The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-05-18
LOVE AND HAIR DYE.

ture. Apparently, she was watching a
motherly hen-turkey conduct her downy
brood through the high timothy grass;
but in reality she was wrestling with fate.
"1t's perfectly ridiculous!" said Ketu-
rah. ''Thcrc never was in all this world
a girl with half as ugly hair rs mine. If
it hadn't been for that hair, 1 might have
had the chance of being married half q
dozen times, instead of drudging on here,
with my father scolding because I don't
accomplish more homework, and my
stepmother dcluging me with good ad-
vice. Oh, dear, oh, dear! I would
pluck it out by the roots, if it would do
any goodw
And she seized the lucklcss rcd-gold
~tresses, u handful in each grasp, as if she
fain would have twiched them out of
her head.
"But what a very silly thing that
would be?' said Barbara Decifcr, who
sat on a stump of a tree, hulling the rich
garden Strawberries, which she had just
gathered from the sunny beds under the
stone wall. "Why on earth don't you
dye it"
"Why don't I-caata" said Kcturah,
turning around in sheer amazemcnt.
Dye it,! repeated Barbara, popping a
particularly bright ripe sphere of scarlet
into her mouth. 'It's what Mrs. Pcllcr's
city boardcr did when 1 was help there
last summer. She was as gray as a bad
ger, Miss Perkins was; and yet her hair
shonc like q crows tail-feathcrs. I seen
her putin on the dye once, through the
crack of the door, when I was a-scrub-
bin the hall oil-cloths, and it was Us easy
as you please. Of course black dye
won't suit you, but there's plenty of COL
ors would"
Kcturah's eyes glistcncd.
"Oh, Barbara p said she, "do you think
I couldW
"Think? I don't think nothin' about
it." said Barbara, flinging a widowed
berry at n squirrel on the fence. ssI'm sure
Of it. You can get the stuff at Mill &
Tweezer's. I've seen it many a time
iii their glass showcases, and"
Just Mt this moment, however, Mrs.
Hitchings, Kcturah's stcpmothcr, was
heard shrilly inquiring from the back
door, ''whether she was to be KEEP wait
ing all day long, with the preserving
kettle over the fire, for them strawbcr-
ries2"
Barbara jumped up and fed. Keturah
stood still, mcditating over the disclos-
ure that she had just heard.
She went down the path to a certain
crystal-clear spring, into whose depths
she had often gazed to look for the ira
ditional rings displayed by the fairies to
those who are about to find their true
lovers.
It was her ~favorite mirror, and lust at
this period of the sunny, summer day it
was clearer than any sheet of looking
glass.
"HorridW said Keturah, grimacing at
the copper-red burnish of her hair re-
fected below.
But just then some languid movement
Of the deep, still waters focused the SUMS
rays in a sort of circle; for q second it
seemed as if q, ring of gold shone far
down, and then disappeared.
Keturah's eyes sparkled, and her heart
beat rapidly.
The fairies wedding-ring,", she
gasped. 81 saw it with my own eyes.
But, of course, nothing will ever come of
it as long as my hair is such a hideous -
hideous color. will get it dyedw
And, in her mental consciousness, she
remembered that Harry Boycc, who went
to college with her brother Simeon,
would be there that very week, and that
Harry had once said, "What a pretty
girl that little Kitty was"
"But, of course, he couldn't have no.
ticed my hair" thought Keturah, mourn
fully. cit doesn't show so awfully bad
~hen 1 sit in a corner where it's pretty
dark. Ti's the sunshine that brings it
u such an intense carrot co'or. I will
dye :tp
So that very evening, in the friendly
in~distinctness of the purple twilight,
Keturah crept down to Mill s. Tweezer's,
and waited patiently for an old farmer
to buy an ounce of Paris green for potato
bugs, and his daughter to select q bottle
OF cheap perfumery, for two tall lads to
get a PHYSICIANS prescription made up,
and a plump-cheeked child to purchase q
cents worth of nennermint drops before