Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1890-03-28
SOME JOHN SMITHS.


child. Take care to go to the right
address, and you'd better get a hack
man who looks respectable and old,
and look out for your ticket, and give
my love to John, and bring Inc some
good red flannel, six yards and
But the rest of Aunt Jen's exordium
is cut short by the cry of "Allaboard"'
much to poor Bertie's relief. She
steps hastily into the middle car, and
is whirled away from the little village
station toward the city.
She pulls down her veil to hide her
flushed cheeks and tear-filled angry
eyes. Why need Aunt Jen be so Off
cious Did she want every one to
know that this is her first trip to the
city, and that she knows nothing of
the world beyond this little village?
Any one hearing Aunt Jen's last
speech must think she-Bertie-i ig-
norant indeed, and she had just been
fiattering herself that she looked quite
stylish and lady-like in her neat, we'll
fitting brown suit, which became her
so well, and she did not mean to play
the unsophisticated country girl, not
she But now everybody III the car
had doubtless heard Aunt Jen, and
what must they think!
AS if she didn't know enough to
take care of hermoney and her ticket,
and go to the right address! Didn't
she know it by heart-137 Ashley
street?-and that suggestion about
the hackman was really too much.
No, she wouldn't bring Aunt Jen's
red flannel nor anything else.
1t adds not little to Bertie's sense
of injury the fact that she has noticed
a particularly handsome young gen
tleman sitting by the car window
where he can hardly have failed to
hear Aunt Jen's foolish words and
that he has heard them she feels sure,
from the mischievous twinkle in his
gray eyes as he looks up on her en-
trance, and soberly removes his
satchel from the seat beside him, the
car being pretty crowded.
But Bertie will not take this seat,
passing on in!search OF another, which
she does not find, and so is compelled
to return undignifiedly and take the
offered seat, which she might have
accepted at the first most gracefully
"a circumstance which of course
adds to her annoyance and confusion.
The stranger is most courteous and
gentlemanly.
Would she prefer the seat by the
Window as he puts her bag in the
rack.
NO, thank you" very crisply in
deed; so much SO that the gentle
mans black moustache twitches with
a strong desire TO smile, which desire
he represses with praiseworthy
promptness.
But the journey is long, and BERTHE
has time to get over her veIation and
think OF other things. Is she not
going at last to the city which she
has so long wanted TO see, and has she
not whole 800 in her pocketbook
to spend just as she likes? She has
drudged away at teaching in the vii
lage school a whole year past, and
now at vacation time she has earned
this holiday and the right to spend
this money.
She will get something nice for
Aunt Jen first of all, she thinks for
givingly, her anger over; for has she
not been just like mother to her for
years? She shall have a handsome
black cashmere dress pattern that
will gladden. her old heart, and a
cloak for next winter, and all the red
flannel she wants and then she will
get herself nice summer suit and a
thick cloth one for autumn, and a
new hat, and some good gloves and
shoes. and oh, dear! how far does
500 go. She must ask John, dear
old John; she is sure she shall be ali
right when she gets John, for isn't he
wise and sober, and thirty-fve years
old? which seems quite a venerable
age in BERTHE Harris nineteen-year-old
eyes.
She is a pretty girl, this BERTHE, all
pink and white, like an apple bios
som, with bright eyes and curly
brown hair, and her travelling dress
suits her as its feathers suits par
fridge. Presently she unbends little
in regard to the gentleman beside
her, accepting very gratefully the
paper he has been reading, and very
,ooo sba ;s S,nilipo most eplOyingly