The Globe-republican., 1890-01-01

any thing because she would not learn
to bake and brew; and the honest coun-
try boys who admired her afar OH, and,
flushed with strange, eager JOY, they
couldn't understand when she smiled on
them. But there was one person who
wasn't afraid of Miss jamie, and that
was Harrison Wilkins, whose mothers
farm joined her fathers, and who took
her out in her little cart on the first
journey she ever made in this world,
when she was six weeks and he was six
years old. 1t was Harrison who carried
her little shiny dinner pail to school
when she went to learn her b c's; who
taught her how to steer the sled and sail
the boat; who buried her kitten when it
died; who helped her break the spirit of
the fractions mare, and showed her how
to sit the saddle firmly and hold the
bride well down in her firm little hand.
1t was Harrison who took her where the
first mayflowers came in the springtime;
who showed her where the first straw
berries ripened in June, and who shook
the first chestnuts down for her in Oc-
tober; who helped her with her sums in
arithmetic and fought her battles, and
who never feared her or needed her
pretty imperious ways at all. Perhaps
it was the care that his fathers death
brought to him as child that developed
his strength and firmness and fearless
ness; perhaps it was only the dignity Of
his great love for jamie that made him
her master. The day they buried the
kitten he told her not to cry. for she
would be his little wife some day, and
when she Indignantly lisped her vow
never, never to be any body's wife, he
only laughed and said: ''That's all
right, jamie, for now, but you'll change
your mind some day."
Every one in Wilton thought jamie
and Harrison were to be married-that
is, every one but Janie-when there
came upon the scene Adolphus Com
stock from distant city, who was the
son of her fathers oldest friend. He
came for the fishing and the sketching,
but he stayed for something else.
He knew women only through the
conventional formal medium of society,
and was such an exasperatingly and in
different cynical creature that he piqued
most women into displaying their frivol-
Gus and least attractive characteristics
to him. He cared more for his pointers
than for his sisters chattering friends;
for trout book, his rod and flies, than
any moonlight excursion or picnic, with
galaxy of pretty girls who must be
waltzed with and talked with. But
jamie knew the favorite haunts of the
speckled beauties herself and could give
him points on the fishing question be-
sides. Harrison had taught her. She
could pull her skiff steadily and still to
where schools of bass hid in the cool
waters of the lake, and land the gamiest
of them without a scream, and when she
cleared five-rail fence on the wicked
little pony which he had seen her sad
die and mount, his respect grew into
wondering, piquant interest. He liked
the proud reserve with which this little
rural beauty met his advances, the pref
ty scornful curl of the red lips at his
finest compliments, and the naughty
poise of the small head as her eyes
flashed charming negatives to his pro-
posals. He fancied what wonder she
would be once she learned her power;
what queenly beauty in the apparel
which his wealth could give her; what a
strong, tender woman once her spirit
were broken and her heart melted.
Harrison looked on grimly at all this
wooing, ground his teeth sometimes as
she rode by with the handsome stranger
on the horse he taught her how to ride,
but always smiled at last in confidence
content. and said to himself: ''She will
flirt with that city chap to the end of
the chapter, but she will be my wife at
last" He told her so the day of the
husking, when he was helping her fasten
the cedar festoons. Her face was tempt
ingly near his as she raised it to lift to
him some more of the greens, and they
were just beneath the kissing wreath,
too, but when he would have claimed his
just and lawful dues she stopped him
with pretty protesting please" and
as she turned her flushed face away he
could see the full white throat culver a
little as with sudden contraction, and
the lips trembled strangely. They were
all alone in a big, fragrant place just for
minute, and he stopped suddenly and
caught her with moose of the green
rope he was draping, and asked if she
had forgotten that she was to be his
wife some day, and when, instead of
the usual spirited protest, she only
laughed and told him softly that when
she was quite sure she was ready she
would give him the kiss she owed him,
he freed her and went on with his ham
mering and whiting.
That had been trying day for jamie.
She had helped her mother with the
baking and her father with the barn
decoration. She had ridden twice into
the village for some forgotten ingredient
needed for the mysterious processes 60
ing on in the big, sweet pantry. and.
worse than all the rest, Adolphus Com
stock had proposed to her in the little
parlor, where she sat polishing the scar
let apples for the supper. 1t was all SO
sudden, and every thing was in such a
fiutter that she didn't know what she
had told him. but was dimly conscious