The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-11-30
HER ROPE SAVED Him.
A Very Timid Girl Becomes a
Heroine.

eff / am right in my reckonings, "
10 use sailors phrase, / had reached
my fourteenth year the summer that my
mother delighted us 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 /
could remember, and Milly and Agnes
and / were no mean drain upon her
slender purse. Father had left us the
naErov 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 comforts
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 year younger
than myself and about two years the
senior of Agnes, had brought home
very creditable reports of scholarship.
Her health had never been of the best,
and that summer her pale. sedate face.
under its tlaxen rings of hair, looked
rather wan and dropping. | think it
was fear for Milly's falling strength
that now decided mother to give us the
change. AS for Agnes, she would have
remained plump and ruddy and iovial
any where Gas used TO tell herr short
of the North Pole and the equator, and
there never was boy of SOunder con-
stitution or much more vigor than my
self, Edwin Pringle, or Ned" SIS what
ever friends or foes j 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
seat near mother just after entering
the train, while Agnes and found two
others little behind them.
Ned" whispered Agnes to me, a
lev OClOIC tIC llSSlIl DCDom -
move, ''do you know Milly's nervous
AS she can be?''
About what?" | asked, with sur
prise that already, no doubt, had a
spice of cruelty in it.
Agnes gave one of her elfish giggles
"Hush! Mother would be angry if
you noticed ii. But | know she's seen
it herself. It's about the cars"
''Why, what on earth"-I began.
But here my younger sister pinched
my arm.
Nov do hush, Ned, or / shall be
sorry told you. | mean exactly what
j say: She's heard of dreadful acct
dents, you know, and all that.
At this point the locomotive, pre-
paratory to starting, gave a gruff,
sonorous boot. and Milly's form, as We
viewed it from the rear, curved side
wise with a sudden impetus. The next
instant we saw mother bend down and
evidently whisper something in her
ear, and then our sister Strengthened
herself, while the shutting sound OF the
moving train commenced.
There murmured Agnes. tri-
umphantly. Didn't tell YOU? She's
going TO be in perfect misery the whole
way. | do declare. Ned. she gets worse
and worse all the timei | don't know
what she'll be afraid of next. She
won't 90 near the court-yaSd at school
when the girls are playing ball there.
for fear tie ball might hit her. And
j do think mother humors her too much
in her fancies, don't you?"
'''Yes, FL said. But l felt a twinge
of compassion for Milly inst 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 had joked
and bantered her about her idle terrors;
but now, with more of wish 10 turn
her mind into pleasanter grooves of
thought than from any mischievous
motive, l leaned forward and said:
"Millvr'
"Well, Ned"
She turned her gentle face. with
worried expression on il, half in my
direction, and looked al me across her
shoulder.
did you bring your skipping-rope?
hope you haven't forgotten il.
Ned, my son!" said mother, child |
ingly, hut with faint smile. as a
laugh came from AgEeS. We had