The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-04-08
THE HEILMAN TWINS.

man tWlns Were DORM the VOx pOpul.
of Nippenose Valley declared in un-
compromising terms that nothing but
trouble could come Of 1t. Not that
twins were usually regarded as I'M
lucky; only tSere was something I'M
canny about the Holman twins.
1t was not natural that they should
be 80 exactly alike, even to the tiny
"cow-lick" that developed above the
left temple of each OF them as soon as
their hair began to thicken; there
fore the Dutchmen disapproved of
the twins.
When the twins went to school the
trouble became worse than ever. At
home when one of them was unusual
ly naughty, unless caught in the act,
she usually escaped punishment, be-
cause Mrs. Holman could not tel
which was the guilty one. Occasion
ally, however, she squared the ac-
count by administering sound
spanking to each, which proceeding
covered all the ground and soothed
her own conscience.
But Mrs. Hoilman's system Of
duplex spanking obviously would not
do at school. No teacher would dare
to punish two scholars for fault of
which only one could possibly be
guilty, 80 the twins led their long
suffering preceptress miserable
dance. At first they were allowed to
sit together, but when it was dis
covered that Bertha had been recit-
ing history and geography for both.
while Greta attended to the arith-
metic problems of the whole family,
the teacher rebelled. II the girls
had beep physically inseparable, like
the Siamese twins, this style of
education would have served well
enough; but as ultimate separation
was to be expected in the nature Of
things, this division Of labor had to
be stopped. So the twins were
placed on opposite sides Of the room,
in spite Of energetic protests and
unlimited promises of reformation.
But the purgatory of the school
mistress could not last forever, and in
course Of time the twins went forth,
seeking fresh worlds to conquer. A
fertile field for their ingenuity imme-
diately presented itself in the multi
tsde Of young taen who appeared as
candidates for the favor of either-or
Of both-of them, and in their new
roles they found as much amusement
as ever in exchanging names to the
vast bewilderment OF their adorers.
This had its disadvantages, though,
for naturally, the young men were
chary Of showing a decided prefer
ence for either sister at the risk of
finding himself the next day mistak-
ing the other for her. 1t might lead
to awkward situations, they thought.
So, though admirers were plenty, it
appeared that earnest suitors were
few.
Few, but not altogether lacking.
There were several youths who had
strong feeling in regard to one or the
other OF the twins. One of these,
who was either more rash or more in
earnest than the rest, boldly avowed
preference for Bertha and in some
inexplicable manner he seemed able
to distinguish her from her sister.
How he did it no one could guess,
himself least of all, but certainly he
rarely made mistake.
Bertha had no special regard for
Peter Updegraff and was careful to
mako him understand this. But
Peter was Pennsylvania Dutchman
of the good old type-rather dense
and heavy, with an enormous fund Of
perseverance, sufficient to keep him
struggling all his life to attain any
single object upon which he had set
his heart. He was not otherwise
Objectionable, being quite up to the
average Of the valley in the matter of
brains and considerably above in the
matter Of property. But these things
did not move Bertha, and being a
good-hearted girl she endeavored TO
escape all appearance of flirting with
him as soon as she found the jest be-
coming earnest. Still she liked him
we'll enough and common civility
forced her occasionally to accept some
slight attentions which she would
have avoided IL she could There
fore it happened that one afternoon
she rushed up, stairs in great haste in
search of her sister.
ssOh, Gretap' she cried, as she
burst into the room, there's Pete
Updegraff coming up the road, and l
had forgotten all about promising to
go sleighing with him to-day"
swell, what Of that?" queried
Greta, laxily. IL suppose you can
go, even II you did forget it."
swell, but don't want to go. /
know he is going to ask me to marry
him to-day and ! don't want to go
with him. Can't you go-hell never
know the difference.
s.Yes, he would" returned Greta.
HE doesn't often make mistake,
and II he's going to propose to-day his
eyes will be sharper than ever"
"No. they WON'T" replied her sis
ter, quickly, That's just 1t; hell be
so occupied thinking what he is go