Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-01-08
From the New York Scribner.
BEING ENGAGED.

ter, after the departure of Parrot Smith,
that daughter felt that she would al
most be willing to forego the pleasure
of hearing man ask if he might come
to see her Sunday night, if that pleas
ure were to result in such gaze as
this. She could not account for her suf-
fering from such guilty feeling when
she was was not guilty of anything, un-
less it were of being SO attractive that a
gentleman desired her society. At this
thought she blushed, and then COM
mon sense whispered to her that she
was not attractive.
Ct was of no use to try to look her
mother in the face, and she gave up the
Green cried out:
II neverl I declare / never did ~
Mehitabie trembled.
''He was a-weighin' the roosters," she
said. feebly.
Gle want a-weighin' no roosters
when you m he was stan'in' by the
fence, without being nigh no ROSTERS"
was the stern reply.
Nehitaole felt there was nothing for
her to say, and so she said nothing,
She only tried to hold herself so that
ner mother should be as little aggravat-
ed as possible.
'sHas that man buried his second
wife?''
'sHe has,"
"Oh, gracious land ~
Here Mrs. Green deliberately with
drew her hands from the back OF the
chair, sat down in that chair,
and then. with ostentatious care
iuiness, began to unite the handker
chief from her head and to fold it on
her knees. When ste had this done she
looked up at her girl and made this in
quiry:
when d. he bury her ?'
"a bout six months ago."
Hes been u mo1rner ever sence, /
s'pose?"
tI s'pose So" dejectedlv came from
Mehitable's lips.
The poor thing was endeavoring to
brace herself in some way. She knew
that she had a right to receive Mr..
Smiths addresses, out this knowledge
was of singularly little avail to her.
She WAS immensely astonished and
fnde6nably alarmed when her mother
said, rising to her feet as she spoke:
1--WE mustn't be foolin' here if we
want to get them bunnits seWed lore
the man comes"
Mehitable eagerly sat down to the
straw work. For two hours she expect
ed, every time her mother opened her
lips, TO hear something more on the
dread subject. But no, Mrs Green was
remarkably amiable, and "the gentle
men" were not mentioned in any Way.
So the days passed, and nothing was
said. 1t will be guessed that Mrs. Green
had not only inherited the Farnsworth
LOOK, but the FarnswOrth shrewdness
as well. What she said TO herself was:
4'If 60 aginst that Parrot Smith, she'll
take up all the more Tor him, 80 I'n
hold my tongue"
She W one of those exceptional wo-
men who, having resolved to hold her
tongue, can do so.
Thus it came to be Saturday night.
When Mehitable went upstairs to her
cold and dismal room she stood with
her small kerosene lamp in her hand
be;ore her toot-square looking glass.
She was meditating the act of doing
her hair mp IN "crimps." She had not
hitherto had any occasion for crimps,
but it seemed to her now that the time
had come Tor this adornmeut. When
she had gone to the library that alter
noon she had stopped into the store
These instruments were shaped like
very stout hairpins, each furnished with
slide which confined the hair. When
she had come into the house she had
felt as if her mother could see these ar
ticles, although they were wrapped up
at the bottom of her pocket, and her
circular was over her POCKET. She
never felt exactly certain how far her
mother's knowledge extended.
To -
wind made a loud whistling when it
was that side of the house. At this
noSaent, however, the occupant of the
room was net cold. She looked at her.
self fully, 9 larterilg, and tried to see
her face in profile, but with poor sue
ess. Finally, she set down the lamp
with a dreary sigh.
"I'm jest fright, that's what / be"
she said aloud.
She held the crimping pins for a long
time in her hand. She wondered how
they would make her look. She
wished her mother were going to stay
Mehitable, might experiment with
those pins. But her mother never went
away. She was always there, to over
see everything. Mehitable shuddered
at the thought-of-what might be said
when ner hair was seen done up in
those pins.
Then a kind of CONFUSION of courage
came TO her, and she did what she be-
iieved to be the bravest act of her life.
she twisted her hair up in those instru-
nents, and without waiting to consider
what she had done or what she should
do on the morrow, she hurriedlv crept
to her bed.
When she went down stairs the next
morning, Mrs. Green did not seem to
see that her girl had her head bound
up in a handkerchief which carefully
concealed her brows. The excessive
amiabiIity continued even up to the
time when Mehitable me from her
room after their late dinner, in her
best black wooden dress, and with a
wayy fluff of iron gray hair over her
forehead. That Mrs. Green expert
senced shock at that moment cannot