Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1894-10-26
AT HER BECK AND CALL.
BY FLORA ANNIE STEELE.

W nat is your ndineF L hsKeu.
"Phooh-ian, Huzoor,' she answer
ed, with a brilliant dazzling smile
sat looking at her, wondering if 4
more appropriate name could have
been found for that figure among the
anemones and celandines- the primu-
las, pansies and pinks-the thousand
and one blossoms which, glowing
against their groundwork of forget
me-nots, formed jewel mozaic right
to the foot of the SHOWS above us.
Powerful life. Truly that was hers.
She had great bunch of scarlet rho
dodendron stuck behind her ear,
matching the cloth cap peIched jaunt-
lily on her head, and as she sat herding
her buffaloes on the upland she had
threaded chaplet on chaplet Of OK
eyed daisies, and hung them about
her wherever they could be hung
The result was distinctly Powerful;
her face, also, distinctly pretty, dis
tinetly clean for n Kashmiri girls
But coquette, firt. mink, was written
in every line of it, and accounted for
a most unusual neatness and bright
ness. ~
s'sssysaE ussasla ny sye ana snis.s'd
again, broadly, innoeently.
The Huzoor would like to paint
my picture, wouldn't he?" she went
on, in tone of certainty. "The So
hib who came last year gave me five
rupees. | will take six this year.
Food is dear. and tn Sc born
contractors of the Maharaiah seize
everything-one walnut in ten, one
chicken in ten.
But was not going to be beguiled
into the old complaints | could hear
any and every day from the hags in
the village. Up here on the murg,
within a stones throw of the first patch
of snow picketing the outskirts of the
great glacier of Gwashbrari, l liked,
if possible, to forget how vile man
could be in the little shingIe huts
clustering below by the river. / will
not describe the place. To begin with
it defies description, and next, could
even hint at its SURPRISING beauty,
the globe-trotter would come and de-
file it. 1t is sufficient to say that
murg is an upland meadow or alp, and
that this one, with its forget-me-nots
and sparkling glaciers, was ike tur.
quoise set in diamonds. | had seated
myself on projecting spur, whence
l could sketch frowning defle north
ward, down which the emerald-green
river was dashing madly among the
huge rocks crowned by pine trees.
81 will give five rupees also; that
is plenty | remarked suayely, and
Phooli-jan smiled again.
'It must do for like being paint
ed. Only few Sahibs come, very
few; but whenever they see me they
want to paint me and the flowers, and
it makes the other girls in the village
angry. Then Goloo and Chuchehu"
- Here she went off into perfect |
cascade OF smiles, and began to pull |
the eyelashes off the daisies deliberate
ly. There seems peculiar temptation
for cruelty toward flowers in girlhood |
all over the world, and Phooli- jan
was pre-eminently girlish. She look
ed eighteen, but / doubt if she was
really more than sixteen. Even SO,
it was odd to find her unappropriated,
SO inquired if Go!oo or Chuchchu
was the happy man.
my mother is a widow" she re-
piled, without the least hesitation.
sit depends which will pay the most,
for we are poor. There are others,
too, so there is no hurry. They are
at my beck and call "
She crooked her forefnger and nod
ded her head as if beckoning TO some
one. For sheer light hearted, iano-
cent enjoyment of her own attraction
| never saw the equal of that face. | /
should have made my fortune if ! T
could have painted it there in the
blazing sunlight, framed in flowers;
bit it was too much for me. There
fore, | asked her to move to the right, [
further along the promontory, so that
l .ould put her in the foreground Of
a picture | had already begun.
'erhere, by that first olump of IRIS, .
! said, pointing 10 a patch Of green
sword-leayes, where the white lilac
blossoms were beginning to show.
She gave a perceptible shudder, /