Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-12
ALL FOR AMUSEMENT.

usually brilliant In an evening dress of
scarlet tissue, with white feather, flowers
looping the overskirt and clusters of the
same in the heavy, jetty braids of her
lustriOUs hair.
II might as well have good time while
[ can, Aunt Mary" Nettie said, twisting
herself round before the long mirror, to
admire her bright skirts and her tiny, slip
pered feet. "Only two more weeks here
and then [ must go back to Wheaton and
bury myself!'
''Nettier
''There, auntie, don't look 50 shocked!
[ know you think my future husband is
perfection, and, between ourselves, so do
l. But, after all, country parsons wife
cannot expect much gayety, and [ mean
to crowd all [ can into these last two
weeks of liberty"
''Where are you going to-night?" inquir-
ed Aunt Mary.
''To Mrs. Hunts. Mr.. and Mrs. Reyn-
olds will call for me and Count Lodos-
XII
Again. Aunt Mary's voice was stern,
and there was an unusual severity in her
blue eyes. "You know how strongly I
disapprOve of your accepting the escort
of Count LodOski."
But he is not my escort" said the per-
will call in their carriage. I don't be-
ieve in the count any more than you do,
auntie; and all his pathetic walls over his
dear Poland fall upon most unbelieving
ears when sounded to me. NOtwithstand-
ing he Is most entertaining company,
dresses perfectly, is handsome as an
AdOnis, and waltzes like a dancing mas
ter. So, because he amuses me [ allow
him to be my escort during the absence
of the Rev. Alfred Martin, who will hold
me soon fast and firm in the chains of
matrimony. Hark! The carriage is here
Goodnight! Don't sit up for me!'
And wrapping herself in large cloak
of SOftest white cashmere, Nettie kissed
her aunt and sped with dancing feet from
the room.
In the carriage she found the young
couple who had offered her the spare seat
there, and she found also the Polish count
who was the last society lion in the society
of b, and who was decidedly attracted
by the witching beauty of the CAV bru-
nette. Whether it had been whispered
in his ear that she was heiress to Whea-
ton and $4,000 a year can only be conjec-
tured but he was a most devoted adOrer,
and Nettie carelessly encouraged his at
tentions.
She had inherited Wheaton from her
grandfather when she was little child,
and her father being dead her mother had
shared the guardianship of the little heir
ess with her Uncle Joshua, so that sum-
mer at Wheaton was followed each year
by winter in the city, where schooldays
were succeeded By all the pleasures of So
ciety after Nettie passed her 18th year.
1t must be confessed that the bright little
beauty was a petted and spoiled child-a
lfT1lS rITl VIII Iol I-C, L.,
sunshine, with every whim INDUCED, every
caprice gratIfied.
Serious thoughts had found little place
in her giddy head and pleasure-loving
heart, till the Rev. Alfred Martin accepted
a call to the village of Morton, near which
Wheaton was situated. He was not a
handsome man, not a fascinating man in
any sense that Nettie had ever thought
OF the word, but he had gift that en-
braces many others in a truly Christian
minister-he was really in earnest. To
him the vocation of his life was one that
absorbed heart and brain, to the exclu-
sion of all effort to be attractive in So
ciety or win worldly praise, Yet the very
sincerity of the man, fully ten years her
senior proved a charm Nettie could not
resist.
From the careless ease of her petted
life, his sermons, like trumpet calls, rous-
ed her to sense of the responsibility
resting upon her as a woman holding in
her hands the gifts of perfect health, en-
ergy and wealth.
Like a butterfly, she had tasted sweets
here and there, thinking but little of the
less fortunate, ill the earnest appeals of
the new preacher stirred her to consid-
ering the stewardship intrusted to her
care.
She had no thought of pleasing the
minister when she took up share of the
parish duty, sewed for the Dorcas and
visited the sick and poor. Admiration
and attention had been offered her too
freely for her to dream of counting them,
but, impulsive in everything, she threw
the whole force of her ardent, generous
nature into the new path of duty Mr..
Martins eloquence had pointed out to
her.
A large proportion of her income was
drawn from a large cotton factory in
Morton, and among the operatives
there Nettie soon found employment of
leisure hours and avenues for spare dol
lars.
1t was in the spring that Mr.. Martin
Came to Morton, and in the summer
contagious fever broke out in the settle
small tenement houses. 1t was impossi-
bic for Nettie to enter into any under
standing with lukewarm interest and,
once engaged in trying to aid the suffer
ers, she devoted time and money with an
unsparing hand. Her own glorious
health bore her through the dangers of
contagion unframed, and her cheerful,
buoyant disposition, was like sunlight
among the sick children. who were her
especial care. Yet, when the death-flm
gathered over childish eyes, no voice
could soften the dark passage to the
grave with sweeter, more earnest words
of comfort and promise than those from
Nettie.
Seeing her thus, through the long
weeks of toll and danger, asking her aid
where money was urgently needed, find
her at her post where the air was thick
with fever and the danger frightfully
near, Alfred Martin grew to consider the