The Northern Pacific farmer., 1885-04-02


looked amazed, the saucy boy
Looked back at me with laughter
He said: "My name is Cupid,-
And your Valentine Pm after'
W. T. Peters, i, February St. Nicholas.
MISS MAYBR1CK's PAKL0R.
An orchard; the branches heavy with
golden apples; here and there ruddy
"wlndfall," half-hidden in the long
grass, and at the foot of one of the
most richly-laden trees a young girl,
half asleep, with an ill-used book flung
carelessly down, and indolent white
arms thrown above her pretty dark
head.
"Jessie!''
She made a sleepy little movement,
Indicative of annoyance at being inter-
rupted in the middle of her siesta.
"Jessie, say!''
Miss Jessie rose slowly and picked
up her book. She was tall, slight
girl, of about eighteen years of age,
with a rather pale face and gray eyes,
fringed with long black lashes. These
eyes were her greatest charm. A lit
tie white gate divided the orchard
from the garden, and Jessie passed
through it with exasperating slowness.
"Was there ever such grill"
thought her sister, her elder by twenty
years at least-the daughter of her
fathers first wife.
Caroline had loved her young step
mother, and when she died had tried
to take a mothers place to the tiny,
dark eyed baby she left behind; but
Jessie had proved very troublesome
charge.
"Well," said Jessie, interrogatively,
looking at Caroline standing in the
doorway, with her sleeves tucked up
and her stout arms covered with -four.
'What is it, Gardiner
"Come and move your rubbish out
of the front ROOM"
"What for?' asked Jessie, in undis-
guised astonishment.
because fathers going to let it to
young fellow from London"
Jessie looked indignant. Her par
lor, with the piano in it, to be LET to
some horrid man, and all her pretty
belongings to be banished to her little
bedroom. Oh! it was too bad.
"Carrie," she said, show could you
advise father to do such thingp I
never thought we should have to take
in dodgers; I would rather run away"
"Whore to?' asked the rather mat
ter-of-fact Caroline.
Jessie bit her lips and went indoors
to remove her books and needlework
from the little parlor that had been re-
garded as her especial sanctum ever
since she had entered her teens. 1t
never occurred to Miss Jessie that mon
ey was rather scarce with her father
just now, and that the lodger would
bring grist to the mill. She regarded
the whole thing as 3 conspiracy to
make her uncomfortable.
They might have consulted her, she
thought, forgetting that she never
troubled herself in any way with the
affairs of the household. How she
wished she could have had her piano
carried upstairs; but that was impos-
sible. It was the chief ornament of
that room, and her father, she knew,
would not allow her to take it away.
II shall hate him, know shall, "
she told herself, thinking of the
lodger.
And for the first two or three days
she kept carefully out of his way, and
Mr.. Leith remained unconscious of the
fact that he was under the same roof
with pretty girl. But he made the
discovery one afternoon. When wand;
ering through tho orchard, with his
hands behind his back, he came sud-
denly upon slight, girlish figure in
brown holland, wide hat shading
her eyes from the sun. Wonderful eyes
they were-so large and dark, and ut
terly bewitching. She was gone like
a flash; but her image fingered in MIR.
Leith's memory. He was not a very
talkative man; but he began to culti-
vate Caroline Maybriek s acquaintance,
and soon found that the girl in the
brown holland dress was her sister.
He grew so friendly that Caroline
ventllred to ask him to take tea with
them in the kitchen one afternoon.
The farmer was quito willing, but Jessie
objected very strongly, and threatened
not to come in to eat at all.
"Beside," she said, 'what does
kitcken?'
However, Mr.. Leith seemed very
much at home there, and delighted
Caroline and her father by his bright
flashes of wit. He did his best to
please that afternoon; but it was only
for the benefit of the. farmer and his
elder daughter, or did his eyes wander
in the direction of Jessie's slim figure
He could not understand why it was
that the girl always avoided him. II
she had wished to arouse his interest
she could not have devised better
way. Her reserve piqed his curiosity,
and he found her pretty face coming
between him and the fusty old pages
of his books.
Once he went for long walk, and,
returning home in tho twilight, heard
her at the piano, and paused to listen;
but she caught sight of his figure out
side of the window, and the music
ceased in an instant. When he en-
tered the room he found it empty; but
little bow of ribbon lay on the car.
pet. Mr.. Leith whistled, walked to
the door, closed it carefully. and then
picked up the bow with a shame-faced
look, and actually kissed it. Then,
with fingers that trembled in most
unaccountable way, he placed it in his
pocket book.
"Your sister is shy,' he observed tc
Caroline, later on.
''lt isn't that" responded Caroline,
with a laugh; "but she hasn't got ovo1
beng turned out of her room. It was
hers, you know, before you came, and
she hated the idea of father taking 8
lodger.'
"Oh," said Mr.. Leith, considerably
enlightened, and next evening, as Jes'
sic was eating an apple in the orchard,
the enemy bore down on her before
she could beat a retreat. "Miss Jes
sie." he said, taking off his hat, ''you
must not run away. I want to speak