The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-23
TWO NOTABLE DAYS.
"Soap Day and Rose Day. With
the Baldwin Twins.

4
81 do believe this is rose day. said
Infant, standing on the top step of the
veranda in delight.
Il know it's soap-boiling day." as
serted her twin sister, who had been
baptized Marira Victoria when she was
baptized Infanta Isabella, nearly fifty
years before. These twins entered the
world at period when flowery, daring
names were the extreme of fashion,
and previous to the great rebound to
plain and strong Ann, Elizabeth, Mary,
Hannah, Jane, and their various COM
binations. Infant came very near be-
ing labelled Lovey Lucilla, and she
felt thankful for her escape, and even
attached to her diminutive.
Belle would never have suited her
(she was not belle) while Infant did
not shame her (she was more or less an
infant at any age). She was slender,
blue-eyed and smOoth-skinned, so
smooth that wrinkles could scarcely
make their indentation. And it never
ceased to be appropriate for her to
wear her hair i'm braid down her back,
tied with ribbons the color of the dress
she wore. Infant herself could not
separate the gray hair from the blonde,
nor did she care whether it was all
blonde or all gray. She scampered
over n fence and swung in the cherry
trees. Her long tranced girlhood
never ended; and the slow life of the
farm, simple as grass and wholesome
as new milk, kept up the illusion that
time was eternity. In their neighbor-
hood these twins had been the Baldwin
girls when they first toddled into meet
ing, when they went off to be educated
at an expensive school, when they came
back to paint and to play on a grand
piano, when their parents died and
they took charge of the farm; and the
Baldwin girls would probably be their
title when they should become con-
temporary with all living grandmothers.
Occasionally Infant felt a shock from
the growing power of young children.
1t was so astonishing to see a creature
who was a baby but a short time ago,
shooting alOft, long-armed and long
legged, and announcing itself in the
teens. Such phenomena did not aston
ish Rilla, however. She resented them.
Though she had the same fair complex
ion and cOmely make as her sister, a.
deadly drop of acid had been added to
her nature. Her shoulders were bent.
She loved to hear people talked about,
and to lift the corners of her nose with
scorn. She felt abused by much that
had happened to her on this planet,
and yet too insignificant in her own
personality 20 take it out of the human
race as she desired to do The free
dom, ease and scope of unmarried
4
Ciated by her, because she lived entirely
under the little zenith and horizon of
her own skull. These traits made Rilla
an uncomfortable housemate, espec-
tally in winter, when the twins were
showed in with their books and house
keeping Still, Infant loved Rilla's
sOurness along with Rilla. There
was strong diversion in being scolded,
and she always felt such a delicious
warmth around her heart when she
made it up with Rilla and gaze her a
handsome present, or took double turns
at the cooking.
Rilla was very parsimoniOus, and
felt bound to distort herself with aged
gowns and long boarded hats. But
Infant felt unhappy in any color except
that tint of gray which has the thought
OF wine in IT, On this very rose day,
though il was early in the morning,
she wore clinging gray dress of that
light wool texture called shally by the
dry goods dealer in Jersey Center
And a good background it would make
for all the roses Infant could hang
upon it. Nothing made Rilla lift the
corners of her nose higher than In
fant's flower days. But as Rilla would
be lifting her nose anyhow, and could
really scent no harm in these silent fes-
rivals, Infant continued to observe
them year after year, and to afford her
sister that triumphant sense of super
iority which we all have upon behold
ing others absurdities. There was
Crocus day, when the first flowers
broke the sod and made heavenly
beauty in the dark spring. Infant
decked herself with them, and put
them on the dinner table. More album
dainty satisfactory, however, was
lilac day. 10 took a critical eye
to discern the exact date. If
the hlscs Drowned about the edges,
then, alas! lilac day had slipped past.
They were not to be gathered too soon,
either, il their full soul of fragrance
was to be enjoyed. On lilac day In
FAINT walked under burdens of lavender
bloom. The walls, the pictures,
breathed lilaCs. And at night she
went to sleep crushing her face into a
nest of lunches, so that she had lilac
dreams, and drew the sweetness into
herself, like an Eastern woman absorb
ing roses.
But the best day of all was rose dav.
Before it arrived she had always ready
a pOsy of poems from Keats, Words
worth, Jean Ingelow and Whittier,
and read them i'm the morning while
the dew was on the world. The Bald
win girls cultivated a great many
roses. Rilla could hardly miss from
her rose-water and homemade altar
and rose preserves the heaps which In
FAINT cut for her nonsense. There was
not a nicer day in the year than rose
day. if Rula would only abstain from
boiling soap on that date. The sisters
bad Inherited seventy-five thousand
dollars apiece, but they made their own
soap every spring of refuse fats and
the I've of wOOd-ashes. 1t could have
been made cold in the cellar, If that
way had not been too easy for Rilla. She
held it g movable festival. like rose