The record-union., 1896-03-21


particular, and must needs look over
half the farms in the country before he
settled on a place that suited him-that
piece down yonder on the old south
road. You can see fifty miles over the
hills from where he elected to build his
front porch, true enough, and mighty
pretty country, too-but pretty is as
| pretty does is a good motto, and there
isn't a poorer piece of ground, as far
as any use goes, in this entire township,
| which is saying a good deal
/ Well, he bought the property, and the
next thing we knew down came the
builders all the way from Boston. He
didn't hire any of the carpenters from
the neighborhood because he seemed to
want a different kind of house from
any they knew about making, and as
1t went up, sure enough, you could see
that 1t was going to be different from
what we had been used to before.
| When it was all done and the furni-
ture began to arrive, remember we
girls used to make errands down along
| the south roadway as much as ever we
could, for the loads of things that were
| carting up to the new house were that
fine that they made our eyes stand out,
can tell you, even the little glimpses
we could get of them
In day or two after that the help
| came-most coachIoad of them, and
they were all black people. We had
hardly ever seen any in these parts be-
fore, and don't know whether we were
most scared or curious about them. AS
far as go. never did feel quite right
toward those real dark ones. OF course
! m hau
about brother men just on account of
the way they happen to be completed; !;
but there are some of those people that
are actually so black that you can't
see them, and I'm free to say that that
kind always did make me creepy.
| And then, pretty soon, came the strange
| gentleman himself-the Colonel we al
ways called him-and with him was the
most beautiful young girl 1 have almost
ever seen. She didn't look more than II
or Is, and though she was slight and
willowy- like, she hadn't the appearance
of being anyway delicate in health. Her
skin was a clear soft brown, like what
you see on those pictures of Italian
girls that come on handkerchief boxes,
and her cheeks were just a little red
through the brown-so pretty! She had
the biggest, darkest eyes that ever could
| be, and her hair was all black and full
of shiny ripples. Once, when she was
riding horseback with her father past
our house. her hat blew off and flew over
the fence right by where"I was stand
| ing, so I picked it up and carried it out
to her, though the Colonel had jumped
| off his horse and was coming after it,
All her lovely hair had tumbled down
her back, and she was laughing and
trying to put it up again. She locke"
as sweet as moss rosebud, but when she
spoke 1 couldn't hardly understand a
word she said, it sounded so strange
| like, so the Colonel had to explain it
| to me. I heard aferward that she had
been to school away over in France
| ever since her mother died, when she
was little baby, and she hadn't got
to talk English very well yet, though
she learned enough of it later, poor
thing, land knows!
They used to ride a great deal to-
gether, she and the Colonel. She didn't
know anything about horses when she
first came, but he looked as though he'd
been born in saddle and he seemed to
| love to teach her and to be perfectly de-
| lighted with the fine figure she made as
soon as she began to understand about
| it,
| None of US ever went up to the house
at ALL They wern't what you would call
neighborly people, but they were always
pleasant-spoken when they met any of
us on the road, and we felt kindly to-
ward them.
And then they seemed so happy and
content together, ard SO sufficient to
each other, that it didn't look as if there
was properly room for anyone else; so
when, after a while, young man be-
gan coming down from Boston to visit
with them, staying, sometimes, three
days or more at a time, declare / felt
as if it was almost a pity, even though it
did seem as though perhaps Miss Lucia
ought to have some company near her
own age.
! He was rather a well-favored young
man, / don't know as it was what you
could call a strong face-more pretty
than that He had blue eyes and real
pink color in his cheeks, and he seemed
nice-mannered, as near as you could
| tell from what we saw, but he didn't
| look as we'll on a horse as the Colonel
did-not by a long sight. By and by he
got to coming oftener and oftener, and
then, after a while, we heard there was
going to be a wedding. The first thing I
said to myself when I heard it was
| Poor Coloneli' for I couldn't for the
| life of me see how he was going to make
| out without Miss Lucia, and what's
more, didn't like to think of it.
Father and mother were asked to the
wedding, and so was old DIR. Popham
and his wife and the minister and a few
more. There was a minister coming
down from Boston going to marry them,
but our preacher and the other folks
were asked because the Colonel said he
shouldn't feel as if Miss Lucia was
rightly married if he didn't have some
of his neighbors by to see it done. He
didn't seem to expect to have any old
friends of his own coming.
i Well, they all got there by II o'clock,
if not earlier-that was when they were
asked. have heard mother tell about
ii a hundred times, if I have once
There were black men at the door with
white gloves on and flowers in their
button-h holes, and queer-cut clothes
They showed the guests into the front
room, that was all dressed up with flow
ers and other things, and looked beauti-
full, mother said and while they sat
there waiting from where her chair was
| she could just see across the hall into
the dining-room, where the servants
were finishing with fixing the table for
what they called the wedding breakfast.
Mother said she had never seen a table
Hook so handsome in all her life, and she
did long to get nearer and see how it
was done.