The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-03-20

e SNW JXNSH * RAOUuy
&@ nieces, from the city, sitting
T~ in the shady corner of the
Nr,@ farmhouse piazza busily
St@ shipping away at the OBJ
stinate threads that held
East the plumes and flowers of their
hats. "'Yes, best Sunday-go-to-meetin'
hats too, continued she," what air you
rippin' them up for? Don't they suit
yea as they air?"
The two girlslooked at each other in
a~half-ashamed way, then pretty Maude
answered. apologetically, i We heve other
hats, Auntie, when we want to wear
them, and the fact is, we we're so MORT.
ned last night at the lecture, there was
Mrs hopkins hired girl with q coarse
hat bent into that new shape like mine,
n = bunch OF cheap roses dropping over
n side of the brim, just exactly as
Madam Loveller arraigned my silken
peoples and ribbon-grass, in the latest
French style; and in front Of .us there
was a fr~eckled-faced, red-headed pirl.
wearing a grass-green dress, trimmed
with red ribbons, and q hat that was the
qucerest.imitation of Cousin Ada's Gains.
borough hat. I wish you could have
seen those old tips, dyed a bright blue.
sticking up around that old hat a la
Ada's white plumes."
Aunt Mehetabel sank down int, the
depths of the great split. bottomed rock.
lng-ohair, giving a little sigh as she did
30.
Wei girls! I did think you had
Lore sense than to let a little thing like
that upset you. faint no disgrace to
be a hired girl, nor a freckled face one
either. l take it as a compliment, when
folks try to look like me. Fact is, if it
hadn't q been for another girl trying
to look like me, and a gettin' every
thing to wear jest like my things,
Id never have got your Uncle James,
and l allus think of that when [ see a
girl toying to get herself up Jest like
some other girl she thinks is sorter
stylish"
"Oh, do tell us all abous it," cried
stories"
"Ies, do" chimed in Maude, Il like
to hear love stories, especially true ones
that you know are sure to turn out
we'll"
Well" said their aunt, complacently,
IF l tell you the story to please you,
you must stop your shipping to please
me. l don't want my neices so Nightly
that they can't bear to see any one else
have anything like them.
ITO begin with my story, though, 1
hadn't ought to tell it. SEEM its myself
Tin talking about.
II was about the best looking girl in
Upton Center, and I mad lots of beaux.
Girls used to like to flirt them days,
same's they do now, but there was one
beau used to come to- see me, and he
kept a'coming 80 steady like that by
and-by the rest quit hanging around.
and it was the talk ofthe neighborhood-
country places are awful for gossip, you
know-that we were to be married. His
name was Silas-Silas Melton. He was
tall and pretty fair-looking, with his
curly hair and black eyes. and for them
days he put on a heap of style. He
would bow and scrape.and palaver until
/ begin to think right smart of him.
Father and mother they didn't like
him much, but for all that it would had
been q match if it hadn't a'been for
Lydia Perkins.
"She was a soft, silly thing, anyway,
and she was that heal dead after Siias
that she would sigh and roll her eyes ct
him for all the world like a dying calf.
The other boys leased him Almost to
death about her, and Silas couldn't
bear her, or speak peaceable
to her hardly, but she got
worse and worse, sighiu' aud lookin'
at him. He was mighty fond Of style,
and she kept thinkin' the reason he
went with me vas because had better
clothes than most of the girls. 1 had
an aunt in the city and she used to send
me patterns sometimes. So she fell to
borrowin' my patterns, and maxim all
her clothes like mine, even to her
aprons and sunbonnets.
some spring Aunt Sarah sent me a
new Leghorn bonnet trimmed with blue
striped ribbon. Leghorn was Just
comm into style then, and none of the
other girls had n for a month or
more. Then Lydia had a chance to
send to the city, and of course she or
dered n like mine. The first time
she o it was to prayer meetin' at
the old Center church. She came in
late, and as Deacon Smith was prayin',
she sat down by the door, and hardly
anyone saw her. Now the young folks
used to have a standing rule of polite
ness that if a young man wanted to es-
cort q young lady home, he must ask
her for her company in the entryof the
church-he mustn't ask her in the
church, that looked forward-nor after
she reached the steps, that was too slow
and backward; SO the boys used to
make break for the entryfthe moment
meetin' was over, and stand in q row
from the inside door to the, steps. The
entry didn't have any light, 'cept from
tho open door, but every boy watched
sharp an when the right girl come
along, he would step up and bow, aud
say, Can I see you home to-nightY an
oil they would 60, arm in arm. Some
times q poor fellow would get the
mitten, which was kind Of hard, long
as the. other. boys we're. listening, but
that is the way they used to do.
We'll that night, I was q going
slowlr'along, not hurryilg, forI knew
Silas was q waitin' for me, so what
does Lydia do but just push
ahead. and when she was good in
the entry, Silas saw her wide bonnet,
and he walked up al grand as you
please and asked for. her company,
never KNOWN his mistake till she says
with a little shipper, Why, of course,
with pleasure And there he was with
her hangin' on his arm, and the boys a
laughin' ft to kill.
Il was close enough to see and hear
it all, and I was SO mad and mortified
could have cried. Some one stepped
up to my side as though he was goin' to
speak to me, and as we passed through
the door, and out on the steps, I saw il
was .bashful James Richards, as We
always called him. There wasn't Q
better young man in the country, but
he was SO &ashful that he would turn
red q a pi1ey if any girl spoke to him.
You zee, he had wanted my company q
long time. but hadn't dared to ask me
and though he saw Silas was out o
the WY for that night. it took hin
30 long to get his courage up
~ wa were out Of doors before