The Washington times., 1894-09-02

my hftieth birthday than she had ever given
me. something unique and domestic and use
ful and since then I've seen her at work on
those towels. BY the way, the birthday
comes next month. You remember l prom
ised YOU a party, and a party l am going TO
have. 1t will be just before commencement
and every one will be here and ! shall have
very pretty party. l have always held that
there ought to be some time. some marked
time when a woman should definitely an
nounce herself es no longer Young. and fifty
seems natural milestone, After fifty l shall
change my style of dress; my old lady
clothes are making. They will be like the
clothes that 1 wear now only a little graver
and little richer, and-I shall wear capsi''
Caps" cried Mrs. Allison. good gra-
ciousl'
Certainly said Miss Maria, 'caps are
very becoming 10 me as well as suitable to
my declining years. Oh. l assure you
don't intend to make d trump of myself.
"But caps" Mrs. Allison pursued feebly.
81 can't think Of your pretty hair in caps.
Mysien (Mysie was Mrs Alisons married
daughter, who had lived much in England
and had what the people in Wiatioc called
notions )-"Mysie is wild to have me put on
caps, but l tell her when my hair goes
shall scud under bare poles. You see''-
them: he knows l am getting on in years, but
he hates to confess it. And as for you, Maria,
If you had husband -"
''But as haven't a husband" said Miss
Maria composedly, 'at least [ can have caps" "
She reached for the plate of cake and began
to press ii on the company.
cit is q real English plum cake said she,
whether that is to its credit or not. The re-
cipe was given by an English lady TO a
Southern friend Of mine who gave it to me-"
| She sent glance over the mounds of speckled
yellow, at Mrs De Forest, who was sewing
| rapidly. Miss Maria drew an imperceptible
| sigh. That cake has associations to me, ~
! said she. ''The first time / ate it was on my
friends plantation, and was sitting on the
veranda. She had just brought out plate OF
| this cake smoking from the oven, and had q
| piece in my hand when l was aware OF bare
footed little creature, pattering over the gravel
| up to me. Please lady, will you give me some
| ofthat fur my maw? he said. He was dirty and
/ ragged vet he looked, somehow, like n child
that was not always dirty and ragged and he
had taken off his dusty black felt hat when
! he spoke. He could not have been more
than ten years old, but he had huge pos
! sum, and lank dog. the 'possum trailing
! from his wrist, and the dog at his heels. i
! got suthin' TO swap fur it.. said he, and
| like fur to git more truck-aigs, and meat,
and cornmeal, please-it's a terrible good, fat
| 'possum.'
Il asked how he got the 'possum; he said
! he had lent his dog to q darky the night be-
fore and the 'possum was the rent. He and
| his mother had come into the country in a
movers wagon, one of those cloth-coyered
! things that we used to call prairie schooners
out West. They were working their way
| South; his father had been killed in a fight
with mean man, and after that his mother
and he had travelled on alone; but she fell i'll
| with typhoid fever-of course, he didn't
know it, but this is what 1t was-and they
were obliged to halt. There they we're in q
! miserable cotton picker's house on the out
! skirts of the plantation, so leaky and dis
mantled that it had been deserted. the woman
sick in bed-or what they called bed-and
her only nurse and provider that ten-year-old
| boy.
''Yet he told me that when he went out and
| brought in some eggs and some milk in a
| bottle she would not touch them because she
knew he had taken them. 1t was pitiful to
| hear him tell the story She didn't eat nary
we had corn bread and a little bit of po'k
but she cudn't swaller he said, in his dreary
sweet-voiced Southern drawl, so l hooked
| the aigs and the milk; / MIXED a COW
didn't milk mon pint-est inter a bottle
but nav, she sayd: Ambrose, you take then
| thar things back, and you steal airy mother
thing I'll bust you haid, will Nav i:
| dretful good an homes so then l did not
know whut to do, and put it up mebbe cud
swap 'possums fur truck, an I seed that thai
cake, an nav, she did use ter love cake
an'-an' mebbe t wud make her well agin i
| she'd eat
His voice trembled and could see the
muscles of his little thin throat culver Well
l called Lydia, and the end was we took alonf
some brandy and broth and milk and wen
back with the boy. There was an old darky
nurse on my friends place, a kind old sou
who lived alone in a comfortable cottage, anC
we moved the poor woman TO Aunt Hollie!
cabin. That night 1 stayed with her. Th'
boy was in a little bed in the same room To
ward morning could see that the poo
woman was sinking, but we rubbed her will
brandy and gave her brandy to swallow, anc
did what We could. She did not seem to rec
! ognize Us. Once only she spoke; she said