Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-11-14
MY STEPMOTHER.

My story is not one of yesterday. 1t
is "Reminiscences of long ago, when
was lad of II years. My father was
doctor, and we lived in an old fashion
ed house in the Hampstead road, where
his consulting rooms and dispensary
were also situated
1t was in July, and the school at which
Twas day pupil-the institution would
now probably be called an academy
for young gentlemen"-was on the
point of breaking up for the autumn
holidays. One day during the morning
recreation had boyish dispute with
schoolfellow, whose true name was
Joseph Cornish, but to whom we had
given the nickname of Ginger in conse-
quence of the light carroty color CT his
hair.
Ginger was morose, cross grained
boy. heartily disliked by the whole
school for his hangdog looks and sulky
temper. 7 have forgotten the cause of
my quarrel with him on the occasion to
which 1 refer, but 1 remember that we
speedily came to blows and after a
short, sharp tussle l sent him sprawling
Oh the ground, to the undisguised de-
light of the onlookers, who shouted:
"Bray-vo, little Carboyl Serve him
right" Ginger gathered himself up,
shook his red name and scowled at me
threateningly.
''Never mind, Carboy," he snarled
"You have thrashed me, I own, but it
won't be long before you get bigger
hiding yourself, mark that''
''Not from you, you cowardP' I re-
torted defiantly.
''Oh, no, not from me. Oh, dear,
no. he sneered. 'But from your step
mother You'll soon have one, Carboy,
and then, my eye, won't you get thump
ed!''
GA stepmother! Pm going to have a
stepmothern' The bare idea of such a
thing struck me SO exquisitely droll
that I burst into fit of laughter.
"Oh, yon laugh now," said Ginger
disdainfully. "Wait awhile, that's all.
You'll see. Your father is going to get
married again. know what I'm talk
ing about. do! And then you'll have
stepmother, the same as me. She II
give you beans, like mine does me-
What a jolly larkH' And his ugly,
freckled face expanded into fiendish
grin which made him look, if possible,
uglier than ever.
His jeers would infallibly have cost
him another drubbing. but just at that
moment the school bell rang and f1us-
trated my bellicose intentions.
l firmly made up my mind to think
no more of Ginger's taunting words,
but in spite of all my efforts to blot this
sneering prophesy from my memory the
dismal vision he had SO Indignantly
conjured up still clung to me. Every
where, sleeping or waking, at my les
sons and i'll my leisure moments, at
home or at school, that one horrible
word, stepmother, was always before
my eyes. At last, completely dominated
by the grewsome spell, 1 found myself
irresistibly impelled to write on my
slate, on the fly leaves Of my books, on
the white mantelpiece in my little
room, inside the chest of carpenters
tools my godmother had given me for
my last birthday, on the gummed med
icine labels I furtively took from nly
fathers surgery and stuck on disused
blue bottles marked 'poison"
where ''Stepmotherp'
Then suddenly, as if to confirm the
prognostication of the diabolical Gin
ger noticed certain occurrences which
appeared to my jaundiced observation
alarmingly suspicious. For some days
unusual stir was going on under my
good fathers roof. In the first place,
several rooms were now opened for the
first time since my mother death three
years previously Margaret, our faithful
old servant, who had lived in my fa-
ther's family long before his marriage,
was plunged in fever of excitement
from morning till night. With her cap
stuck on the side of her head she rushed
up and down stairs 20 times day,
turning out cupboards, taking down
curtains, pulling up carpets, cleaning
wardrobes, polishing furniture, scold-
ing everybody who crossed her path and
conducting herself generally like all
elderly female in an advanced stage of
mental alteration. In the midst of these
strange potents the surgery boy, whose
ears she boxed twice day at least and
who had never before dared to offer the
slightest objection, actually turned
round and had the audacity to say:
''Lor, amt glad that you won't be
my missus much longer" I know he
said it, because heard him with my
own ears.
I confess that all these mysterious
events greatly increased my uneasiness.
''Oh, if it should be true!' l whis-
pered to myself, with a shuddor. ooh,
if father is really going to be so unkind,
so cruel, as to give his motherless little
boy stepmother!'
AS a matter Of fact, | had no expe-
rience Of stepmothers, no recollection
of ever having seen one. But l had
heard some shocking stories of their
malevolent propensities, and though l
had no personal acquaintance with Gin
gers stepmother the tremendous knobs
and bumps that frequently ornamented
his head and which he assured the boys
were her savage handiwork were all the
confederation / required to convince me
that small boys and stepmothers were
much of the nature of oil and vinegar
and totally irreconcilable.
How well l remember one particular
ly restless night, during which dream
ed that had stepmother who infiict-
ed hideous tortures upon my wretched
anatomy, sometimes raising protuber-
ances on my head with the aid OF the
most formidable pestle to be found in
the surgery and at others operating in
cisions in my little arms and legs with
sharn knives and needle pointed lancets-