St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-30
BARBARA PUMPIT.

cOratlng With Qellcate laceWOrk the IOOI-
hills of the Blue Ridge, Barbara famed
herself and painted in her rocking chair
as she went along. 1t was one OF Bar
bara's most conspicuous characteristics
that she was always heated and that she
painted continually. Sitting thus, sway
ing to and fro with the motion of the
cart, pillows of passion running up her
spine, and breaking in surf against the
taWny coast of her back hair, Barbara
presented a most interesting picture
if there had been any one to look
at her or light enough to see
by. She was dressed in pink tights,
with Grecian bodice, and it was typical
of her complex and picturesque wOman-
hood that, while she scOrned cOnVen-
tionalities from her chin down, she paid
a touching tribute to public sentiment
by wearing a widows cap and veil of
strictly regulation gloom. In this tot
let, indeed. one could discern Barbara'S
character, and read the tragic story of
her life. Possessing the agility of a
wildcat, the beauty of hOuri. the mus
cular development of a MuldOOn, and
the instincts and appetiteS of Mesa
lima, she was, nevertheless, stepped in
agony. While she would fly at the mereSt
stranger, wrestle him all over the house,
kiss off his chin-whiskerS, and with
final hip-lOck toss him, crumpled and
bleeding, down the kitchen stairs, her
soul would be racked with anguish all
the time and her lips utter piercing
screams. In this combination of atfec-
tionate demonstration ana vocal eff
fiOrescence she presented an interesting
reSembla nee to a certain domestic
animal whose eccentricitieS have often
caused the StOuteSt WOodShed to mantle
with blush. Several persons had been
struck by it.
Soon the vehicle jumped low paling
fence, and drew up at the door of the
Pumpit mansion. Barbara sprang to
the ground, and Straightway her shapely
tights went twinkling up the stairway
and into the wide old Virginia hall.
Savagely knocking out an aged aunt
who advanced with OutStretched arms
to welcome her. she repaired to her
sleeping chamber-to that room haunted
by so many memories of tenn
! pestuOuS but ecStatic honeymoon.
| Three years previously she had
married ValOrem Pumpit, and, after a
month of happiness, she had buried
him. He was young and fervent, but
! he could not survive the stress of Bar
bara's hug or the eXhausting fury of
her kiss. So one day, after an especially
violent set-to in the barnyard, during
which she had kept him off the ground
for twenty-eight consecutive minutes,
| he mildly remarked that he could not
make up his mind to spend half his
time in the air, and gently but firmly
died.
Barbara stood for a moment in the
| center of the room. All about her she
| saw the relics of her married happiness
reminders of a fierce athletic JOY.
There in a corner lay his caSt-Otf boots
here, flung at a cospidOr, his brown
| linen buster with big stain in the back
as natural as life. On the mantelS
were two porous plasterS almost as good
as new. Hanging on the back of chair,
his chest protector and his mittens
Imagine her feelings! She shrieked
aloud. She yelled to her vanished Val
to come back to her, and come quickly
she wanted him particularly; but OF
course he didn't. She whOoped again,
| and painted for lagniappe. Suddenly
her hand came in contact with some
thing-something hard and gritty, like
! a neglected Connecticut pie. She held
it up and gazed hungrily and gaspingly
! at it. Could her eyes deceive her? No!
it was, it was his liver pad. Cast aside
as he had taken it off to die; lying there
so silent and fOrlOrn, so stricken, so in
consOlable. "Oh-h-hr' She snatched
it to her lips, she kissed a hole in it, she
pressed it to her stormy bosom, she
painted several pants, she danced all
over the room, she jumped against the
wall. she kicked most of her clothes off,
and then she fell, gasping and breath
less, into the slop-tub. When the col
Ored handmaiden burst into the room
crying: Lord, Miss Barbara, what is
you done with your clOse?" Barbara
answered, YEARLY, put me to bed,
Sukey: | always undress that way"