Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-12-04
MALC0LM'S IDEAL
BY ANNA SHIELDS.

esShe must be tall, Bah; she must be
graceful as willow branch, with eyes
of midnight darkness, classic features,
hair like the ravens wing"
Bah, who was stirring cake, looked
up at the deep window-seat that
separated the old-fashioned kitchen from
the garden beyond. Seated there,
swinging one foot idly, sat Malcolm
Hoyt, describing the future Mrs. Malcolm
as she existed in his youthful imagina-
ton.
"Well2' Barbara said, presently, after
q glance from the tall boyish figure aud
frank, handsome face, to small mirror
that reflected hair of FURNISHED bronze,
the true auburn, and numerous freckles.
"Well? Tall, dark, classically featured.
Any other perfections2"
accomplished, of course. She must
dance like a sylph, sing like nightiu-
gale, draw, play on the piano"
SNAKE cakea" suggested Bah, vigor-
ously stirring her batter.
"Why, no-Mrs. Hoyt will not need
to make cake, 1 think. Not but what
it is very jolly TO know how" he added,
hastily, "but Mrs. Clark might resent
any invasion of her especial depart
ment."
'Yes, I see," said Bah, dryly. "You
DON'T want your wife to be kitchen
maid.'
Malcolm blushed furiously; he was
not quite twentyon and had not for
gotten how TO blush.
81 don't mean that at ALL" he said,
and then laughing heartily, added,
''don't you think we are talking con-
siderable nonsense, Bab2"
~ don't know" said Bah, slowly.
"You say your father wants you to mar
ry, and as you are in quest of wife,
you might as we'll have some idea of
what you would prefer"
"Just like choosing necktie," said
Malcolm, "though think should feel
more interest in the necktie. BY the
way, what is your ideal, Bab9"
al haven't considered" said Bah,
bending her face low over the pan into
which she was pouring the cake.
"Nonsense said Malcolm.
Gas if girl ever lived to be eighteen
without an ideal"
Then Bah violated the truth with a
daring voice, and bright eyes, for she
said:
"My ideal doesn't sit on kitchen win
dow-sills and talk nonsense, at any rate. :"
'You don't know what he might do
under sufficient provocation," said MAJ
colin, teasingly. 81 have seen Steve
Hale look longipgly at my perch within
the last ten minutes"
"Stephen Hale!" cried Bah, scorn-
fully, and lifted the pan to carry it to the
room beyond, where the fire was lighted
in summer.
Her heart was swelling with indigna-
ton. She was only farmers daugh-
ter, she told herself, and Malcolm Hoyt
was heir to magnificent estate and for
tune, college bred, and could marry in
aristocratic circles. But to think she
could look at Stephen Hale, her fathers
''help," man who could not read 1t
was insulting, little Barbara thought,
and she took an unreasonably long time
to adjust the cakepan on the oven-bars,
and pile on fresh wood in the stove.
"Good-bye!" shouted CHEEKY voice,
presently. "l'm off to the postof1ice,
but I'm coming to tea to eat some of
that cake.
"I've great mind to scorch it, ~
thought Bah, spitefully. II would too,
if it wasn't fathers favorite."
II do believe she is fond of Steve
thought Malcolm, as he swung himself
into the saddle. 'sShe blushed as red as
peony when l mentioned him. Isup-
pose it would be what my father calls a
suitable match, but she's a thousand
times too good for him. Why, she's as
good Latin scholar as half our COL
lege fellows, aud she sings so beauti-
fully, that it is burning shame she has
had nothing but concertina to accom-
pany her voice" Then his reverie took
another turn, and he thought: az won
der if father is illf'
1t was the nineteenth century, and
Malcolm was an only child, denied no
indulgence from his infancy, but he
never thought of his father as the ''gov.
ernor" OF the told man. His mother