Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-05-08

youth and hope bloom eternally.
She lived in little hall bedroom,
in one of those great, unhome-like
boarding houses, where people are
packed together like sardines in box,
and worked for Mademoiselle Vicini,
tho fashionable milliner of Playport.
She had speaking acquaintance with
Mrs. Bloom, the plump widow, who
sat opposite her at table; Kitty Sup
pie, the pretty shop-girl on her left,
who despised homely people, and
thought no one ought live after she
was past thirty; and Mr.. Mills, the
foreman in the printing Office OF the
Playport Eagle, who sat at the corner
beyond, and that was all.
During the day she worked hard at
the store; in the evenings she sat at
window, with a shawl across her
shoulders, and mended her clothes
and read her Testament, and crocheted
on black worsted mat, which had
Leen on hand for year at least, be-
cause Kitty Supple generally had
beaux in the parlor, and audibly de-
clared that "she thought old maid:
had no business to be peeping nnd
prying!"
And upon the whole, it was not
very lively life.
Mr.. Mills, up in his seocnd-story
front, was as solitary as she, nc
doubt. But he was man. He coult
go out to theatres, reading-rooms
chess clubs. Miss Pendham wa
tempted to wish at times that she Wa!
q man.
There was such an utter lonelines:
in her heart, that when Billy Parks,
the landlady's little boy, brought his
mittens to her to mend early on the
morning of the first Of April, he wa:
glad of the chance TO talk to some
body.
ri say, Miss Pendham," observed
this artless YOUTH "Uhy don't you
get marrind."
Miss Pepdham 66as i
the reflection OF the red yarn where
with she was threading slender darn
ing-needle. -;
s:Everybody doesn't get marrisd,
Billy" said she.
"-7Yes, that true, Remarked Billy.
"Mother, she says she wishes she'd
never gone and got married, when
father goes on spgse- -Bvstt1MiissS1p Miss Sup:
pie, ple-sshe she says, you'd have got married
to old Mills long ago, if you could
have caught him.
Miss Peudham was silsnta moment.
She Was used to these satirica! stingS
OF Kitty Supplies vivacious tongue !;
but all the same, they smarted.
sMiss Supple ought not to talk SO,
said she. "She knows that Mr.. Mills
is nothing to me-.
"Mother says that Miss Supple
wants old Mills herself" says Billy.
81 don't like her. wouldn't marry
her, not for hundred dollars! She
told mother about the comic valentine
I sent her, and mother gave me q
licking. But I'll be quits with her
yet. I'll April-fool her, see if I don't !!
Did you ever get April-fooled, Miss
Pendham, when you was a girl? Or
April-fool other folks?''
'Sometimes," said Miss Pendham,
a moisture blurring her vision rs she
remembered the great, fragrant barn
at home, and tho slim girl-could it
be possible that it was herself?-fll-
ing the hens nests with empty egg
shells and deceptive china eggs, to de-
ceive the laughing little brothers who
were dead and gone long ago.
"Wasn't it fun, though? ?" said Billy,
with o chuckle. Il mean to April
fool everybody in the ehouse. Thankee,
Miss Pendham!'
And snatching the mittens from her
hand, he scampered cheerily down
stairs, three steps at time, finishing
up with prolonged slide down the
banisters.
While Miss Pendham tied on he1
bonnet, arranged her little gray shawl
and went to Mademoiselle Vicini's,
with q bandbox in her hand, which
contained Miss Helena Montrose'G
wedding bonnet-a marvel of white
tulle, orange-buds and point-lace-
upon which she had worked late the
preceding night.
And Kitty Supple, who was late n;
the store, tripped after her, with
fluffy, brown fringes of hair escaping