The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-10-02
ALMOST A BREACH.
The Trouble Caused Two Lovers
By Their Cats.


so it was! Manny's pessus pet"
1t sounded much like "mammy's
pessus pet but the voice was so young,
so fresh, SO cooling, that Joe Parker
could not believe his ears,
There was something "magnetic"
about it, to use the slang of the day;
at least it attracted Joe to the row of
raspberries that flung their green arms
all abroad on the old picket-fence be-
tween his garden and the next neigh
boris, and irresistibly bent his head to
peep through those respectable palings
and see what he could see.
And this is what he saw: Such a
lovely girl! Her hair was red, to be
sure, but it was that bronze red that
looks brown in the depth of its ripples
and gold on their crests. Just now, in
the blazing sunshine, it was all rich
deep red, with gilt threads among it,;
but then she had such eyes-large,
clear, red-hazel eyes, as beautiful as a
robins or a squirrels, fringed with
dark lashcs, and Oyerbrowed with deli
Fate dark arches, little lifted with a
look OF surprise that was the result of
shape and outline. regret to say that
her fair soft brow and cheeks were
Slightly freckled, but in such fresh red
and white the smallest spot will show,
and nobody is perfectly beautiful, not
even Mary Ann May, commonly called
"Manny May" For instance, her
mouth was large, but then it was so
full so red, and parted over such firm
white teeth, that it seemed just to match
the saucy little nose above and the
round dimpled chin below it. Her
waist was large, too, Just as large as the
waist of any sculptured goddess wrought
by PhidIas or PraXiteles, for Nanny had
never been pinched III mind or body,
or given over to that awful tyrant
"Ihey," who puts our girls to the tor.
ture Of rack and bootfrom their infancy
that they may be and do as "They" dc
and are. But she had a tall, strong
shapely figure, and its movements were
all instinct with the untrammeed grace
ofnature. As she stood in her mother;
garden, with both hands clasping hel
pet to her bosom, basket of dandelor
greens and an old case-knife at her feet
she was perfect picture; and she hue
not an idea of it,
Joe's theories fed as he gazed Tit
voice had not misled him, it was not ;
mothers voice; the darling on whom
NANNY layished her sweet words, he
hn,
a cat, But such a cat! Peter was a
great q beauty as his mistress. His Goa
of deep blue-gray was striped ant
dashed with shining black; a ring O
black encircled his massive neck; hi
tail was ringed also with sable, and fiv
wide black stripes ran from between hi
ears down to the very tip'of the tai
merging as they went into one broa
band; then there was a snow-white spo
upon bis breast, and his powerful paw
were as black as jet.
"Manny's dumb silly about that Their
cat, was her fathers chronic grow
but. since Nanny was all the child LEI
to him, and in his secret heart its Twin
idol, he only growled. He would ne
have uttered a derogatory word aboJ
Peter for any thing; he even remem
bered to get bit of meat for him wher
ever he went to the village, and ha
once been known to turn back half
mile for that very purpose.
As for mother May, she spoiled I'll
cat Just as she had spoiled Mary AM
She was dear, kindly, tender-heartc
old woman, with an utter inability
rule or order or mold anybody or an
thing She took life as she found j
and neither fretted nor tried to amen
it-a sort of a moral feather-bed, soft
evaporation, but, after all, restful
eager, hard-worked, eXasperated, an
wiry people of her race.
"A proper nee woman, Semantf
Carrier said; "GiiOayS an eternal
good-natured No faculty in her, al
one that rifles you consider bic when {
want to have things gee; but wht
you're sick or sorry, sort of comiortn
like pouItce.
Peter knew his power and his positio
Petted from his early k.ttenhOod.
soon learned Ike the young of Il
human species. that he could tyrannr
over A.s bctters, and then the warme: