The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-07-11
/" HOLLOw
By MRS. BERNARD WHITMAN,

Miss Jane Graham was not very at
itractive looking woman, nor was she
considered very amiable one. She
lived quite alone by herself in q tiny
cottage on the outskirts of the town.
She had lived there some ten years, not
caring to make acquaintance. She went
regularly to church in pleasant weather,
and once year the good old minister
. called upon her. He always spoke of
her as "Miss Graham" The few neigh
bors called her "Miss Jane" in distant
sort of manner, but the saucy boys and
girls in the neighborhood used to call
her "Old Miss Jane"
Now Miss Jane was by no means old.
To be sure, her hair was beginning to
show little gray, but then Miss Jane
had had the blackest of black hair in her
girlhood, and that often turns before the
age OF thirty. Some front teeth, too,
we're missing-whether from. lack of
care or from an accident no one knew
or cared to ask. Her face expressed irri-
liability. She looked as if things went
wrong, and I rather think her appear
snce expressed the truth.
Rut with all her sour looks, Miss Jane
had two soft spots in her heart. The
first spot was the bigger, and was filled
by Dolly, the cow. Dolly was, on the
whole, rather less attractive than her
m stress
Her expression was not kindly, and
she had a broken horn; but Dolly's
looks belied her. She was really q very
am;able cow, in spite of one eye being in
black setting, and the other in white;
but no one but Miss Jane knew her
gentleness, for no one but Miss Jane
ever went near her. Miss Jane MIXED
her and cared for her; put her in the
pasture in the morning, and took her
out at night, and led her into the little
ihed, where she was MIXED and fed
with care. If anybody had listened, he
could have heard Miss Jane repeating
softly to her sometimes a couplet from
Mother Goose which she remembered
from her childhood:
@Cushie:cow, bonnie, come let down your
milk,
And will give you gown Of silk"
And "cushie cow bonnie" would let
down the most surprising quantity of
milk for Miss Jane, and turn her
head and look at her out of those great
eyes in q most loving manner.
Yes, NJ IS Jane did have a very soft
spot in her heart for Dolly, but nobody
knew it but Dolly, and Miss Jane hardly
knew it herself.
The other soft placel No one guessed
that either. 1t was really very funny
thing. And this time neither Miss Jane
nor the object of her affections knew it.
This time it was a boy!
He was sturdy, freckled- faced little
fellow, perhaps eleven years old. In
warm weather he went barefoot, which
Miss Jane hated, for she saidit was "a
most dirty way of doing things" In
GO der wea her he was fully dressed. He
had no mittens, to be sure; no earlaps.
no muller; Lut warm jacket, rather
faded, we'll patched pair of trousers,
and stockings that now were darned,
and now had big hole in the knee.
1t was some time before Miss Jane saw
al this; but she did see it as time crept
on. At first she saw only the sturdy
little bare feet 60 by her cottage every
day. At last, to her surprise, one morn
ing, rough, boyish voice called out,
"Hollop
It was no quiet, polished, or concilia-
tory voice. 1t was loud call in q
merry, careless, happy -go.lucky voice.
Miss Jane was astonished. She looked
st the boy sharply. He didn't seem to
mind, but trudged on.