The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-11-05
HER ROPE SAVED HIM.
A Very Timid Girl Becomes a
Heroine.

Heroine.
eff 1 am right in my reckonings, s"
TO use a sailors phrase, had reached
my fourteenth year the summer that my
mother delighted ms all by telling us
that we should spend two months,
August and September, in the Catskills
Like all children bred in town, we
dreamed of the country. We had seen
very little of it, for mother had been a
widow with scant means ever since 1
could remember, and Milly and Agnes
and l were no mean drain upon her
slender purse. Father had left us the
narrow little house in East Eighteenth
street, New York, but he had not left
us much else, and the taxes on this must
be paid to keep it, and there were our
common wants to be provided for.
But mother, with her thrift and econ
Omy, had managed to save a comforta-
bic little surplus this particular year,
and all three of us had now ended our
term at the public schools we attended.
Milly, who was just a year younger
than myself and about two years the
very creditable reports of scholarship.
Her health had never been of the best,
and that summer her pale, sedate face,
under its flaXen rings of hair, looked
rather wan and dropping. l think it
was fear for Milly's failing strength
that now decided mother to give us the
change. As for Agnes, she would have
remained plump and ruddy and jovial
any where Gas used to tell her) short
of the North Pole and the equator, and
there never was a boy of sounder con-
stitution or much more vigor than my
self, Edwin Pringle, or ''Ned, as what
ever friends or foes l may have had
alike called me.
Agnes and l were in a high state of
glee on the morning that we started,
but Milly, always placid, kept at moth
er's side until we had entered the cars,
and maintained her usual grave and
rather dignified silence. She took a
seat near mother just after entering
the train, while Agnes and ! found two
others a little behind them.
Med" whispered Agnes to me, a
few minutes before the train began to
move, ''do you know Milly's nervous
as she can beP"
About what?" asked. with a sur
prise that already, no doubt, had q
spice of cruelty in it.
Agnes gave one of her elfsh giggles.
flush! Mother would be angry il
you noticed it. But l know she's seen
it herself. It's about the cars
''Why, what on earth'-- began
But here my younger sister pincheC
Now do hush, Ned, or 1 shall b,
sorry L told you. l mean exactly wha
/ say: She's heard of dreadful acct
dents, you know, and all that"
At this point the locomotive, pre-
paratOry to starting, gave a grufi
sonorous boot, and Milly's form, as W.
viewed it from the rear, curved side
wise with a sudden impetus. The mex
instant we saw mother bend down anC
evidently whisper something in he
ear, and then our sister Strengthened
herself, while the shutting sound of tn,
moving train commenced.
''There!' murmured Agnes, tri
umphantly. Didn't tell you? She
going to be in perfect misery the who'll
way. do declare, Ned, she gets wors
and worse all the time! l don't know
what she'll be afraid of next. Sh
won't go near the courtyard at schoo
when the girls are playing ball there
for fear the ball might hit her. An,
do think mother humors her too muc
I'm her fancies, don't you?"
"Yes, i said. But / felt twing
of compassion for Milly just then, be
cause my own joy at being whirled Of
in the emancipating train was so differ
ent from her newly discovered alarm
Ever since early childhood l had Joke
and bantered her about her idle terrors
but now, with more of a wish to tur
her mind into pleasanter grooves c
thought than from any mischievou
motive, leaned forward and said:
"MnIyr
well, Ned. "
She turned her gentle face, with
worried expression on it, half in m
direction, and looked at me across he
shoulder.
did YOU bring your skipping-rope
hope You haven't forgotten it.
Ned. my sonr' said mother child
ingly, but with a faint smile. as
laugh came from Agnes. We ha
long poured our jests upon Milly abou
her skipping-rope 1t was her on
girlish sport, her one relaxation, diver
sion, mode of exercise. She and he
skipping-rope were inSeparable friends
and since Agnes rompishly regarde
such an amusement as tame, and sine
i, OF course, gazed down upon II trOI
the heights Of bOyish contempt, yer
naturally poor Milly had had to bea
not little merciless fun-poking for
long time past.
Our abode in the Catskills was on
of those large, homely boarding
houses, adapted to persons of moderat
incomes, with which these beautiful
mountains abound. "Rollester's, " q
ii was called from the name of tn
proprietor, was already nearly file
with guests. With two or three of IN
ladies mother soon became intimat,
and the children Of these NATURAL
grew TO be our friends. l should say
the friends of Agnes and myself, Il
Milly, though by no means ungracioU
in her department, still kept herse
always rather timidly in the bacl
ground. Agnes and ]. with perhaI
seven or eight more boys and girl
would take long tramps through h
green glens and over the rugged "
friendly hills. Often we would sta
longer on these expeditions than W
knew was kind 10 mother, and moi
than once / remember that our lit
truant phalanx would come troopin