The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1892-08-27

Suppose ,cds TO 9trc a tea pnrty?"
Ann Basket remarked to Miss May
i,ew that Sister Martha had gone of
".urribly in her looks, and was as yaller
Completed as lemon"
Mrs. Whitcumb intimated that her
nights were bad. She was suffering
from new tangled disease called Sin
sonny" The Bath farm was lonely
place, with no very near neighbors, aud
she had come away for change of scene
and to see something of life.
As it turned out, not many people
called on Mrs. Whitcumb, and 10 one
for the first day or two except Miss
Forbes, a weedy woman, who wore 4
deprecating set smile that looked as if it
had been painted on. Miss Forbes was
on the church social committee, and it
was part of her duty to visit strangers.
Ann showed her into the dining room
and opened the inside wooden shutters
just crack TO let in q thin stream of
daylight. Miss Forbes call was not
very exhilarating. and Mrs. Whitcumb
tacitly acquiesced in AIMS Judgment
that it was not worth while to open the
parlor for her. The formidable room
was not opened therefore until one day
when Ann by mistake showed in book
agent to the subduing gloom of the
place and called Mrs. Whitcumb down
stairs. 1t was rather painful incident
for the book agent, who was shown to
the door with scant ceremony.
In confidential chat with Ann, Mrs.
Whitcumb let fall hint of her surprise
that the neighbors seemed slow about
coming in. Ann opined, as she prepared
baked squash and scalloped tomato for
dinner, that they were getting their chill
dren ready for school, and putting up
fruit and vegetables for winter use
Mrs. Martha was FESTIVE. She had
brought new silk gown. that ratified
as she walked with the stiffness of sheet
tin, and her best bonnet had been
trimmed over for fall with high nod
ding red flowers in front. There was
jet trimming on the silk that had been
put on almost entirely with view to
social calls and the invitations to tea
she was to receive in Littleiield.
1t was therefore awkward for Mrs.
Martha that she had arrived in town
at slack time for entertaining. when
the summer languors were hardly over
and the fall stimulus and energy had
not awakened. There are always periods
of social stagnation in village life, when
the neighbors do not care to see much of
each other. or to entertain strangers.
Then a kind Of dreary wondering reigns,
and the brisk emulation of ''tea fights"
and receptions is not known. Mrs.
Martha had lighted down on one of these
waste and barren places, and it looked,
after three or four days of stagnation,
very much as if the new black silk with
its bead trimming and the red artifcials
would be wasted on the desert air. She
had gone to church on Sunday in all her
glory, and had been greeted with a few
mods and smiles from old acquaintance,
but it was communion Sunday. and Mrs.
Whitcumh did not commune, and there
was but little opportunity for gossip and
inquiries ON the church steps after meet
ing.
To be sure. Mrs. Wood had called in
greeting across the road to her. The
Woods were all rather noisy, out-of
door kind of folk. and fulfilled most of
their social duties over gates and fences.
The house was so near she could catch
the drip of conversation from the win
dow, for the family all had shrill, high
voices. 1t was edifyinS to hear Angie
Wood. though the country was suffering
from a long dry time. express the wish
that the rain might hold off until after
Sunday to allow her to wear her new
dress to church. But Mrs. Whitcumb
was not even amused by the thought of
the upper spheres obeying Miss Angles
wish relative to her new gown. She
had often put up the same petition to
the weather god in reference to her