Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1889-02-09

Will, IL y u "
gen, oxygen. I have been spinster
since my babyhood, more or less.
Don't you know there are traits about
some babies that suggest spinsterhood I
Also something about spinsters that
suggest babyhood? Recurring to ba
bies, my thoughts wander back
through the vista of years which
lie stretched behind me like a fair
plaisance to the period when 1 was
four. we'll remember the time my
elder sister taught me to play "old
maid" We sat around the dining
table, myself, pretty babel was
in my high chair; my two sisters
and one brother, all inside of eleven.
All! how we played; but even then
fate had singled me out, for on me fell
the last card, old maid. They tried to
impress me with the weight of my woe,
and succeeded so admirably as to have
me bowling like young dervish in o
moment. Nothing would pacify me until
sister promised to make my doll o
dress, and give me penny, then l con
sented to give over my serenade. But
how little realized the honeyed sweet
ness of that word then. Now
did anyone deny me that
felicity, should set up 8
wall not unlike the one that consumed
me in the long ago, and not even the
brides which brought contentment tc
my soul at that time would buy my
silence.
My brothers wife was up here to-day
with their two children. What dirty
little boy that is. q wonder if ought
to say soiled?) Yes, he certainly is &
soiled child. How charming it is t.
have asmall boy, with grimy face and
hands, paving over the kitchen tables.
where one is preparing dinner, then
running into the pantry and diving in
to the sugar box with unclean digits
Aft +. they had gone 1 went up to
my room with a JOY too deep for words,
and fell into sort of preamble.
lock my door and no one can come
clamoring for admittance. 1 throw
myself, with graceful abandon, into o
luxurious easy chair, before my stove. ]
toss care and worldlinos IS to weaklings,
and lose myself in happy day dreams
Upon the incense of the flowers in my
window, born out of their own fra
GRANGE, rise images of fancy and pic
lures of imagination. My visions soar
aloit, waited by the delicate perfume
emitted by roses, sweet-scented gerani-
ums, heliotropes, etc.
Mol connubial bliss is not what j
banker after. am more than willing
to take mine through observation; ]
don't want it straight.
Yes, am an old maid. How like
to dwell upon that word and roll it
like sweet morsel under my tongue.
l have never, in all my sweet young
life, even envied Shakspeare's toad,
that feasted 50 sumptuously upon the
vapors of o dungeon. Never, since
earliest infancy, have / coveted any
thing that was wholly worthless OF
insecure, but let content, like sweet
potato, sap my life-blood and keep me
perpetually young.
| give way TO mirth on all suitable
occasions. Poverty has no tcrrors foI
me, because have no loving husband
dependent upon me, wailing for whisky
and cigars. Adorable as the men are,
l feel perfectly safe to skip life's jour.
ney DER without one of them holding
my lily-white hand.
Men, as rule, look so lovable to me
that never meet one, clasp his hand,
and look into his eyes bat I feel,
were 1 one degree less perfect, would
be tempted to love and marry him, but
- All! what world of sophistry
and subtlenC IS that word contains! IT
hangs suspended, like the sword of
Dame cl, 8, al owe my small, proud head
by single hair. DO not for moment
suppose it is a gray one, for no foreign
element turks meath my ebon tresses.
/ dearly love to read of loves young
dream, ard disport myself among
lovers quaint conceits. Why? l know
not, unless it be to draw aside the cur
tains of my own blissful heart, and
read there the happy contrast; or, per-
maps have been through it all in some
other embodiment, and know how
sweet it is.
My reverie is drawing to q close, fast
merging into dreamland, and l am
losing my head, or rather nodding it.
As respected uncle of mine once said,
ARA VOC!