The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-01-30
MISS RoxANNA MAKES UP HER MIND.

| house, reckless of the driving rain; and
when the rain ceased, at dawn, ne had
| come to that sorry little implanted house,
| in the corner of the field, on the edge of
Eden, his horse flecked with foam, him.
| self drenched with the storm.
A bird was singing in the blooming
| elder bush that grew near one of the
windows; it was Dosia's window, that
looked toward Leon county. There
were no blinds, and presently the white
curtains were drawn aside and Dosia APP
| peared; the small, square, high set win
dow framed her like an old fashioned
portrait. Well might the carpenter boast
of his daughters beauty! 1t was of
| type that needed no adjoining; and Do
STA, as she stood in the window, was none
the less an exquisite picture that her
black dress was so severely simple. Her
luxuriant dark hair clustered in little
rings over her low, fair forehead and
around her shoulders, a graceful riot of
curls. There was a smile, wistful and
tender, on her perfect mouth, and far
away look in her splendid eyes, that ig-
| nored the near surroundings and pierced
the distance with the souls vision.
Out of sight, behind the screen Of
dripping elder bushes, Nicholas beheld
this benediction in his young wife's eyes,
and tears blinded him. "Ah, dear and
beautiful and goodr' he sighed. Little
do they dream what an angel they scorn
in you! If they only knew you! But
they will not! And so farewell to them;
henceforth I have only Dosia, dearest
| and best! And to what fate have /
compelled you, unworthy that l am!
Like the unjust steward, Il cannot dig;
to beg l am ashamed But happiness
yet is mine, and can neither repine nor
repent"
Dosia shut the window, and Nicholas,
dashing away his tears, rode around the
corner of the field to the front of the
house.
"Now, how shall ask for her, at this
hour of the morning." he pondered, not
without n certain sense of amusement.
'Her excellent cousin, Roxanna the
Rigid, knows nothing of our marriage.
The old Methodist minister who per-
formed the ceremony is somewhere in
Georgia; her mother is dead; her father
is away-and he'll be invited, within an
other hour, to knock off work at my
aunt's, I'll bet my life!'
Dosia's cousin or, to be more exact,
her mothers cousin, Roxanna White,
was one of those women providentially
left, for the convenience of others, with
out settled habitation. Fortunately she
had no objection to Giving around;" she
liked change. She had nursed Dosias
mother in her last illness, and she re-
manned with Dosia now, in her loneli-
ness, not unwillipgly, for she was far
seeing, and the day might come when
Job Furnivalwould be seeking consola-
ton; she ate no idle bread, and Job
might yet learn her value
Roxanna, according to her wont, was
up betimes this morning, and having
browbeaten the hired negress who did the
cooking, she bounced out of the front
door, broom in hand, to sweep the front
porch, just as Nicholas Thorne came up
the steps.
A tall, strong, gaunt woman was Rox
anna, in whom hard work and meager
fare had left scarce trace of the buxom
beauty that had distinguished her youth.
In her dress, narrow and short, there
was no effort at adornment. Them as
likes may put in their eight or nine
breadths," Miss Roxanna was accus-
toned to say; "but four is plenty fur
any mortal woman, an mo- convenient
10 pocket an backbone" No ruffles, no
tucks, no manner of superfuities for her.
Her only vanity was her hair, which still
retained its color and its gloss. She had
lied a towel over her head to protect it
from the DUST but truly the dust might
hardly reach her head, so high it was
above her broom.
Now, Miss Roxanna White had never
approved of the admiration Nicholas
evinced for Dosia. She was decidedly
Of the opinion that it would never do to
have this young sprig Of quality hanging
around a girl whose mother was dead,
and whose father was away. She would
have liked to sweep Col. Thorne's son off
the porch, with the two or three leaves
she espied upon the floor; but as she
could not do this, she lowered in the |
doorway, and held her broom crosswise,
as she exclaimed, forbiddingly: LAND |
alive! Nick Thornc! What brung you