Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-09-11


his Mad donna, claspiing his boy withanl
ardor that satisfied even Mrs. Dent.
But when she was well again, over the
/ baby 4 name, and the baby Il rnedir
cines, and the baby's clothes and the
fbaby's nurse, there were chances.
enough OF disagre cement between the
proud grandmothe and the prouder5
maiden aunts. WeW were homeopathic
and Mrs. bert insisted on an old
school allopath whenever the baby
sneezed land we couldn't help saying
one day, seeing the shelf Of med icines
he was accommodating, that twas q
mercy he had the Graham constitu-
| ton. We wanted him named for
hist father, q good Scriptural name
that had always been in the family;
Ibut he had to be Harold, straight
Tout Of q novel Lefty had read. And
when We called him Pet and Blossom
and Princeling, half to avoid that de-
testable name, hall because he was SO
sweet, Lefty declared that we despised
her and her baby, and he wasn't
worthy, she supp osed, to be the heir
OF the Grahams unless he was called
Mark, and presently we were as badly
| off as ever. It was absurd, Of course.
| We laughed over the trif1es that made.
our miseries; but it was no trifle when,
with only e. block between us, she
\ wouldn't let Rob come to see us for q
month. It ended in our going down
to the mills mornings when he was
! there. and SO getting to know the new.
superint endent. Presently Pam asked
him to the house, in the Lady Bounti-
full way she had toward friendless
people of all sorts and conditions.
| She never thought that he was no
match for our Annie, theyoungest and
prettiest Of us, and though she called
herself an old maid, actually only
twenty-five, and not looking that.
| But when she saw what she had done,
and that something serious might
| come Of it, though nothing had yet,
! for Frank Truman was as proud as
he was poor, she put the blame where
it belonged ON Letty's shoulders.
ssFor If it hadn't been for you, my
dear, we should never have known him.
Ineyer before knew a superintendent
socially, I mean
81 don't know that it's so deplor-
table, said. ''It's the family way,
and we can afford to overlook his pow
erty, since he's really very much OF
a gentleman, I'm sure" And smiled
| at Lefty, for we were reconciled now,
and she had run in to show us how the
baby was learning to take steps.
| '"That must be such q consolation"
said Lefty, flushing, and taking it
wrong, as l might have known she
would-"to Annie, I mean-that she
is only following in her brothers steps;
but should think, out Of regard at
least to him, and courtesy to me"
"Why, I never meant to reflect on
you," cried. -'We never disap-
proved .s%
"You never had a chance; and it
wouldn't have done the least good if
you had" she cried, deiantly.
"No, indeed" Pam said, coming to
my rescue. "Rob was too thoroughly
in love to mind if we had talked all
day at him. 1t was a. clear case Of be-
witchment."
ss.I'm much obliged, I'm sure Lefty
said, picking up Harold; "but if you
mean to intimate that I tried-that
we tried-to capture my husband"
| II only meant to intimate Pam
said, sweetly, "that you were then, as
you are STILL; so very pretty, that
| Rob-
"Oh, then, venothing butmy pref.
| ty face ~ e.a-- ..~. -
(Which baby has Inherited put
in s'Really, dear, the child grows
more like you every day OF his life"
! ssHe's the image of his father" cried
Lefty. eyes, mouth, everything. I
Ewouldn' t own him if he was not. And
you know you. only say he resembles
me to tease me, 'a5
/ 81 That was perfectly absurd, for. the
child was Dent all over, more's the
pity; but you might as we'll have tried
| TO reason with a turkey-cock just then.
She swept up the baby and was out
Of the house while we were laughing at
her vehemence We never could get
into Letty's feeling about it, I sup
pose. We thought by this time, mar
ried two years, and sure Of our afec-
ton, she ought to take things more
lightly; but it was plain she did not.
For she talked so to Rob about the
certainty of marital shipwreck if. a
| fieh W woman married a poor man.
though it WASH all sunny seas the
other way either--that hemade it his
duty to discountenance the whole
| thing. He sent Frank Truman off to
the west for q fewWeel<s to look after
! some business for the firm, and in the
lneantinehe brought down old Talbot,
senior partner in the Tuckahoe mills,
where he had q third interest, to con-
sole Annie. I should have thought
Lefty would have liked the other
match better; but she seemed to think
that il Annie married the old widoWer,
who was as rich as all Of us put to-.
gether, that would balance things
perfectly. And as s Frank when he
came back, was too proud to speak,
and none Of us felt sure il was indeed a
matter Of life and death with Annie,
and SO inclined to let things take their
course, we were presently IN as pretty
q snarl as heart could wish Tucka-,
hoe was only ten miles of1, and Mr..
Talbot used to drive ,s1over once
or twice o week; and when he was not
at our house he was att Rob 5. was
Ereally rather nice, though being twenty
Tor more years older than Annie,
lit didn' seem & reaso enable match, and
| 1 sometimes wondered il he didn thaves
an eye on f PAINE ar or II He { o,lldn' e be
drought around TO that. Z lam was
stately and imp ressive, and much bet
ter suited sih years and dignity It
would have been q perfect match for
her; and then title Annie could take.
Frank and the double wedding would
prove our demo cracy hey ond dispute.