The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-07-03
AMANDA TODD.
BY MARY T.. WILKINS.

iage, but there is no doubt that it is
eccentric. She moves apart on her own
little course quite separate from the
rest of US.
Had Amanda'S lines of life been cast
elsewhere, where circumstances had
pushed her, instead of hemming her in,
she might have become the feminine
apostle of a new creed, have founded
a sect or instituted a new system of fe-
male dress. AS 1T is, she does not 60 to
meeting. she never wears a bonnet and
she keeps cats.
Amanda Todd is 60, and she never was
married. Had she been, the close fric-
ton with another nature might haze
Worn away some of the peculiarities of
hers. She might have gone to meeting,
she might have worn a bonnet, she
might even have eschewed cats, but ii
is not probable. When peculiarities
are in the grain of a persons nature, as
they probably are in hers, such friction
only brings them out more plainly,
and it is the other person who suffers.
The village men are pot. as a rule very
subtle, but they have seemed to feel
this instinctively. Amanda was, they
say, very pretty girl in her youth, but
40 young man ever dared make love to
her and marry her. She had always the
reputation of being IAN odd stick"
even in the district school. She al
ways kept by herself at recess, she never
seemed to have anything in common
with the other girls and she always
went home alone from singing school
Probably never in her whole life has
Amanda Todd known what it is to
be protected by some devoted person of
the other sex through the mighty perils
of our village street.
There is tradition in the village that
once in her life, when she was about 25
years old, Amanda Todd had a beau
tiful bonnet and went to meeting.
Old Mrs. Nathan Morse vouches for
The reliability of it, and, moreover, she
hints at a reason. When Mandy, she
was bout 25 years DID," she says,
George Henry French, he come TO
town, and taught the district school,
and he see Mandy, an told Almira Ben
ton that he thought she was about the
prettieSt girl he ever laid eyes on, and
Almiry, she told Mandy. That was all
there ever was to il, he never waited on
her, never spoke to her, fur's | know,
but right after that, Mandy, she had a
bunnit, and she went reg Tar to meetin'
Fore that her mother could scarcely
get her to keep thing on her head
out of dOors-ailers carried her sunbun-
nit a-danPlin' by the strings, wonder
she wasn't sunstrucll million times
and as for goin' To meetin', her mother
she talked and talked, but il didn't do
a mite of good. Is'pose her fath her kind
of upheld her in it. He was most as
odd as Mandy. He wouldn't go to meet
in unless he was driy, and he want a
member. 'NOugh sight ruther go out
prowlin' round III the woods like a wild
animal, Sabbath days, than go TO meet
in. Once he ketched wildcat an
tried 10 tame it, but he couldn't 1t bit
and chewed so he had to let il 60
guess Mandy gets her liking for cats
from him fast enough. Well, Mandy,
she had that handsome bunnit and she
went to meetin' reg 'iar most a year,
and she looked as pretty picture
sittin' in the pew. The bunnit was
trimmed with green gauze ribbon and
had a wreath of fine pink flowers inside.
Her mother was real tickled, thought
Mandy had met with a change. But
land, it didn't last no time. George
Henry French, he quit town the next
and pretty soon we heard he he'd mar
ried girl over there. Then Mandy,
she didn't come to meetin' any more
l dunno what she did with the bunnit
stamped on it, most likely, she al
ways had consi:er' BILE teInper-anyway,
l never see her wear it afterwards
Thus old Mrs. Nathan Morse tells the
story, and somehow to a reflective mind
he nict of do TA1A IN Har
youth decked in her pink-wreathed
bonnet, selfishly but innocently attend
ing in the sanctuary of divine love in
order to lay hands on her own little
share of earthly affection, is insepara-
bic from her, as she goes now, old and
bare-headed, defiantly past the meet
ing house, when the Sabbath bells are
ringing
However, if Amanda Todd had elected
to go bareheaded through the village
street from feminine vanity, rather
than eccentricity, it would have been
no wonder. Not young girl in the vii
lage has such head of hair as Amanda
1t is of beautiful chestnut color, and
there is not a gray thread in it. 1t is
full of wonderful natural ripples, too
not one of the village girls can equal
them with her papers and crimping
pins-and Amanda arranges it in two
superb braids wound twice around her
head. Seen from behind, Amanda's
head is that of a young beauty; when
it turns little, and her harsh old pro-
file becomes visible, there is shock to
the stranger.
Amanda's father had a great shock
of chestnut hair, which was seldom cut
and she inherits this adornment from
him. He lived to be an old man, but
that ruddy crown of his never turned
gray.
Amanda's mother died long ago:
then. her father. Ever since she has
lived alone in her shingled cottage with
her cats. There were not so many catr
at first; they say she started with one
fine tabby, who became the mother,
grandmother and great-grandmother
10 armies of kittens.
Amanda must destroy some when she
can find no homes for them, otherwise
she herself would be driven afieid, bur
still the impression is of a legion.
\ cat is so covert, it sinks so secretly
from one abiding place to another and
seems to duplicate itself with its sud-
den appearances, that il may account in
a measure for this impression Still
there are a great many Nobody knows
Just the number-the estimate runs
anywhere from Is to So Counting, OF
trying to count, Amanda Todd's cats
is u fayorite amusement of the village
children Here's another" they shout,
when a pair of green eyes CLEANS at
them from post. But is it another, OF
only the same cat who has moved? Cats