As time wore on the doctors visits