The Opelousas courier., 1891-07-11
THE NECkTIE PARTY.
BY ELLA 3. CUTTINGS.

" OhC bdlOludJ u1lCItiCOA III OCtOUCk
four Swaleville boys stood on the Villa
mette River bridge in earnest converse.
ton. These boys represented, at least in
their own estimation, the ~aristocracy Of
Swaleville.
The eldest, a boy of seventeen, was
Percy Drake, whose father kept the
Drake Hotel, and was a man of conse.
quence. Ben Tyndal's father had a gen.
eral merchandise store adjoining the
hotel. Harvey Ballard was the editors
son. But the crowning aristocrat of them
all was Clinton McKinser, a newcomer
in Swaleyille.
1t was his father who had mysteriously
arrived in the town, as mysteriously pur.
chased the worthless farm of n shiftless
fsrmer nsmed Pete Morley near by, and
afterward laid it out in building lots,
calling it ssMcKinsey's addition to
i Swalevilfe."
Is had afterward turned out that he
had got wind of and anticipated the
building of a railroad to Swaleville, and
his timely purchase made him a person
of importance.
In the business development of the
place which followed the news of the
coming of the railroad, the improvement
and establishment of the .schurch-
house," which served as a place of wor-
ship and general assembly for all the re-
ligious denominations, might have been
neglected if the ladies had not taken it
in hand. They began a series of fairs
and festivals 10 raise money to paint and
refurnish the unsightly building.
Swaleville had never known such a
round of gaiety as it had noW.CAt first
the people gave literally, but when all
the new and taking things in the way of
entertainment seemed exhausted, the
"two-bit pieces" came reluctantly.
At this discouraging j~uncture Miss
Carlisle, the popular village schoolmis-
tress, offered to help the ladies get up q
tsNecktie Social" 1t was arranged that
each lady who attended should bring q
lunch for two, and enclose it in a dupli-
cate of the tie which she wore.
These lunches, put up in fancy baskets
or attractive parcels OF some sort, were
! to be sold by auction to the gentlemen.
Each purchaser was then to share his
lunch with the lady whose duplicate tic
came into his possession. /
The ladies advertised the affair at
once, and the tagging interest of the
people in the reconstruction of the church
house revived.
tt was not only new, but it was Miss
Carlisle's plan. That counted for much.
The boys on the bridge were talking
of this party.
Eyes, of course we'll co. said Ben
Tyndal, "only | hope the bidding won't
run high. / don't want to make a very
big hole in my bicycle money
ssI'H risk that, " said Harvey. tsFather
says folks are desperately close with their
money. Every one wants to pay sub
scriptions to the Mformsr in stove wood
or apples
eff I could find out which was Miss
Carlisle's lunch, I'd pay five dollars be-
fore I'd let any one else get it," said
Clinton McKinsey.
- p0 WUuIAls ~ cdlA i C1O pA0hOs @ -
would be money in their pockets to let
the cat out Of the bay about her basket
some way. There'd be some lively bid
ding if twas known
stThat's the trouble with this sort of
thing. Nobody knows, and everybody
goes-all the riffraff. Fancy a fellows
having to lunch with one of the Glass
girls, for instancel It takes ones appe-
tite to think CT it,
Clinton's nose went up in air.
stOr, worse still, with Betty Morley!n
"a chorus of laughter followed this
suggestion. Betty was the very unat-
traetive and very uncultured daughter Of
the worthless Pete Morley.
ssOh, she won't be THERE said one.
tsI'm not SO sure of it. tt she gets
it through her head what it's to be like,
and could make a raise of corn bread and
bacon enough for a lunch, I think she'd
GO
ssShe might stew one Of those big
pumpkins in her fathers late corn Geld.
They reserved the crop when father
bought the place. said Clinton McKin-
sey.
aHellol" cried Ben. HHere comes
Mark Grannis. Wonder if he's going,
too?n
with Betty2s
In his oyeralls!'
81 say, boys said Percy, hurriedly,
and lowering his voice, eve an idea for
i regular larki It's about Mark and
Betty, and the pumpkin comes in. You
keep still, or else fall in with what ] say,
when he comes along. I'll explain at
terward.n
aAll rightin
Mark Grannisss father was hostler and
man-ofsall-work at the Drake Hotel. His
mother took IN Washing. Marks social
standing was decidedly low; but he led
his class in school, and the upper ten"
were d little Jealous Of the kindness
which Miss Carlisle always showed him.
What teacher fails to appreciates bright
and ernest scholar, esen though he is
clad In oyeraisi
s.HeIlo, Mark Going to the necktie
party
Mark shook his head, and was passing
on when Percy called out:
Whats your hurry, old boya Can't
you take time to be sociable, one IN q
whilca Because you bea US all at school,
you necant put Oh airs outside, eh2p
Mark had an uneasy suspicion that
Percy was making faan of him. Still, in
xR x5&E2 a