Nevada County picayune., 1889-12-11
MY OWN SISTER.

to think and speak of my dainty, darling Sisley like that!
 She was own sister-all and only my very own
 l had no brother to share her precious affection!
 And no one but me could take in her dear love a brothers place-not even Howard Martmar, although he was the handsomest and best fellow in the world, and adored her as he would have adored an angel-not even Dicliy Sheldon, although he had heart of gold and would have walked unshod over burning blow shares for her dainty sake,
 How 1 used to smile at their wasted devotion. For was she not my own sister was not I her own and only brother? Then how could any of her myriad worshipers ever be as near and dear to her as |?
 And yet l could not wonder at the enthusiastic devotion she inspired from her countless admires.
 For she was the lovellest and most radiant creature who ever walked the earth since Eden was in its prime of gladness, and glory, and bloom.
 Her figure, in it's delicate curves, in it's perfection of Hebe-like symmetry and grace, was lovelier than any that ever charmed sculptor's dream.
 No canvass ever immortalized q face so dazzling as hers, with her rich, dark skin, with her lustrous, jetty, black hair tumbled in silky lit tie rings all over her proud little head, with her great, luminous mid night eyes, fringed by long, witching lashes, curling low on her soft, round checks. And Sisley' voice was such wondrous melody-like the strains of some mystic Eastern song, like the delicious music of the nightingale singing in the dewy dusk amid the summers freshest perfumed bloom.
 ,,1 ,.l a,l, ,,t1 To I gracious: !: she was earnest, sincere and true: she was refined and ac- complished. And yet she disdained Eo homely duty, if done for love or for duty's sake. And with Sisley dress was an art which she knew without being taught and her every gown was a poem, just as her every attitude was picture.
 She was sister of whom any brother might be proud-and no one can marvel that I loved her as never man loved sister before.
 was five years older than Sisley,
 When I left home for college she was a laughing, coquettish miss, with fleece of raven curls rippling far below her tiny waist
 When returned, after three years of study, and an additional three years of educational polish and of travelling experience in Europe, she appeared before me as q revelation.
 My shy, yet coquettish, my saucy, vet demure, little maid had been transformed to dazzling young lady whose entertainments bewildered me.
 My puritan blossom, with her thousand merry and innocent incon- sistencies, had bloomed into bril- liant tropic hower-inconsistent still, but infinitely more adorable.
 How well l remember how she looked on that memorable day of our meeting, was lounging in a big, tempting Turkish chair, which some body had smuggled into the music room, when suddenly, straight be- fore my eyes, two exquisite hands drew dull, crimson portice apart on either side, forming an admirable frame for the vision which appeared between the parted folds.
 saw girl of eighteen, in a mar velous gown of lusterless and diaph- anous white, with broad bands about her bare arms, and about the swan like neck, so chastely draped with misty lace. A mass of wonderful