Connecticut western news., 1892-05-05
THAT THERE BROWN.

The people who occupy the flat imme- diately beneath ours are great diners | out; and as their dog Is of a sociable dis position he commonly burrows under l the doornat and howls until the return of his proprietors. But the howls now heard by myself and my wife were dis tinctly human, and proceeded from our culinary department at the passage end. Something must have happened to Looshal We sprang from the dinner table, and made one bound to the kitchen door. With instinctive delicacy we listened a moment before bursting in. The outcries never ceased, though at times they sounded strangely untitled. Had burglar dropped in for a late af- ternoon visit? Was he garroting the too faithful creature who had refused to reveal the whereabouts of the plate basket? grasped the soup ladle-which l had unconsciously retained - with nervous determination. We rushed in quietly.
 There was no burglar. Only Loosha behind the scullery door, with her head wrapped up in towel. was giving vent to bursts of emotion which might we'll have aroused the envy of the poodle down stairs With compassion. slightly tempered with severity. we questioned the girl. She took some time to coax out of the chrysalis or pupa condition, but finally emerged from the folds of the towel and explained. Mother-who should have known better. having but brief twelvemonth since inferred her Second-was now receiving the address es of potential Third. himself a wid- over with nine incum brances. In jus tice to the aspirant, we may mention that he was fairly well to do. being d retired joiner by the name of MT. Brown In Looshas bitterest moments she deprived him of the prefix. calling him simply, and for short, That There Brown"
 The fell news had only just been brought by Loosha's little stepsister Elm incline. though Loosha had had pre- monitory warning in the way of creeps down her back whenever she had en- countered the designing Mir. Brown for some time past. It had been a-dorning in her mind. she said. by degrees as there was something up: and this very afternoon he had upped and spoke. most barefaced, on the identical doorstep. Says he. Mrs. Hemnlans, will not de- ceive you, that it was just through you dropping in ill friendly way to 'elp at the laying out of her as is gone tand her only buried eleven months) that my attention was in manner of speaking drawed to you: and in a homely way, putting the thing plainly for your thinking over quiet by yourself. will say you have three and me similarly nine, and both being unin- cumbljed. why not make one extra large table out of your medium and my full sized?" Which table. Loosha parenthet- ically observed, would ultimately prove her deathbed.
 We tried to soothe the aggrieved handmaid by every means in our power. Being within three days of Christmas day. and having proposed to entertain the representative members of our re- spective families-between whom, all the year round. great enmity exists-at a social dinner, the prospect before us was overshadowed by Loosha's grief
 If matters came to a crisis she would as like as not take to her bed and remain there for two days. At the end of her period of sackcloth and ashes she would we knew by previous experience, reap pear as fresh as paint and quite recon ciled to the dispositions of fate. But in the meanwhile what would become of us? l tried to argue. reminded Loosha that her mother was still young. active and industrious: and that one could not, while deploring the act of Mir. Brown. revile him fer his choice of a successor to the departed; that that successor might be called. even now, a pretty woman: and that men would be men, no matter how foolish it was. l would have continued in this strain. but that
 Loosha became hysterical.
 ''She aint young!' she screamed;
 with me twenty-three. how could she? And she ain't pretty: or if she is she ought to be ashamed of herselfi And
 both my father an Emmeline and FL fred's father would say so if they were herel And if she does it-which at her time of life is a disgrace-l shall drown myselfr"
 Then she went into mysteries and drummed the floor with her heels and the back of chair with her head in quite an alarming manner: and l was ordered out of the kitchen that she might be unfastened and the inevitable remetliats applied. It took a whole gill of Paragon vinegar and the best part of the tail feathers of our Christmas tur- key to bring her to anything like com posture.
 That was three days before Christmas. We have got over the dinner and the meeting of the clans without any casual ties other than those we were bound to l expect. And Loosha is preternaturally bright, sharp, tight and brisk. AS she goes about her work she sings. Come Buy My Colored Errin" is favorite vo- cal exercise with her. But it has been superseded by "Take Back the Art" |" And, from the piquantly expressive
 meaning Loosha infuses into the opening l lines, it is plain that she applies them to Mir. Brown, whose addresses have been discouraged, and whose matrimonial | plans have been circumvented, thanks to
 the prompt action taken by Loosha in
 the matter. It may be mentioned that
 our handmaids baptismal appellation
 was originally derived from a popular
 novel, called "Loosha of Lam Her
 More" and read by mother at an ilnpor-
 tant crisis. Mother is quite a literary
 person. having worked for several au-
 thors, one of whom was a poetical genius
 attached to we'll known firm of soap