Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1894-06-28

around Maple Center and registered
their names by the score in the books
of the village hotel strolled out on the
Maple road, they always stopped at
the Bubble farmhouse and cried {:
Glow exquisite, How picturesque' y
And for the life Of her Miss Belinda
Bubble did not know why.
1T amt as if I could afford a coat
of paint to the old house, said she
It's just a slate brown with winter
storms and summer-suns; and ;he
erape-arbor's all a-tumbLn' down for
lack of brace or twoof solid timber !;
and the well-sweep amt half as con-
yenieut as Mrs. CIaghorn's new chain
pump, no way You can fix it; and the
stun walls all oyergrown with them
pesky runnin' vines and briers To be
sure, the four-o'clocks and the morn
.ing-glories are sort Of pretty by the
fence, and there amt no prettler holly
hooks in the country than them dark
red and chery-colored ones jest this
side ofthe pear tree. As for the bee
hives, I always did like beehiyes, even
if it wasn't forthe honey Mymother
set a heap of store by them bechiyes,
and there they've stood nine of them,
in a row, ever since | can remember.
| And there amt no honey in all the
county as has got the flavor Of our.
I don't know whether its Squire Car
buncle's buckwheat-Geld or that there
cloyer-medder of Mr.. Darnell' as does
/ it. But you can fairly taste the sun
shine and the flowers in it y
And it was genuine sight, at
swarmins-time, when Miss Belinda Is
sued forth into the black and booming
clouds, all gloved and yelled and tied
up in mosquito netting, with a tin pan
and a skinner in her hand.
Il ginerally have hrst-rate good
luck with the swarms, said Belinda.
Il don't know when I've lost one, if
only folks would let Inc alone But
it's the meddHng people that come to
offer their help, that upsets me and
the bees. Squire Carbuncle, now, he's
real sensible He don't never come
round interfering. If he sees the
bees making up their minds to swarm,
heiest gets off his garden-chair and goes
into the house. For bees, they re
dreadful sensible They have their
likes and their dislikes, Jest as human
creeturs have-and they never could
get along with Squire Carbuncle!
Squire CarbuncIe was a quiet, grlz-
zIe-headed man of fifty, who iarmed a
model farm, with all the new machin-
cry patents literally oiled with gold,
read the agricultural papers, and was
always "iust going to- write an article
for the Gentleman Farmer Miss
Bubble herself was not much younger.
She supported herself in genteel way
by vest-making for a factory in the
neighborhood.
Il suppose, said Miss Bubble,
Squire Carbuncle will get married
some day, and l hope he'll choose a
sociable wife that | can take comfort
with exchanging patterns and chat
ting Of an evening over the garden
fence.
Belinda Bubble is a sensible
woman. said Squire Carbuncle, in his
deep, sonorous voice. Tony certain
knowledge, she has refused one or two
/ shiftless fellows who wanted to marry
her merely to be supported. She's a
good deal better off single than mar
.
ned.
Miss Belinda never said word
when Squire Carbuncles superb liver
colored setter killed her tavorite Mus
cow duck-and the squire, on his
part, condoned the otiense, when Miss
Bubbles chickens scratched up all his
early lettuce and made havoc with his
seeding pansies and pinks.
"Neighbors orter to be neighborly,
said Miss Belinda. And dog nature
Is dogs nature"
Il must stop up the cracks under
the fence, SAID the squire. VI
course, Belinda cant help her chick
ems getting through No woman
could.
Thus matters were, when Miss Be,
inda's cousin, Fannie Halkett, came
to visit her-a plump, peach-cheeked
young woman who was cashier at a
glove store in the city
Cousin Bubble, said Fannie, why
don't You marry Squire Carbuncle?' p
LA, Fannie cried the elderly
damsel, starting back so suddenly thai
she stepped on one of the yelvet-whlt'