Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1896-05-21
AMANDA TODD.
BY MARY f.. WILKINS,

BY MARY e. WILKINS.
Amanda Todd's orbit of existence is
restricted, of necessity, since she was
born, brought up and will die in this vii
-lage, 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 new creed, have founded
a sect or instituted new system of fe-
male dress. AS it is, she does not go to
meeting, she never wears bonnet and
she keeps cats.
Amanda Todd is GO, and she never was
married. Had she been, the close fric-
ton with another nature might have
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 it
is not probable. When peculiarities
are in the grain of 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 not, as a rule very
subtle, but they have seemed to feel
this lnstinctively. Amanda was, they
say, very pretty girl in her youth, but
no 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 a tradition in the village that
once in her life, when she was about 25
years old, Amanda Todd had beau
tiful bonnet and went to meeting.
Old Mrs. Nathan Morse vouches for
the reliability of it, and, moreover, she
hints at reason. ''When Mandy, she
was bout IS 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 it, he never waited on
her, never spoke to her, fur's know,
but right after that, Mandy, she had
Tbunnit, and she went reg'l lar to meetin'
Fore that her mother could scarcely
get her to keep a thing on her head
out of doors-allers carried her sunbun-
nit a-danglin' by the strings, wonder
she wasn't sunstrucll million times
and as for goin' to meetin', her mother,
she talked and talked, but it didn't do
a mite of good. Is'pose father kind
of upheld her in it. He was most as
odd as Mandy. lie wouldn't go to meet
in unless he was driv, and he want a
member. 'Nough sight ruther go out
prowlin' round in the woods like a wild
animal, Sabbath days, than go to meet
in. Once he ketched wildcat, an
tried to tame it, but he couldn't. It bit
and chewed SO he had to let it go. l
guess Mandy gets her liking for cats
from him fast enough. Well, Mandy,
she had that handsome bunnit, and she
went to meetin' regular most year,
and she looked as pretty as 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 change But
land, it didn't last no time. George
Henry French, he quit town the next
year and went to Somerset to teach,
and pretty soon we heard he he'd mar
ried girl over there. Then Mandy,
she didn't come to meetin' any more.
I dunno what she did with the bunnit
stamped on it, most likely, she ell
ways had considerable temper anyway,
/ never see her wear it afterwards"
Thus old Mrs. Nathan Morse tells the
story, and somehow to reflective mind
the picture of Amanda Todd in her
youth declzed in her pinl<-wreathed
bonnet, selfshly 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-
2ble from her, as she goes now, old and
bare-headed, defantly past the meet
! ing house, when the Sabbath bells are
ringing.