The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-05-14
THE REASON
Why Miss Janey Clings to the
Old Dingy Piano.

suppose people are excusable for
wondering why Miss Janey clings to
such battered old hulk as l, with my
muffled, reluctant tones and dingy,
yellow-tinged keys, but l could tell
them reason if chose.
Who but l, in the early twilights, re-
spending to the touch of her trembling
fingers, calls up with my faint, mourn
full tones, bitter sweet memories of a
vanished youth? With whom else can
she commune over the long-buried
hopes, and fears, and loves of her early
blighted springtime, now that the au-
tumn draws nearer and nearer? We I'M
derstand one another, Janey and /, and
we have grown old, and yellow, and
querulous-toned together. Is not
Janey's own voice becoming a trifle
cracked of late, and have not the fresh
tints of her girlish complexion taken on
q hue that matches my yellow keys?
To be sure, am something the elder,
but am equally positive that 1 have
not gone off in looks a bit more than
Miss Janey herself, although I don't
want 20 give myself airs because time
has favor~1 me little more than it has
my mistress. There is the difference of
wear and tear to be considered. Ineyer
had a lover, although ! can not deny
that l have on numerous occasions sup
piled needful physical support to
various weakened, intensely yearning,
chaotic bundles of masculine emotion. /
have. therefore, had opportunities of
observing the general method and par
ticular madness of young men in love,
and l should Judge them to be very
wearing upon the nervous system; at
least / have found some of them very
wearing upon mine. There was Almira's
young man, for instance. He was an
entomologist, and had the habit charac-
teristic of his profession of dropping all
manner of small, creeping things in
various stages of activity out of his ca
pacious pockets, made to order unus-
ually large. 1 remember particularly
that on one occasion, while the pro-
fessor was abstractedly turning Almira's
music-in the wrong place-a fine
specimen of polydesmus complanatus
escaped from his pocket and disappeared
within my internal economy, causing
me great distress and the professor much
anxiety, not on my account, assure
you, but lest the polydesmus compla-
natus should be squeezed little in
transit or lose few of the locomotive
apparatus with which nature in gener-
Gus mood had endowed it. 1 really
could not understand why the loss of a
few feet, more or less. where one has so
many more than necessary, should be
regarded as a domestic calamity, but
then have not a scientific mind. I do
not think Almira had, either, though
she did not spoil her prospects by saying
so, and bestirred herself most actively
to recover the pest with the long name.
Soon after this little episode Almira
and her entomologist were made one,
and removed to another State with all
their worldly goods, which consisted for
the most part of new dresses, wedding
presents, and large and varied assort-
ment of native and foreign bugs.
Ada, the second daughter, being in
the thump and bang period of musical
transition, when young ladies do not
play for company but merely for their
own amusement, enjoyed short but
blessed respite from the passive super
vision of young men and maidens on
matrimonial tactics bent. Less than
two years this lasted, and followed the
most trying period of my whole exist
ence. Ada was considered the beauty
of the family. Almira had been well
enough in her way, but we had scarcely
considered ourselves fortunate in be
slowing her upon, lean young professor
with spectacles and very thin stand
of side-whiskers, and whose hearts best
affections were sealed up in small bot
ties of picked reptiles and any-legged
bugs impaled upon pins. For Ada We
looked higher.
Ada had many admirers, considering
the quiet country town in which we
lived. but l well remember that she had
passed her twenty-tirSt birthday having
received only one offer, and that from
a local sewing-machine agent, when
Frederick Foster came to spend the
summer with his college chum, George
Marshall. A gentleman of leisure. APP
parently, who wore upon his little fin
ger an elegant diamond ring, was MIR.
Erred Foster. but he was fortunate
enough to possess a physical develop
ment that rescued him from an appear
ance of dandyism in spite of certain out
ward tendencies in that direction. All
his appurtenanceS, from the distin-
guished little finger down to his jointed
fshing-rod and gayly-caparisoned but
Gelusive box of insects pertaining there
to. were all that the most fastidious
could slesire. Ada. whose mind, like
the spare room bed. was always made
up beforehand, said inwardly but en-
phatically here was the man for her.
She admitted there might be difficulties.
He might object TO the appropriation, or
there might be other lions in the path,
but what were lions compared to a man?
Mr.. Fred had evidently been hunted be-
fore, and that in every conceivable man
ner known TO modern matrimonial wood
craft; and it was very early in the chase
that Ada wisely concluded to feign per-
feet Indifference and await with what
patience she could command the day
when he should discover that here was
a remarkable pretty little girl-wonder
If she knows how to flirt!
A mans curiosity will usually get the
better of his discretion if you give him
time, and SO it happened that when one
afternoon, rs he was lounging along the
bank of rapid little brook that rippled
noisily through the meadows Of the
Holt farm. he came upon Ada with
little willow-basket on her arm and