The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-10-08

llch eT bdDy. WHen Ole VI lSS uuue SUI YOU
up for er leetle lady, and she tweaked my
hair again, at which my tears continued to
flow When Ole Miss done cut Miss
S'rene out n de will, lack she done cut
Marse Leo, an mex you de heir Hain't
you shame, when you oughter be proud
an high !"
"What, Jane = cried, aghast. won't
grandmother have Aunt Washington for
her daughter, ever, any more?
mo" said Jane, ''she done taken you in
her place.
sMer
"Yas," said Jane, with cautious shake
of her finger, San you 'oughter have fit
ton ter your 'sition, Miss Frances. Dey
do say, Miss Frank, as how Miss S'rena is
dat happy wild Henry Lytle, she don't
keer"
Where is my Aunt Washington p l
demanded
"Hun | hain't got her; over ter yer
Cousin Dorcas, said Jane, "but none NV US
fun here hahn ter see her ter speak ter
her. Ole Miss say so =
II won't have her place, and I'll tell
grandmother SOL | cried, stamping my foot,
as was customary with me in those days,
on a sudden rise of temper. "I'll just tell
grandmother so, so there !"
Better leave Ole Miss lone, said Jane,
in an awestruck tome ''Ef she wanter
leave you all she got, you can't top hit.
NY grandmother had disinherited my
Aunt Washington as she had my Uncle
Leo, the year before was born, and who
had never returned from France since that
eventful period.
Somehow, associated the fact with the
offering up of Isaac, without an intervening
power, or the casting of babes into the
Ganges by heather mothers, of whom my
governess read to me on Sunday afternoons,
and for the reclamation of whom | was
saving up my coppers.
looked at grandmother in her flowing
silks, with her suave, gracious manners and
smothered sorrow, and more and more |
associated her in mind with the Hindoo
women, but my grandmother went to
| Il. o,,l ,r,, -
Time wore on, and |, with an uneasy con-
science, wore, as l deemed it, my borrowed
dignity. My father returned and loaded
me with gifts until | skipped about like a
bedizened Indian princess; but still | was
not happy, for feared to confde my trou-
bles to my father without my grandmoth-
er's advice. Girls were very modest and
timid in my day, even the most daring, and
had not fraction of the confidence they
now bravely display 1t may, perhaps, be
now as well; but it was not then the fash.
ion.
At last We heard that there was another
Serena at the house of my Cousin Dorcas
Serena, rose-leaved and tiny.
1t was only whispered, and went to bed
fevered with interest and silent curiosity
for | dared not mention the news to my
grandmother.
She had changed of late, was sometimes
absent and dreamy, as she sat at her net
ting, giving me skeiu after skein to un-
tangle, only 10 mesh them again. My
grandmother was strangely out of sorts;
my governess did not please her, my music
master elicted no interest-in fact, she was
fain to put the little man out of tho house
altogether, and even my voice was harsh in
my grandmother's ears,
Perhaps she was thinking of her dis
tant son, perhaps of my beautiful Aunt
Washington, perhaps of the little baby she
had not even seen. Howbeit, my grand
mother was sufficiently out of humor to
catechise me on geography, and, finding me
wofully unresponsive, she boxed my ears
and sent me from the room,
Now the sting of modification was
heavier than the weight Of my gran dmoth-
er's hand, and gulping something that held
the nervous semblanee of piece Of crusty
cornbread in the throat, l wandered tear.
fully among the elms. [ would do some
thing Child as | was, felt that l was
occupying the position Of an interloper, and
such position was unbearable. had my
own place to FIJI, and could not take Aunt
Washington's, no matter how much my
grandmother wished it. Under her cole
exterior, | knew that she was grieving
that she never would be happy again il
the absence of her child, though she might
die in her pride without a word.
Beyond the arching elms, at sight o
me, my fathers horse, blooded animal
whinneyed from his teether, eager to be gone
] L pdlltu MS SCuolliNC HAHN bldl puiNclSu
beneath my touch. He was saddled anC
bridled, and yet my father had not come
Suddenly great thought tFembled at m!
heart and leaped into pulses. The hous,
of my Cousin Dorcas was only six mile
away, I knew every inch of the road, every
brake, every plum thicket, would hea
the family breach, would yield my falls
position, would go and fetch Aunt Wash
ingtOn.
What could grandmother do against he
presence, my tears, her pleadings?
pictured how she would plead, in a whit
muslin dress-and if she would not, ther
| would, for her.
No one was about Quick as thought
though stealthily, i climbed into the sad
die, prepared for once to do my MASTER
credit, and rode slowly through the hear
of the town, lest should attract undu,
attention. Though people turned ono
and again to look upon my bare head ant
streaming hair--for | had forgotten M