Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-05-28
The Sturp Teller.
THE OLD BACHELOR.


dear friend, that is about one of the silliest
questions 1 ever heard to come from man
of YOUR wisdom and common sense! 1twas
Fate, that's what it was! Personally, 1
had no more to do with it than you have
this moment. These things are all ordaln-
ed and marked out for us, and we can neith-
er avoid nor alter them. Fatality, do you
call the doctrine? Well, call it what you
will-there it is, and you can't make any
thing else out Of it!
But about little Magdalen. 1 was COM
ing down Broadway in a great hurry to
catch an uptown stage before all those ferry
people blocked into it, when there she sat
on curb-stone, the wind blowing her yell
low hair about and her poor little hands blue
with cold, crying as if her heart would
break. I didn't think the veriest savage
could have helped stopping to ask her what
the matter was, and don't call myself a
savage, if I do happen to have my little
crusty fits now and then. So says /:
"Child, what's the matter"
"Im LOST" said she.
And come to inquire, why, the poor lit
tie elf was fatherless, motherless, friendless,
in all the wide world! Of course, took
her home, and you ought to have seen OLD
Hannah, my house-keeper, stare when l
walked in with the yellow-haired baby
For she wasn't more than eight years old,
and small at that!
81 give you a months warning, sir ~
saws Hannah. But, bless your soul, she
didn't 20. Maggie took her heart by storm,
as she always has done that of the rest of
the world, and at the months end you
couldn't have hired old Hannah to leave
the child.
Well, sir, she grew up as tall as a reed,
II cny,{h hnr To o6-
am Aimard's fashionable French boarding
school, for was not going to have my
Maggie whit behind any ones else girl,
can tell you. My sister Simpkins objected.
You see, with those nine daughters of hers,
she grudged every penny of my money that
was spent on any one else.
"You're putting silly notions in the child's
head" said she. GA girl that will have
her own living to earn, ought not to mingle
with Madam Aimard's young ladies'"
81 should like to know why?" says 1.
''Because she is in no way their equal W
said Sister Simpkins.
"Fiddlesticks ~ says /. my Maggie is
good and pretty, and if that don't con-
stitute equality with any girl alive, I'll
own up that we don't live in a republican
country! AS for earning her own living,
why it's my business to look after that, and
no one else need trouble their head about
it,
Mrs. Simkins pursed up her lips and
looked unutterable things, but she did not
dare to say anything more. She knew of
old that wasn't to be disputed when my
will was up. But sent the nine Miss Simp-
kinses nine coral necklaces the next Christ
mas, and that kept the peace for awhile.
When she came home from the boarding.
school, she was prettier than ever-tall, as
L said before, with yellow, silky hair, great
shady-looking blue eyes, with lashes that
curled up at the ends, and cheeks as fresh
and pink as 1 remember the inside of two
big shells that used to stand on my grand
fathers best room mantel fifty years ago.
So l cast about in my mind to find some
new plan for making the old house lively
for my little girl. l knew she couldn't
thrive without her innocent gayeties, any
more than bird could without free air and
sunshine; so invited company, and made
up little impromtu parties and frolics, and
beat my brains for something to keep her
amused. And I believe l succeeded, too,
for her step was as light as feather, and
YOU could hear her sing all over the house,
when she thought she was alone.
And one day old Hannah came in, dust
ing chairs, and prying about for finger
marks on the paint in her odd, near-sighted
way.
"Mr. Pelham" says she, rubbing away at
a dOOr-knOb that was as Drlght Delore as
hands could make it, ''what would you say
if we were to have a wedding in the old
house? go
"a wedding" 1 dropped my pen so
that it made big round blot on the paper,
and stared. "Why, you're not going to be
married, Hannah, after all these years?"
''Do l look like it?" shifted Hannah, con-
temptuously- to tell the truth. she
didn't very much. "No, indeed, sir; 1
hope 1 know my place better than that.
It's Miss Maggie Pm thinking OF, sir"
l sat as if l had been stricken with a
paralytic shock. Maggie to be married
Strange that had never thought OF that,
as a natural consequence of parties, com!pa..
MES, evening concerts and summer plcnlcs
And somehow desolate chill crept down
my veins as l thought how lonesome and
dreary the old house would be without
Maggie. o.,
''What makes you think so, Hannah %
I asked, rather dolorously, and the old Wo-
man lowered her voice mysteriously as she
apcUarpd.