The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-06-21


1oHE AWAY A BLANK LEAF AND scRIBBLEI
HASTILY ON IT.
Mark Spotford was lounging in his
mothers sitting room in great easy
chair, with his feet wide apart, engaged
III shipping bit Of cloth with pair OF
tiny embroidery scissors that scarcely fit
ted on the tips Of his thumb and fore6nger.
Mark was a big fellow, long in the legs
and arms, and broad Of shoulder, deep
chested and vigorous, with thick crop
Of curling auburn hair and gray, specu-
lative eyes under thick eyebrows. Eye
glasses dangled by cord from his neck,
but he seldom wore them, and a charac-
teristic habit of contracting the eyelids
was due to his shortsightedness Marks
lips were made up for whistle as he
SIT idly shipping the shred of cotton;
then suddenly he threw up his arms and
gave great and prolonged yawn. show
ing all his beautiful firm white teeth
back to his molars and bicuspids.
aCome, Mark, said his mother, who
sat at little table near by, engaged on
some coarse kind of canvas, on which
she employed variety of bright colored
embroidery silks, '.do bestir yourself
Here IN this little room You seem to ex-
haslst the air, you are 30 big. / can
hardly move without stumbling over
you.
Mark got up, made a queer grimace
that gave comical expression to his
plastic features, Strengthened himself
slowly, as if he were jointed, and were
uupacldng from some sort of a case, and
then went over to where his mother sat,
took her fair gray head in both his arms
and Rugged II against his huge breast,
~9h nanny, is there no way at all ]
can see Kitty It is beastly duh here
without her. as you must know We
have always been such fast friends,
nanny dear, and now to be cut of
from Kitty when we live just next door
is what call horrid cruelty"
Mrs Spofford patted her boys big
hand with her own small white one,
sparkling with rings, as she sat, her
work suspended and her handsome head
still in chancery to the lads strong
arms
What can we do, Mark? Your father
has quarreled with Kitty's father, and
non-intercourse Is the rule of the two
houses. =
Il say it is beastly bad" said Marx,
twisting his features into another queer
griuaace. shat we must break off ali in
tercourse with our dearest friends be-
cause two old fo-"
Don't be disrespectful to your father.
said Mrs Spofford graveiy.
No, ofscourse | don't intend to blame
dad. He is not patient man by any
means, but am of the opinion that old
Childers goaded him past all endurance.
Old Childers is a regular Tartar when
his temper is once up, an unreasonable,
pigheaded, prejudiced old scoundrel.
How he ever came to be the father of
Kitty cannot imagine"
Tut, tut, said Mrs. Spofford, freeing
herself gently from her boys embrace
and proceeding to smooth her rumpled
locks with both her delicate hands
Don't You remember not so many years
ago when you always called him Uncle
Ben, and how he used to ride you on his
back and bring you a pocketful of
goodies whenever he came to the house
to see your father
''0f course, NANNY, he was dads
best friend in those days, his old college
chun We all thought him the ldndest
hearted, jolliest man in the world; and
he is generous, viii say that for hinl.
And that time that dad got hurt on the
railroad, remember how he came and
stsid with him nights, and took care Of
him like brother. But we did not
kDow then what devil of temper he
had-not till he persuaded dad to come
put hero to Littlefield and build this
house next door to his own. The two
houses were planned almost exactly
alike, and there was never stick OF
stone of wall Oh fence between. Their
Hover beds ran into ours, and our peas
and lettuce hobnobbed with theirs, and
That house WAS Just as much Of home
TO me as 0urB was, and Kitty and Tom
were like my own brother and sister,
and now it is all SO sadly changed. Dad
and Uncle Ben guarreled about some
confounded thing or another protec-
tion and free trade and town Office,
believe 1t was that began the shindy
and things went from bad to worse,
until Uncle Ben built that great brick
wall between the gardens topped with
iron spikes, and spoiled both places.
Now when ! come home Tom passes
me by. like q contemplate cock-sparrow
that he is, his hat on his ear, and Uncle
Ben snorts like a locomotive, and Kitty
preteIlds never to SEQ NE in church; hei
eyes are always fixed on her prayer
book. ! am a stranger to them all, and
The two cooks and the two coachmeI
and the Two gardeners have taken up tht
quarrel, and all fight each other. Ton
Childers shoots our cats Nhsn tAe1