Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-11-30
TIE TRAINED NURSE.


-
The dishes were washed at Oldcroft
Farm: the milk was strained into gilt
tering pans on the dairy shelves, and
the hen-house door was locked beyond
all chance of danger from chicken
thieves: and, in the soft purple of the
visitor from the city had put on their
sun.bonnets and were climbing the
wooded slopes to Holly Hill.
Ann was a typical country maiden,
rosy, fair-haired, and plump, not 10 say
commonplace.
Mary Holly was taller and more
slender, with large dark eyes, a skin
that was transparently pale, and a
sweet, serious mouth.
Her dress was far palmer than that
of her companion, but there was a GER
tain style in every fold and plait that
was lacking in AIMS.
Oh cried the latter breathlessly,
don't walk so fast, Molly Do stop a
minute and look around you-at your
own ancestral acres!'
My own ancestral acres!' Mary
shrugged her shoulders. Its all rock
and woodland, so far as ! can see; and
the old house is ready to tumble down
at the first gust of wind. Oh dear,
there's an end of my plans about TAX
ing boarders and making a li::le
money! No boarder with any regard
for his personal safety would ever come
to Holly HILL"
Side by side the two girls sat down
on the doorstep of the old mansion.
Above their heads frowned an impos-
Ing row of Ionic columns; the porch
floor was rotted through in more than
one place; the roof of the little conser-
vatory at the south end vas little more
than a skeleton of weatherworn beams,
and the shutters swung and creaked in
the wind.
1T would take" said Mary Holly,
looking despairingly about her-''it
would take at least two hundred pounds
to put this place into anything like
decent repair. And where Am | to get
such a sum. | should like TO know? |
can't even sell the place. Nobody
! would buy IL / did think i could maks
a irving by the old home. bat now that
/ have beheld it" and she finished
the sentence by a despairing gesture.
''Oh. Ami I've seen quite enough of my
ancestral hall! Let us go homer
Ann Philpott's attempts at consola-
ton were in vain.
.'Oh, don't talk TO me!n said Mary,
swinging through the scented thicket
of sweet-fern with more of a disinherit-
ed princess's gait than ever II am a
pauper, a beggar. Since old Cousin
Phoebe died, | haven't even a roof over
my head. Why on earth wasn't
brought up to u trade, instead of being
kept at that genteel boarding-school?
wonder what | am good for?'
Dear Mary, don't fret, said chubby
Ann. Remember you are q lady.
Your great-uncle was 4 rear admiral.
and your great-grandmother on the
mothers side wts n baron 5 daughter. n
"Muca good hat does me- said
Mary s%cornfully. II couldn't 90 beg.
ging to my PARKWAY relatives if / would.
and / wouldn't if l could. I've some
pride left. Oh, Ann, don't you know
of somebody who wants something
done for them, SO that | can earn my
bread?n
Ann meditated as she took down the
pdotuAt al ~ 5SNaAS - oAAo " AoN II
into the valley.
Squire Secor wanted more hay hands
he had told her father so that morn.
ing-but Mary Holly could not 90 out
and drive a mowing-machine around a
foIty-acre lot. Mrs. Lydecker was in
need of a strong girl for general house
work, but Mary would hardly come
under the denomination of strong
for such purposes as soft-soap making,
and the washing for a family of nine
boys.
Something will certainly turn up
said Ann hopefully. s-Oh. there Is .
light in the living-room! Someone has
come in. and mother has lit the big
lamp. i wonder who it can be? Oh,
it's only Miltiades Green"
Miltiades Green was a neighbor, a
tall. stalwart young farmer with a
healthy. sunburned face and kindly blue
eyes.
with diphtheria, and the doctor wants
you 10 write to your cousin, the trained
nurse up in town. He says she's got to
have someone that is thoroughly relia-
BILE to take carr of her."
"Ah. Miltiadesr cried Ann 'what a
pity! Is it really diphtheria? But who
IS to do the housework?"
'Oh. / can manage that myself"
said Miltiades. If only l could get the
nurse.
I'm write AT once,n said Ann. .sOr,
better still. Ill 60 for her myself. But
she comes expensive, Miltiades,a pound
q week"
Il don't care for the expense" said
the farmer; though l know mother
viii fret about it. But she must have
the best of care"
rs that your Miltiades Greeng' said
Mary Holly, rs the tall figure vanished
into the twilight. Hes rather good
looking isn't hep
But Ann Philpott returned from town
the next day.
"Tryphena can't come.r she said
''She Is engaged in ascarlet-feyer casc.n
Ann" said Mary Holly. speaking
suddenly 'let me gow
40 h~-oy ~