The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-04

bea1s all what 2 Slgnb OF human mater there
II round. for them that's got eye for it. and
it's most alwus kid Of Gurus and Interestin' If
you look at it clost. Now jest see the doin's up
there TO Elyi:y Perkinses. No, amt agoin to
call he's Madam Ma-what-you- may call it; I've
got learnin' enough speak my own language
as it had ought to be spoke but when it comes
TO furrin words haint got no disposition to
tackle 'em.7
q SilAs Leach, an old man who looked like a
dried goldfish and IS if all human emotions wero
withered within him, but who was, neverthe-
less, a perennial fountain OF gossip, was regal
ing with the latest news the idlers in Hodg-
kinss store the headquarters Of masculine soci-
ETY. in New Hebron.
eff Elviry Perkins felt to marry furriner I
hain't no call to object. and what could you
pect of young girl trimmin' bunnets IN New
York without nobody to look after herl She
want such very young girl. neither, ElvirY
want. when her Uncle Lias died and left all his
property to furrin missions after she'd worn her
fingers to the bone for him, and gone
without proper victuals, and schoolln, and
meetin' priverliges. and young company,
and everything. and Judson French Tilted
her because she hadn't got the proputty. as
he expected, and she went of to New York with
nothin' on airth TO make her way with but
pluck; there never was Perkins but what had
that, and Elviry she had the name of havin'
mdren her fair share Word came back that
she was workin' in milner's shop. and want
beholden to nobody; that was ten years ago and
don't know any body ever heard anything
more until she came back and bought old DR..
Grier's house and had one end of 1T made into a
big milliner's shop and had Madam Ma-gl-o-i-r-e
painted the winder curtains and on the gilt
-
husband was a Frenchmau, a real bony fdy
rnunseer. but Carine Blodgett. that has got
folks in New York. Gays he want nothin' but an
Irishman that got rich keepin' a grocery
store, and his name was Dennis McGlory.
So fur forth I find sne
hain't told nobody the pertiklars. Perknses
wa'n't never the kind that tells the pertiklars.
Its pooty plain that sizes got money and some
avs she knows how to keep 1t. Lias Perkins
he was as close as the bark OF a tree. Some
says the fever that killed him was fetched on by
Deacon Pillsburys bein' too quick for him with
the contribution box after he'd dropped in a
half dollar expecting to make change, as usual,
and get forty or mebbe forty. five cents. /
expect by what hear that Elvirv's consid'a-
bic like him. Marilly Sprowl. that's q kind of
housekesper for her, is own cousin to me- Ma
be, but if | was a mind TO could find ont con-
Eldable that's goin' on there. She had right
Elviry had, to get Clarence Burbridge, that
yo9 a1 ,. sprlg that elerked It to the
and kind of look after her business for her, il
she was a mind to. aud if she furthermore
a mind to set him to studyin' law at her expense,
1t amt nobodys business nor ii shes a mind to
harry him-a handsome igger-head will warp a
womans judgmeEt-but when she goes and
fetches Phoebe'Shedd. young girl as pooty as
nav paint. that's a kind of cousin of hers from
Cranberry Corner, and throws him and her to-
gether constant, If THAT amt flying in the face OF
Proyerdunce then don't know no name for it!
Seem the millennium Amt come no young man
amt agoin' to shet his eyes because there's q
young girl right before EN-, and when
he can't help seem her, it stands to reason that
he's sgon 10 think more about her than he is
about and oidish one that want never harm
some, if he is beholden to her"
There were murmurs of assent amid Sias
Leach's circle of listners Lysander Avery took
bis pine out of his mouth to remark;
''Middln solid chunk of a woman, amt sheT'
''Yes. and looks higher upon forty than she
is ] don't calclate Elviry has ever had a very
easy time of it. And that little Phoebe Shedd-
amt she jest as pootty as pink. nowl And
Marilly she says Clarence Burbridgs never takes
bis eyes offn her when Elviry amt the
watch
Lysauder Avery shook his head solemnIy:
"Proputtys proputty" said he. ''and it's apt
TO carry more heft in the llong rue than rosy
cheeks does"
The new boy was waiting upon a young girl
In the front part of the store. she
Shrouded in waterproof that be could see only
pink cheeks and intensely blue eyes with long
ashes, like child's. But he observed that the
,hesks grew pinker and pinker the conversa-
.ams very uncertain whether she wanted starch.
,r cocoa, or mustard, and suddenly hurried off
vi thout the lemons, which she had asked for
ir {.
) he drew the hood of her waterproof over her
our ming ears as she ran through the rain.
IF had done that before perhaps shouldut
nav heard" she said to herself But it's just
Is he said, it's in the course of tl1re. and she
has only herself to blame for being so foolish"
Phoebes thoughts strayed back to the day
when she had first came to New Hebron The
ElEiFa n ak
Ter an apprentice had come at very oppor-
une time. when she had just made failure of
eachinc the Mills school Aunt Cordeiia had
roaned; caste was not unknown to Cranberry
Corner. and the Phoenix of old geDtility
from the ashes of Aunt Cordelias
ortuues; her ancestry of Puritan divlnes ex-
ended back to the earliest days of the colony;
f course Phoebe might teach; teaching had been
o all the daughters of her honse as the breath |
4 their nostrils but TO trim bonnets |
ther matter. Moreover. Elyiry Perkins's in
dependent course in not asking even the adj |
ice OF her relatives, aud in holding no
with them for all the years of !
er soiourn in New York had not been aprroved I
T. Aunt Cordoba felt that Fate had but forced |
mother bitter dose to her lips when she over
anne all these objections and accepted Elviras |
fer for Phoebe.
Abram objected on other grounds He talked
bout the temptations OF the world. New
Hebron was growing to be something like a
own, having oank, aud newspaper, AMI a
rick block of stores) He had always mani
ested suspicion that Phoebe fond of fat
cry ana fine clothes. and luke-wafm about the
'ridsy evening praver-meeting. Phoebe felt il
o De- quite uncomfortable to have unblinded
lover, but Abram could scarcely be called a
lover in any respect.
Aunt Cordeha thought that every one should
i've way to Abrams queer ideas, and, indeed,
BRAN had made great sacrifices for the family
Welfare. He was almost stranger. too; dis
ant connection who had come to live with them
'hen lad. with little property which had
cen swallowed up ia the family misfor tunes
he aspiration of his life had been TO preach the
hah aA M etc nf into |
olege and 0een obliged to leave in his first
ear account of Uncle Peters paralysis; he
Tas nearly thirty now. and was digging away at
be sterile little farm, hindered by droughts, |
nd long rains, and frosts, and cattle plaques.
pr Nature phoebe had observed it sometimes
nth wicked Rleel was too much for Abrams
will to conquer.
He had insisted upon driving her - New
Iebron in the farm wagon. She would have
ked to say that she would not make her advent
that way, but her fare would have we'll nigh
shanstad thu naeuniary reserze fnrcas Of the