The times., 1890-12-26

RE-kaky#E
'Praise de kingdomtn Glory-Ann ejacu-
lated.
Miss Thorne, or, more familiarly, Miss
Evira, a gentle, faded beauty, attired
according to the height of the style in
the year of grace eighteen hundred and
fifty-seven, was going, this warm May
morning, up to town." as they said on
the plantations around Tallahassee in
the days before the war; and the entire
domestic retinue of Thorne Hill were as
sembled to speed her departure. Her
brother, the colonel, had preceded her
on horseback, for he was a man of too
many inches to endure carriage in a
drive of nine long miles. 1t may have
been because of these extra inches that
he was called colonel, but his world ac-
knowledged the title without inquiry.
The colonel's only daughter, Miss Win
fired, motherless lass of eleven, was
doomed this day to be left at home in
charge of Glory-Ann, the old family
nurse, whose name Miss Winifred had
transformed into ''Mom Bee
Dc tllslI w lullIeu uOeS DOJ run III tnc
sum-" Miss Elvira said, as she sank back
against the cushions and opened a little
well worn volume of Bishop Ken's "De-
votions." Miss Elvira spent her day, for
the most part, reading this good book;
she had formed the habit when she gave
up Sir Walter SCOTS novels, nobody knew
how long ago-or nobody told. 1t was
practice that enabled her to forget little
Miss Winifred, who was young lady of
cxasperating devices.
"Wouldn' s'prise me eff Missy wuz in
dishyer sun now dis minute" grumbled
Gory-Ann as the carriage rolled awsy.
"Yit she mought be poutin' somewhere
bout de house," she amended, as she be-
gan laboriosly to climb the stairs.
The house at Thorne Hill had third
story under the roof, lighted by a win
dow in each gable, and deep, high peaked
dormers, back and front. The stair land
ing divided this story into two long
rooms, which were used chiefly for stor-
ing odds and ends. In the cool north
room was Winifred's chosen den, and
here, in an old discarded arm chair be-
side the gable window, Glory-Ann found
her.
A wild looking child she was, very
small for her II years, with scant promise
of beauty. She had large eyes of a dark,
uncertain color, q mouth for which her
teeth seemed too many, and an insig-
nifcant nose. Streaks of sunburnt
yellow marred the beauty of her curling
and abundant reddish brown hair; more
over, her face was freckled. She wore
q faded green gingham dress, which
marked her growth by two bands of
deeper color in the skirt, where the provi-
dent tucks had been let out. Her arms
and shoulders were bare, but pantalettes
of piece with her dress hung nearly to
her ankles, and obscured her white stock.
ings. Her shoes, every way too large,
laced up the front.
"Praise de kingdom!" Glory-Ann
calculated, pausing in the doorway, her
arms akimbo. ''You deh, Honey"
"Go way! Lemme 'lonew was Honey's
response.
But Glory-Ann subsidized to the floor
beside the arm chair, slowly and with a
sigh, and there she crouched, her hands
clasping her knees. She foresaw that
the exhortation to duty she felt bound to
deliver would occupy portion of time
distinctly appreciable by her stiff and
elderly joints. "Whyn't you mind yo'
book, missy?" she began.
"I'm tired of this old plantation!'
Missy declared, irrelevantiy. "I want to
90 ever an ever SO far awayr' This was
the burden of the young lady's lament
whenever her aunt went upto town with
out her.
"You'd be TUX wild mighty honin ter
git back" said Giory-Ann. "You ter
talk bout quittin' here, when you can't
30 much as dress yo'sef," she concluded,
half in pity, half in reproachful pride.
"I canw retorted Missy, Indignantly,
as she tugged at the stringy and inade-
quate blue ribbon that was supposed to
keep in subjection her rebellious hair.
"Den hukkom you don't nuver do it?'
demanded Glory-Ann, with sly humor.
To this thrust Missy made no reply,
and the old nurse began anew to exhort
her to 'mind her book" "Do, now,
Missy, lax good chile, jes' as Missile
virey said; "an I'm gwan mex de incest
little ginger pone, tubbe sho!'
Tempted by this prospect, Missy slowly
rose, and clasping her small sun Drowned
hands on the top of her head, stood con-
templating, with lazy indifference, her
old nurses struggling achievement Of
the perpendicular. When at last Nom
Bee, with grunt of Thanksgiving, stood
upon her feet, Missy's eyes had found an
attraction in the Home Field, beyond
the garden fence. where the corn in the
burrows was making promising show
of green. In an instant her languor and
indifference vanished.
"Mom Bee! Nom Bee" she cried Ax-