The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-08-21
Drama Of Dunstable Farms
BY DORA REED GnODALE.

Having no special interests ofmy own
and being Of q somewhat obscrvant habit
of mind, l was last summer sympathetic
spectator OF the little domestic expert
cnce which I have called here the drama
of Dunstablc Farms. l may even say
that was humble participant in it.
The heroine-but stop! the mino:
characters should appear first. Now
Patty, it must be confessed, is a minor
character. Enter Patty, then, first, with
her apron on, and her hair rolled ur
smoothly under round white cap-nol
pretty az ell, but wholesome and pleasant
to look on, and as satisfying for q long
Journey as lot of brown bread.
Dunstablc Farms; YOU may have heard
of the place. where the family has
1ourishcd ond spread like banyaa grove
since William Dunstablc planted himself
here in, l don't know what, year oi
grace. All tho land hcreabout was
bought of the Indian tribes, the old deeds
signed with their "marks' being still IN
the family archives, 50 that it is the
Dunstable boast that their acres have
never been owned by any white man
bearing another name.
Hither, to "recruit," N q potable
morning in May, when the roads had re-
covered from the prolonged state of pros
tration which afflicts them in early
spring, came Ia spiustcr, reader, but
not too old o one to find young people
congenial.
Patty met me at the station. Patty
drove me home and Embarrassed the horse,
and afterward set the table aud brought
out the swectmcats for supper. Then she
superintcnded the carrying of my trunks
up a flight of back stairs which seemed
designed for the shaft of al elevator.
Patty was the active, the serviceablc, the
delightful; there were five in the fam
lily now, she said-her father, her
mother, herself, Norah the cook, and
Stephen the hired man. was to be the
only boarder.
This Stephen I Immediately seized
upon as the villain of my piece, chiefly
because of his rough, shaggy head and
bis solemn, lnscrutable visagc, whic':
looked rs if he were revolving the dark
est designs, although could hear of none
worse than c great thirst for learning.
It was democratic household, and Ste
phen had his seat at the lower end OF
the table. He and Mr.. Dunstable often
paused to discuss the care OF the live
stock and methods of tilling.
But soon learned that there was an
other daughter, Eunice, the sixtceu-year-
old, and the clever one of the family.
There was always one head-picce among
:he Dunsta5le kin, said Patty, ingeuu-
ously, and she further Informed me that
it was odd that Eunicc should have come
into this family inheritance, because their
own father was not the bright one of his
generation; but Eunicc took after hel
Uncle Erastus, she s'posel, who studied
At Middleield College and went into the
ministry.
1t was an understood thing that the
most intelligent one, boy or girl, should
have good advantages, and when Eunicc
carried off the prize at c spelling match,
while still small creature in pinafores,
and in the district school outstrippcd all
the cousins growing up at Dunstablt
Farms, family couclavc was held. Ont
uncle contributed a heifer, another c
sheep,-they were land-poor, these Dun
stables, aud saw very few present dollars
in the course of year, the gir
was sent fifty miles away to the Young
Ladies' Seminary. This was two year!
ago, and next year she woald graduate.
must own that my feelings receivej
shock on first seeing this brigh
one, this Eunicc, somc three weeks later
when Stephen lifted her and her trunks
from the ample farm-wagon. Whatove1
the original material might be, th'
veneer of boarding-school life was dis
played to perfection. She wore 4 Whit
hat with some "style" about it, indeed
but o very Objectionable style, as i
seemed to me, and pair Of kid glove
at least two sizes too small. She coult
not have handled fork in those gloves
nor have held up her skirt, much less he
umbrella. Now Patty's best gloves wer
of gray cotton, with lacc-work wrists
and sometimes, I ought to add, she wor
them when she saddled the horse.
1t was hard to understand how m
clrl could be at once so keen and so con
Trajectory as Miss Eunice. She did no
seem to despise the farm, but professo
an ignorance of things pertaining to
which, it seemed to me, could not b
genuine. She would dislike Stephen,
supposed, as a common farm laborer, an
he would find her fne-lady airs ridicu
lous.
Alas, that even at thirty our wisdor
is baffled by these young folks at ever
turn! Miss Euuice treated Stephen wit
good-natured indifference, while he, lik
the the perversc fellow he was, chose
treat her from the first as q kiud of d
vinity.
She was given to studying geometry
and biology, too; she spent whole fore
moons over the microscope, dissectiu
not only plants but fishes and mice, a
though Patty on no account would hav
permitted her to joint up the chicken
for dinner. She was not an idle CIR
but full of activities rather, and yet sh
did nothing at all to help in the house
except to trim over all Patty's hats an
remodel most of her dresses.