Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-02-27
OHATTY'S ESCAPE.

It was a showery summer afternoon at
Cedar Hall.
Cedar Hall was we'll named. It was q
square stone building, utterly devoid Of
architectural attraction, and completely
hidden in funereal pine and cedar wood.
In the ravne below brawled a noisy
river, upon whose steep banks stood the
ruinous walls of an old snuff mill, whose
rotting wheel had in its time piled up the
glittering tower of Miss Baggs fortunes.
For Miss Bagg was very rich. She
had long ago sold out the business, and
lived here in the cedar woods like an old
fairy with golden wand, and her niece,
Coraline Culver, lived with her.
Coraline Culver was very quiet per
son. Miss Bagg herself was not great
talker; and sometimes-as old Dorcas,
the housekeeper, said-it did seem as If
a spell of silence broodsd over the whole
place.
"And I shall be awful glad" said
Dorcas, "when that other young lady
comes. Shan't you be glad, Miss Cora
line, dear, for a bit CT fresh life about
the place"
81 don't know" said Coraline. "I'm
used to annty, you see."
That "other young lady" was quite
different person from soft-voiced Cora
line. Her name was Charlotte Bagg-
called "Chatty" for short-and she was
the daughter of Miss Baggs only brother,
and she was sent here to the green gloom
of Cedar Hall to get her out of the way
of penniless lover who had had the
audacity to make eyes at her.
To soft-voiced Coraline, it seemed as
If the coming of this new element into
The monotony Of her daily life would
create new existence.
When Chatty arrived "a brown
haired, hazcl-eyed girl with very rosy
checks, and q sort of exuberant vitality
in every look and motion she eyed the
old hall with surprise and disfavor.
"a perfect old daugeon," said she.
"why don't Aunt Bagg cut down some
of the treesl Why don't she pull down
that ghost haunted old ruin by the
riyerl"
"I'm sorry you don't like it," said
Miss Bagg, COMPRISING her lips.
"Oh, beg your pardon !" said Chatty,
coloring, 81 didn't know you heald.
But the rooms do smell musty, you
knowl"
In vain Coraline motioned the I'M
rudent newcomer to silence. Chatty
either did not or would not understand
the signals.
"And the place could be made to look
50 pretty, you know" said she, "with a
veranda all around it, and a wide strip
OF light and sunshine opened to the river,
and"
'I was sixty last week." SAID Miss
Bagg, stiffening herself up, "and am
perhaps capable of managing my own
affairs without the advice and counsel of
others"
"Now I've done It'll" said Cbatty to
herself. "l'm always doing it, Isome-
how seem to offend everybody"
Meek Coraline looked on in grieved
alnazement. In all her uneventful life
she had never made so many blunders or
given so much umbrage as Chatty did
within twenty -four hours.
"Coraline," said Chatty, in a stage
whisper, after she had been about week
at Cedar Hall, "the parrot has flown out
OF the window"
"The parotl'
ayes. You see, thought I'd feed
him this morning az l make friends with
him, and the horrid beast nearly bit my
finger of; and when l opened the cage
door to cuff bis ears soundly he just few
away"
"Ob, Chatty-and Aunt Bagg is so
fond of the parrot"
"Iknow itl" sighed Chstty. "But
veil put some corn on the window sill,
anl perhaps hell come back. Oh, Cor
s!ine, how crooked that picture Of old
JuGgc Bagg hangsl Wait half minute;