The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-11-30

sion, mode of exercise. She and her
skipping-rope were inseparable friends.
and since Agnes rompishly regarded
such an amusement as tame, and since
]. of course, gazed down upon it from
the heights of boyish contempt. very
naturally poor Milly had had to bear
not little merciless fun-poking for a
long time past.
Our abode in the Catskills was one
of chose large, homely boarding
houses. adapted to persons of mOdera.e
incomes, with which these beautiful
mountains abound. ssRollester's." 90
it was called from the name of the
proprietor. was already nearly filled
with guests. With two or three of the
ladies mother soon became intimate.
and the children of these naturally
grew to be our friends. L should say,
the friends of Agnes and myself, for
Milly, though by no means ungracious
in her department., still kept herself
always rather timidly in the back
ground. Agnes and |. with perhaps
seven or eight more boys and girls,
would take long tramps through the
green glens and over the rugged yet
friendly hills. Often we would stay
longer on these expeditions than we
knew was kind TO mother, and more
than once | remember that our little
truant phalanx would come troOping
up the lawn when the keen silver stars
had begun to steal out above the pur-
pie hill-tops.
But Milly rarely went with us on
these trips. She would take her book
and her skipping-rope and haunt those
shaded and breezy spots in immediate
neighborhOod of the house. Nor was
she always alone on these occasions.
There were few quiet girls of about
her own age at Rollester's. who loved
to accompany her, leaving the noisier
bevieS of both sexes to their rambleS.
their croquet, or their ball-playing.
But most of all Milly loved to have
with her little boy of about seven
years old. whom everybody used to
call willy Winkie." He was the
only child of young widow. whose
tears for her husband were not yet
dried, | fancy, and who loved this boy
with the tenderest devotion. His full
name was William Van Wrinkle, but
when very young he had thus lisping-
ly pronounced it, and so the comic lit
tie nickname, suggestive of the pretty
nursery song. had chung to him ever
since
Milly passionately loved children.
but we had never seen her more
charmed by any child than by Willy
Winkie. And indeed he was the most
beautiful child 1 had ever known, and
though far from being a saint, he made
you recall, with his melting blue eyes
and his cloud of golden hair, the pic
lures you had seer of angels. Little
Willy Wrinkle had cousin in the house.
named Leila Lindsay. who was of about
the same age a. Miily, and this young
lady. whose scOrn for timid people WAS
Unreasonable, before long commenced
a series of sly but relentless perSecu-
lions. had not always acquitted my
self very creditably in this respect, but
/ recollect now wishing that Leila
Lindsay was 4 boy, SO that | might
cOolly force her to see that her annoy
ances must not be continued. At first
1t was evident that my sister tried not
to mind them much, and even TO laugh
or smile them of. But by degrees
Miily grew hopeless of doing either.
Leila, for example. had learned that
she felt mortal disgust toward bat.
| can't tell how many times an even
ing. on piazza, in hall. or in parlor, a
loose ball of dark worsted. or crumpled
black lace, or some such material
would come hurting from ambush
straight at Milly's head. The crisp.
dry crackle and solemn buzz made by
all night insects of the beetle sort gave
Milly involuntary shiverS-a demon
stration which people older and
stronger than she not seldom make
under like incentive.
Consequently Leila Lindsay would
exert her ablest powers of ventriloquism
to initiate these detested sounds.
Some times she would attach an invisi-
bic thread to bit of dark cloth or
wool, and arrange SO as to draw the
latter tieetly across some portion of
room near which Milly sat or walked;
once, L recOllect, when my sister was
searching for her beloved and mislaid
skipping rope, she suddenly discovered
1t wriggling like a snake at the en-
trance of j half-shut closet door.
This plot struck me as a particularly
mean one in Leila. as | happened to
know, from some of our outdoor eX-
curSions together, that she like nearly
every member of her sex, old or Young.
whom 1 have ever metz entertained
deep horror of the whole Snakv tribe.
All this sort of things fretted and dis
pleased mother, who wanted the sweet.
pure air of the hills to heal and fortify
Milly's impaired health.
She spoke TO the mother of Leila
more than once, very gently and anna
bly,, as was always her wont, but Mrs.
Lindsay was one of those parents who
like TO reprimand their children only
for the faults which they themselves
have discovered in them. and she rare
ly found any faults in Leila
Il should think you would punish
your daughter for her lack of self-con-
troll she at lenUfh said n little tartIv I