Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-10-31
THE JOLLY MANDARIN.

Before Clementine went down to Mill.
town for the summer she made up hel
mind that she would bend all her ener.
gies to wheedle Aunt Phoebe out of the
old blue ginger jar that Uncle Julius had
brought home from China, little think
ing that the old slant eyed, fat sided
mandarin would take such jocular in
terest in her joys and sorrows.
The old blue jar had perched for many
years on the corner of the high mantel.
piece in the old fashioned country parlor,
and Aunt Phoebe knew that if she gave
it to Clementine she would have dread.
fully lonesome feeling every time she
stood on chair to dust the old clock,
the shells, the peddler vases, the feather
fans, and other companions of its lofty
abode. But Clementine was an accom-
plished wheedler, and the fond old aunt
finally said she might have her wish.
When Aunt Phoebe gave over to
Clementine her right and title to the old
blue jar Randall was leaning in the Win
dow and idly sitting rose leaves from the
old climbing vine through the meshes of
her lively admiration for the antique and
unique in china, and was glad that she
had attained her hearts desire; but
more absorbing interest possessed his
manly breast.
Clementine was going home in the
morning, and he had been trying in vain
for several days to get the feeble courage
of his ardent convictions up to the de-
clarative point. She was such lively,
fun loving girl, and love, you know, is
such intensely serious business. Several
times Randall fancied he had found her
in sober and properly receptive frame
of mind, when, with tritiing jest, she
would defeat his intention and put the
little god to flight.
Now, however, when the slant eyed
mandarin on the blue jar winked at him
through the vines, Randall said to him
self enthusiastically:
well, old boy, that's the very thing!
thank you for the bright idea! Are they
all as clever as you are over in China?''
That night, in his room under the
caves, he constructed an eloquent letter
to Clementine, and, in the early morn.
ing, sneaked into the parlor and deposited
it in the robust bosom of the old blue
mandarin.
IF she finds it before she goes home it
is all right, said the timorous, adoring
fellow, land if she doesn't find it until
afterward it will be all right too"
But the mandarin felt a little funny
that day; so, when Clementine packed
her trunk, he inspired her to stuff the
ginger jar full of her silken hose, that the
precious article might take no risks of
breakage in its voyage. So, when Ran
dali parted from her at the station she
made no sign of knowing anything in
particular, and his hopeful heart decided
that she would surely find the letter
when she reached home, and he would
then hear from her.
Now Clementine was girl who always
had great many things on her mind,
and when she had unpacked the treas
ured jar and placed it on dainty table
in her pretty parlor-with a self con-
gratulatory thought that it was so re-
spectacle to have things that ones rela-
tives had brought from China-she
wholly forgot the curious load that the
mandarin had on his breast She missed
her silken hose, of course, and pestered
Aunt Phoebe with messag ges about them.
In Milltown, as you may imagine,
Randall waited for the answer to his letter.
Awhile he waited patiently, then impa-
tiently awile, and then dived into his law
books with that "composure of settled
distress" which lovers have known in
every age and cline. He did not dream
that the slant eyed mandarin would be
guilty Of the ungentlemanly trick of in.
tercepting love letter.
But the fun loving mandarin knew
what he was about. He was not without
experience in these matters, and he
wanted to punish Clementine trifle,
and bring her to the proper condition of
seriousness.
And Clementine was feeling the situa.
ton with all the sobriety that was desir-
able. She had suspected all summer
that Randall had a tender feeling for her
which she felt qualified to reciprocate,
but she was proud girl, and could not,
by a feathers weight, influence the
balance Of his intentions. Therefore, be-
hind her smiles, she had been not little
wounded that he had allowed her to
come home without having given ex-
preston to his sentiments.
So she, too, now took on a sober coun-
tenance! and banished thought and re-
gret by joining several new clubs and
taking membership in two or three more
charitable organizations.
Just before Christmas, Randall, one
day, experienced in his breast sort Of
imperative intimation-perhaps direct
from the slant eyed mandarin, who
knows THAT he might hear Of something
to his advantage if he should 20 down to
the city and call upon Clementine; so
a -. -'.n- inlsl" Resistance to the mes
-, lie brtuok himself thither.
H.. VAS graciously received by Clemen,
! ne that is, graciously enough for a
H.'lns man who had played the triter
~ilh her invisible affections-and he
seated himself in a cosy chair near the
pretty table which held his old friend,
,he blue jar.