Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-12-11
LITTLE TDPRENNY.|
BY 8. BARRING GOULD.
CHAPTER I. ~
now SHE CANE ~ nEn GAME.


are tiled with it, the very swallows
nests under the caves are nodded out Of
1t; walk along the roads, and your boots
are elogged whit; walk as gingerly as
you win, You are despatched with it.
Within 20 or 80 miles Of London occurs
tract OF Hat clay land, Of fields Of cab
bages ard beans and corn, surrounded 5y
stunted thorn hedges, with here and
there brick and tile yard, some worked,
others deserted; the old bricl; fields con-
yerted into ragged sloppy depressions,
into which is cast all the refuse from the
neighborhood. There stand pcels of
stagnant water, fringed with coarse
grass, and the banks sparsely producing
doc, daisies, and yellow tansies.
The road here runs straight as though
made by the old Romans, or as French
road engineered under the first Napoleon.
Beside this road is gate, opening into
a waste piece of ground slightly raised
above the surrounding surface, and on
this patch of waste land stands q Wind
mill.
The whole OF the mill, built of wood,
Is painted white, white as the -four that
IL ground in It, ~
Half mile off runs "a wall Of park.
That wall marks the limit of London clay
and the beginning of gravel marks, where
beans end and trees commence, where
the pillow ceases to run its furrow, and
the COW and the sheep and even the deer
RIM instead. tTakE
In the mill worked Joe Western, con-
sidered surly, because q silent, man,
but certainly lingenial and unsociable--a
good deal of London clay in his compost
ton apparently "a FRe
In the park lived Dick Redfern, the
keeper, his wife, and only child Trip. 1t
is waste Of words to say that Triptolema,
being an only child, was spoiled. But
then--was there not an excuse for it9 An
excuse to be found in the appearance and
ways Of the child Where an ugly, I'll
conditioned little girl is pampered and
petted, we see at once that the parents
| ure blameworthy; but when the girl is
pretty and winseme, skillful in working
her way into the hardest heart as the
wood worm bores into the most obdurate
| oak, then we allow that the parents are
excusable. a $3.50 8HH9l
How did the girl come by the name
| Triptolema? Worse-infnitely worse
| her entire Christian name was Triptolema
Yellowley, or to be more exact, Yellow
leaf. She got her name In the following
| manner. tNA ~ T@8
| Mrs. Redeem, the keepers wife, had
been lady's maid ct the hall to the Misses
| Tottenham. When there she had on one
| occasion been much impressed with hear
| ing the name of Triptolemus Yellowley
frequently mentioned by the young Ia
| dies who had been reading Sir Walter
| Scott's pirate"
Their lady's maid heard the name, Ill
remembered it, though treasuring in her
| mind the general sound of the name,
which she thought veSy fine; and when
| she had married the keeper and became
| the mother Of little girl, fRichard, =
| said she to her husband, "she shall be
| called Triptolema Yellowlcaf, and no OBJ
lection on your part viii be Of the small
est weight with me-" sruf .st3 bs
"'It's queer name. p"
"Queer it may be, Richard, /" said his
wife; "but it Is name that Sir Walter
| scott, Bart, did not blush to, use; and
whit Bart, is not ashamed Of, don't
see that gamekeeper should turn up his
nose at" E ,EIN
~ only said it was queer" u
"Wcll supposfng it be queer" sale
Mrs. Redfern; '"tis d-stingy." x"
D-stingy (distingue Mrs. Redferr
meant) the name of Triptolema might be
but when the girl went to school she
found it eminently distressing. Tht
name lent itself to what Professor MAJ
Muller would call phonetic degradations
1t invited the wags to try their wftticism'
upon it, it provoked attention, it excited
envy in some, ridicule in others. 1t wa
not name that could be lct.alone. ~
4 When the master of the National schoo
desired to 9be particularly whitening ii
ilhis, acorn he named henIin full, AT III,
II roll call, Trip was happy when only tht
iaitials q her Christia1 name were giYeI
+ e Finally by that ~perYersity which
| characteSizes the popular voice (who pro
pounded that preposterous hoax, "Yo1
populi vox DeiS'') that voice which in
evitably pronounces wrong, settled upol
the nickname which bore the smallest re
semblance to Triptolema Yellowleaf Red
fern. First sporadically appeared tn
designation, ''Little Tu'penny" and then
by degrees, it displaced every other nick
name, and throughout the district, evel
in the hall, she was known as t'Littl
Tu'penny." 49,
Mrs. Redfern was not the wisest @
women. She had picked up smatterin
. Of grand words, and a. love of gran
things when she was lady's maid at tn
hall She was superior to Dick, tn
| keeper, in being able to flourish thes
grand words, and talk of grand things
She found it against the grain to descen
to the care of poor mans cottage, an
she kept Dick awake to the fact that, 1
marrying him, she had come down. Sh
kept, indeed her little parlor in splendol
with bugle mats, and antimacassars, an
glass flower vases, and smartly boun
books ON the table, and glazed and gil
' framed chrome Autographs on, the wall!
but her kitchen was most untidy, an
the meals she prepared for her husban
J. were uncomfortable, her pasties heavI
her meat and potatoes over or underdon,
''You see, Richard, my good fellow,
she argued, ~ never was, Ithank Prov
dence, so low as kitchen maid, and
: never was cook. II you'd wear Ion
hair, and let me do it mp, or have
faringe, I'd show what my powers ar
and in what my genius lies. Wal
When LENA is grown up; won't onl
3 make splash with her head"
Trip, as her father called the little rir
4 was as pretty, livelya child as ever WI
y seen. She had very fair curly fake
| hair and dark avea and laahea IL