Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-04-04
JOHNNIE AND TEENIE.
Story Of q Little Coquette and
How She Was Conquered.

My latest experience IS to be cauRht
In the delicate filaments Of genuine
Texas idyl.
had heard of my heroine long before
I saw her, ms undisputed belle of the
whole Dry Fork sountry, where she
held regal state, like the cruel princess
in the fairy tale, sending away suitor
after suitor and champion after cham
pion despoiled, not of his head, but of
his heart, and with several inches taken
of the stature of his conceit.
The family name was Drake; Tcenie
was affectionately known among her
admirers as 'thc duclk;" the ranch was
''thc duck pond" and whenever an
other unfortunate went down to wor-
ship at her shrine, he was facetiously
referred to as having gone ducle-hunt-
ing
She was as q rule engaged to three or
four of the best-looking and most prom
Using young sheepmen of tho region,
and carried things in general with q
high hand. All this had predisposed
rae to think slightly of the girl as
poor, shallow creature, trifing with
and rejecting men who were too good
for her only to crafty her vanity and
love of conquest.
But perhaps the thing that prejudiced
me most against her was her failure to
fall a victim to the charms of Johnnie
Sherwood.
Johnnie and I are great friends. I
met him at balls, where he was the best
dancer; at round-ups, where he was the
finest rider and roper, and he camPedwith
our party many q night. A handsome,
black-eyed boy of twenty -four, just six
feet, with fine, square shoulders and
wcll-knit figure, beautiful black hair,
curling fiat against his round, comely
head, glowing eyes, a satiny cheek, fresh
and warm; q nice, wcll-cut chin, with n
good mouth, with n youthful mustache
above it, and the finest white teeth pos
siblc.
Face and figure were quito handsome
ordinarily; but when the eyes shone,
the dimple deepened, and the
white teeth flashed in the bubbling,
mellow, spontaneous laugh that came
SO naturally from the fine deep chest,
you hastily laid aside all judgment and
surrendered your heart.
never heard SO captivating n laugh.
There was virtue, there was piety in
it. 1t was sweetcr than reason, better
than wisdom. You felt n sense Of per-
sonal and affectionate gratitude to him,
as though he had made you a special
gift Of it.
And these two were sweethearts
once; indeed, Johnnie had been en-
gagged to Teenie, "all by himself"
when no one else was, and the matter
was regarded as quite serious.
There was, as might have been ex-
pectcd between two such heart-breals-
ers, a smash; mutual recriminations
were indulged in. At the hottest Of
tho quarrel, smarting beneath Il sense
of injustice, tingling at remembrances
of the affronts she had put upon him,
Johnnie came one day upon n maverick
and made SO innocent a thing as year
ling calf the vehicle of his resentment.
1t was delicate bit of cowboy repair
tee, an example Of purc Texas wit, to
catch it up and brand it all over itS
helpless bovine side in great, sprawling
letters: "DUCK."
When the capering bonmot present
ed itself before Teenie's indignant eyes
she waXed very wroth indeed, and told
her big brothers, but on the ready offer
to "wipc up the ground" with the au-
thor she weakened, and advised the
whole family that they treat him with
silent contcmpt-which they were do
ing when l went there.
When came to spend 4 week at the
Three Cedars ranch and see her daily
with her mother and her little brotli-
crs and sisters. found her quite differ
ent from what I had imagined, and
was constrained to like the girl despite
my disapproval of some of her meth
DDS. She was good daughter, n kind
sister, aud the blithest, most irrepress-
iblv Joyous creature, with n frank, en-
gaging boyishness of manner that 1
never found in any other girl, and l
soon came to the conclusion that If she
was vain and tickle it was the fault of
the foolish men who hung about her
and rninistered to her vanity.
She rode finely, and was as passion
Gtely fond of it as l.
She appeared unaware of the six or
eight years difference in our ages, the
wide dissimilarity of our history, train
ing, environments, and probable aims
and am bitions, and made of me a regu-
larchum and dconfidante, seeming tothinll
it no fault of mine that / had been city
born and bred; that at heart, and given
n fair show, 1 was ''as good a man. as
herself.
I used to talk to Tcenie q good deal
about Johnnie, dwelling warmly on his
good qualities and his winning ways
She was always ready to argue with
me on the subject, processing to find
him the most hidcous and disagreeablc
of mortals. When 1 ceased she would
go on at some length herself, applying
to him all her small feminine epithets
of dcrogation, sncering especially at his
conceit.
Perhaps a more masculine bat might
have been deceived by the appearance
of frank sincerity with which she
"slanged' him, but. as Sister Peacock
says, l am female myself, and will at
the proper time acknowledge it; and it
convinced me--if it convinced me of
anything-that Tecnie was no more in
different to Johnnie than he was to her;
that, indeed, she carried as sore a heart
as he did.
Lets go and get some of those res