Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1890-02-21
HER LITTLE SISTER.


she was bewitched. F"
Frances Crest set down the blue
rimmed plate she was wiping with
coarse homespun towel.
HWhere is she, motherl' said she.
"Out in the woods, l suppose. II S
where she always goes.
'Mother, you mutt remember that
L zzie is young. Don't be hard upon
her" plea led Frances.
Mrs. Crest was Farmer Ob,d Crest's
second wife, and Frances, the tall, pale
girl with the sombre brown eyes and
the oval, colorless face, was the good
woman's stepdaughtor, while pretty IS
year old Lzz.e was her own and only
child.
"But for all that" said Mrs. Crest,
81 put a great deal more dependence
on Frances than do on L zzie. Fran
ces is all the same to me as my own
child"
Hard upon herp sho repeated
querulously. "What I'm afraid of is
that I'm too easy with her She's al
ways had her own way in everything.
And she takes it dreadful hard that you
should be going to Albany and she left
at home. ] never knew such nonsense
in my lifew
A disturbed expression passed over
Frances's face.
'It's natural she should feel so,
MOTHER" she urged, gently.
Frances Crest hal diligently taught
school for three consecutive seasons to
earn the money for this coveted winter
in Albany, during which she had prom
ised herself to take music lessons an
aid to her knowledge Of art and
literature.
For she was engaged to Stephen
Ellsworth. and she Ionged, with an ex.
ty shining hair, which hal brok en- loo,
from its coarse horn comb, ana fell
ink-black ripples down her bach
There was little brook twininp i
transparent sparkle5 around the gnarle
roots of an ancient tree and back
ground of black green laurel. which
with the sun bathed meadow in front
made sort of rustic picture that struc
Paul Gessner's artistic fancy as h
crossed the wooden bridge.
'IshOuld like to sketch her" h
thought to himself. 81 wonder, now
what she would say to itp
But before he could get hi, pencil
and mill boards out the young Dian
had poised her empty basket lightly OF
her head and she was gone.
'1'm sorry for that" eoberly pom
dered Gessner "She had a brillian
Charlotte Corday sort of face tha
would have stood the test Of perpetua
tion on paperw
And then Mr.. Gessner went into tb,
inn and set himself at WORK to elabo
Z sA-s sAe..,..----e ~ NJ ~ ~ y n
Literature of Queen Anne's Time
which was to be delivered the next
evening at the village hall.
There were plenty of people at the
inn. Brookbridgo was wild, sylvan
sort of place, which attracted people in
the summer season. Every farm house
and cottage in the vicinity was crowd
ed, and Lecture" was something tc
stir the quiet stagnation of their every-
day life. Moreover, Paul Gessner had
a reputation for scholarly polish and
graceful wit, which had reached even
to Brookbridge, and everybody was
talking Of the Lecture.
Can't l go17 said Natty Purple.
"Oh, | wish could go!n
The towels and table-cloths were all
bleached whittier than snow, between
the daisied grass and the July sunshine,
and Natty was sprinkling and folding
them now, with quick, deft fingers. in
an obscure corner Of the kitchen.
'You go, indeedI" said Mss Carrie
Podham, who condescended to wait at
table during the crowded season.
''YOu've too much to do in the kitchen,
and besides, the tickets are fifty cents
each"
Natty Purple sighed dolorously.
Fifty cents!" she repeated ''Oh,
then Of course its out of the question: y
For Natty's slender wages were all of
them expended in the support of
good for nothing old grandsre who,
wien he was not drinking whisky, was
suffering unheardof agonies with the
rheumatism. She never wore anything
but calico, and drudged away in the
inn kitchen, like a modern Cind erella
without any of the eclat which, in
ancient story, appertained to that young
person.
But, later in the evening, the head
stableman looked into the kitchen
where Cinderella was darning a well.
worn table napkin, and Mrs. Podham
was preparing brook trout for break
fast for the morrow's early travellers.
"Where's Jiml" said the head stable
man.
"Gone out" said Mrs. Podham,
curtly.