The Opelousas courier., 1893-05-20

Are the finest, and her chickens the 1a6-
test IN the neighborhood. She wages
relentless persecution upon worms n
insects, and it seems as IL the things
didn't dare to try to eat her cucumber
plants. If the curculio attacks one of
her plum trees, she cuts the tree down
before the Others suffer. "Better one
dead tree than a lot of slckly ones" she
saws. With an eye, perhaps, to Aunt
kitty's swelling bank account, a very
nice man asked her to marry him. She
replied that her life was, indeed, for any
who needed her, but for no husband.
Her heart. she said, lay at the bottom of
the ocean,.
In the table is a small drawer which I
ought to open and dust. Ali the
only thing here is a painted ambro.
type of Arnold in a blue velvet case.
/ take it reverently from its folds
Of tissue paper and open it, On
the inside cover is pinned a curl of rud-
dy brown hair. It Is a boyish face,
laughing, pure and sweet. Till the last
he must have bounded over the crests Of
life's ways-happy, fearless. If only
they could have been married, and had
their pretty children about theml
But, Grace Brown, | thought you
were sweeping! l push back the drawer,
move the table, and ply my broom with
vigor.
Here are some dry leaves and flowers,
dropped in the shadow of the door.
They are botanical specimens which the
doctor and I were studying last night.
We found a purple Gerardia, yellow
Trefoil and Polvoolcr-'~ IDLE
1--we. We examined them
through the doctors big microscope.
That Polygala was hard studying, aud
there he sat, enjoying my poklng with
bis needles, trying to count stamens ana
cells too small almost to be seen with
the microscope. He would not help
one bit, and l felt more and more
stupid. He says 1 will make a fair
botanist if l persevere. The doc
tor knows everything about plants,
but then he had. to learn, so as to dis
pense sarsaparitla, and all his other vege-
table stuffs. Botanical names do 80
dignity medicinesl Now I should hate
to get we'll of a fever on Monkshood or
one of the Deadly Magistrates. But
call them Aconitum and Belladonna and
I shouldn't mind In the least. s0ut here,
where I have a few companion{rthe doc
tor is very agreeable. He began p~ractic-
ing in New York, but it was uphill
work. So when the old physician of
this place wanted to retire, anC invited
this young doctor to take his practices
he was glad to come. Some of his pa
tients live off quite a distance, and he
says I may as we'll enjoy the ride with
him on fine days. He calls, quite un-
professionally, of course, on Aunt Kitty
very often. But come-my little dried
up Gerardia, you and the rest must
share a COMMON fate and go to the dust
heap.
t A few wsite hairs are caught on
the broom. I take n gently off and
draw it through my fingers. Aunt
Kitty's hair turned white in the
fever. I love white hairs. The mixed
suggests the struggle between
youth and age; but the hair softened
and whitened at last means the triumph
of wisdom, purity and peace over irrita.
bility, passion, vanity, ambition and
those other tempestuous attributes of
youth and middle age. cannot associ-
ate white hair with any but good people
like Aunt Reoekah and Aunt Kitty. The
bad ought to use dyes and keep their
locks, like their hearts, a dirty yellow.
black.
I have come to the what-not, and ]
regard it with dismay. What not, in
deedl Heaps of knick- knack, shells,
vases, daguerrotypes. picture cards,
boxes, small china figures, all waiting to
be busted. On the top shelf peacock
and dried grass wave from an
vase. Here is my mothers pic.
ture in a small frame made of pine cones.
There are hair flowers under a glass. d.
let us look at these ancient daguerro,
types. This is Uncle Amos, more sol
even than his portrait. That is
cousin Sebastian who lives in
Australia, and sends me something
ARE and pretty every Christmas.
have never seen him. bul
thought a great deal of mother, who
lied when I was four years old. It is
or her sake, I suppose, that he sends me
Here is a group of my own
five light haired, pretty, delicate
Only one lives now. Their
mother died of consumption, leaving a
,aby three months old. Uncle John, q
brother of my fathers and Aunt Kitty's,
Knew a Massachusetts, girl, strong and
'weet- tempered, who was teaching
chool. He went to her and said:
"You were my wife's best friend. Her
have her constitution. You
Know their doom. Come and make their
hort lives happy. She would be pleased.
will give you money and a home. ALI
our wants shall be- gratifed. And for
he care you give my children our graft
ude will be your re%compense."
She went, and took up her task, de.
ermined to conquer those fatal seeds of
Ieath which were the mothers heritage.
The struggled, and did indeed give them
Iappiness, but she could not give them
ealth. What a fearful fact hereditary
II They lived from sixteen to twenty
ears. then one by one they dropped and
led. ALI but one died in her arms.
lie, ~singularly, escaped. As a forlorn
ope, he was sent as common seaman on
sailing vessel. Being weak and IN.
sed to climbing, he fell to the deck aud
roke his hip. He was taken to the
where he lay for a year, his +,
ound suppurating and refusing to heal. {
Thar ha a;I -ooovor ho -,If-oJ -~:aL,