Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-06-02
RH0DA'S FORTUNE-TELLING.

Rhoda Lee stood defantly before
Mrs. Hewitt, her slight frame culver.
ing with q curious thrill, her black eyes
glowing fervently. Somehow there
was something weird and uncanny
about her. The farmers wife felt the
discrepancy between the girl and her
surroundings and sighed.
stI am sorry for you Rhoda," she
said; E'but Idon't see any earthly way
that you can go to those lectures"
81 will co." said Rhoda, quietly.
"You can't" shriily piped out Rosa
Zine, Mrs. Howitt's plump, blue-eyed
daughter; ''you've got nothing to
wear"
81 intend to co." stubbornly repeat
ed Rhoda.
E'But ma says you amt to CO." ut
tered Philippe, the second Miss How
itt, ''don't you hear?"
Nevertheless" said Rhoda, flashing
on oblique glance at Philippe from
under her level brows, 81 will CO."
"Hold your tongue, Rhoda," said
Farmer Hewitt, sharply, as he turned
the weekly paper inside out, "where's
the use of talking such ridiculous non
sense?"
Rhoda was silent, but her determi-
nation was unstirred. Little lame
Penelope, who was reading Robinson
Crusoe" up in the garrett, was her only
contidante, as, late into night, Rhoda
was sitting by the light OF two solitary
dip-candles which she herself had man.
ufactured.
"But what on earth are you max
ing, Rhoda?" asked the child, coming
temporarily out of the palm groves
and mango thickets of the "Island of
Juan Fernandez" and staring at her
companions WORK. "Your old scar
let shawl-and little Toms cast-off
suit of black velveteen. Oh, how
strarge Is it for fancy ball?"
Rhoda smiled. Those large limpid
eyes of hers were strangely sweet when
the hard gleam had melted out of them.
cit Is for q masquerade" said she.
''Where ?"
"'You will promise not to tell ?"
<EDid ever tell OF you yet, Rhoda ?"
reproachfully asked Penelope.
''Well, it is to be on Rothley fair
grounds. am to go as a gypsy girl"
f'Does mamma know? And the
girls?"
"Your mamma does not know; nor
do the girls. 1t is a great, great Sc
~cret. [ am going to earn some money,
Pen, by fortune-telling.
go Rhoda!'
cit is often done on fair grounds,
you know" Rhoda explained. 81
have made little tent out of those
old hay-covers that your father threw
away. I have whitfield out pins to
faaten it down, and borrowed q rope
line to make it secure. This is to be
my costume. And look, Pen!"
With a quick, impatient movement
of her hand she pulled out hairpin
or two-a perfect cascade of ink black
hair, CLOSED here and there with pur-
pie lights, fell about her. She wrapped
the scarlet draperies about her in
graceful folds.
"Now," said she, "what do I look
ike?"
"a gypsy-a regular gypsy" cried
Penelope, clapping her little hands.
t'0h, Rhoda, you are g. perfect picture.
But father and mother They will not
let YOU
81 shall not ask them at all. Ishall
take the big basket with the lid; I shall
go blackberrying before dawn in the
thickets. shall go to the fair grounds
and pitch my tent early, before any
one comes, and then l shall tell for
tunes all day for silver pieces. Irath-
er think that some will come my way"
'STell my fortune, Rhoda," said the
child, holding out q thin hand.
But Rhoda turned away with a
SILVER.
"I will tell the fortune of no one
that 1 love-" said she. ''And, after
all, the whole thing is sheer nonsense.
But I want money; [ need a dress
not grandma's. snuff-colored alpaca
made over, nor your mothers dyed
bunting, which is so streaky that no
one else will wear it-but pretty
dress to wear to the minister 8 histori-
cal lectures"
Rhoda Lee was true to her word.
Early in the purple dawn OF the Sep
TENDER morning she packed her bar
baric costume into the big basket and
set forth across the sew-sparkling
meadows. And when an hour or two
later, the Hewitt family gathered at
the breakfast table Rhoda's absence
provoked no especial comment.
"She said she meant to go to the
blackberry pastures, said Mrs. How
lit. cts about time to make jam
and was afraid she would take a no.
ton to go to the fair; I'm glad she's
safe after berries"
tAnd why shouldn't she go to the
fair as well as Rosaline and Philippe ?"
said little Pen.
"She has nothing fit to wear" said
Mrs. Hewitt.
"We don't expect to dress the hired