The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-02-26
P0LLY'S ALLOWANCE.
The Trouble and the Good II
Brought Her.

The ladies of st. Philips sewing cir
Gle always spoke of Mrs. Fuller's six
daughters as if they were an extrava-
gance in which she had wilfully in
dulged, and by good management could
have avoided. eff they had only been
boys, nowr Mrs. Archdeaconess (as
Polly Fuller called her behind her au-
gust back) Nevins would say. "But
six good-for-nothing, useless girls!"
Perhaps the reason Mrs. Nevins object
ed so strenuously to Mrs. Fuller's pref
erence for the female sex was that she
had had boys; that is, she had had one
boy, college-bred, European-toured
with a fortune in his own right, to say
nothing of his prospective heirship
through Jeremiah Nevins, Sem, the
richest vestry-man in St. Philips
Church. And this adored, petted and
only boy was very fond of the Fuller
girls, and so attentive to Polly, the
prettiest of the lot, that Bloomingdale
was agog with excitement on the SUBJ
lect, So she would repeat: IF they
had only been stalwart, hard
working boys But six girls!'
Now it was hard to believe-for the
archdeaconess was tall, grizzled, bonv
and she might have left Jericho at any
hour, for her beard was fully grown"
that she too must at one time have
been a girl, as Mr.. Bardell was once a
single gentleman; but this fact did not
soften her toward her sex. If Jerry
But we are anticipating.
There certainly were six Fullers-
Margaret, Jen, Julie, Polly, Lillian.
Rosie. They lived in little cramped-
mp rectory that belonged to st. Philips.
a poor little church on the outskirts of
Bloomingdale. Their papa was dear.
wrong-headed, clever, impractical
clergyman. Their mamma was only
a shade better, as she proved by hay
ing six girls instead of boys. Her
light bread was apt to refuse to rise,
and her preserves had way of work
ing after the second week.
If the archdeaconess could have
broken off the engagement between
Rev. Alphonso Fuller and Susan his
wife, which had existed for twenty-sev-
EN- years, and sent the six OFFENDING
maidens back to chaos or to paradise
and married them both to more suita-
BILE and more practical people, sup
pose 1t would have been better. Prov
ldence is poor manager, compared to
Mrs: Jeremiah Nevins; but she couldn't.
So st. Philips had to put up with a
thousand dollar a year rector. his shift
less wife, and his half dozen daugh-
tiers.
The Fullers were generally absurdlv.
provokingly happy. As long as one
has no objects Of bigotry and virtue"
1t makes little difference if the cat does
jump on the parlor table. If the carpet
as worn to rags, the tears of the maid
of-all-work may be dried with the re-
Election that cinder or two dropped
from the ash pan will do little dam
age.
But about six months previous it was
borne on the minds of these six females
that If they had an allowance they would
all present much better appearances.
and spend less money in doing it. And
when the six Fuller girls made up their
minds, there was an end of it. They
interviewed their mamma, they bullied
their papa, they built such splendid air
castles of what they would do if thew
only could be allowed to Judge for
themselves, that the long-suffering
martyr consented, and promised to Let
them have their way. Now promise
IN the Fuller family was as good as q
bond-better, for l have heard many a
man besides St. Paul declare himself
happy, especially after a panic in the
street, except these bonds.
But the difficulty about the allowance
was this: The day these girls cot their
money they felt so enormously rich
that they could not contain themselves
and it. They forgot it must last six
months, and represented boots, gloves.
gowns, bonnets "a thousand neces-
Saries. They forgot the waste the lack
of parasol makes in the life of the
American girl; they only saw the beau
fiful 8 mo, | will not hold them up
to ridicule), and they longed to spend
it, and it burned in their pockets, till,
alas! sometimes they lived like prod
lgals for three weeks. and starved and
were almost naked the rest of the twenty
six.
On this particular morning the whole
family were assembled in the sitting
room. It was June day, dewy,
rosy, dimpled day, and .'all the trees
on all the hills had opened their thou