The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1896-09-15
MALIND.
DY HELEN w. PIERSON.

q Stat sunbonnet which
shut her in from all
side views, and made
the landscape look as if she were naz-
ing at it through telescope.
The girl who had hailed her darted
behind clump of bushes
"Come round here" che said. "Ma
wonld give me fits if she knew I'd
opened it'll It's frock she's bin max
in fer Lita Marsh, stuck up thing |
Ma says she looks as if she 'spected
the earth would git up an prance when
she steps on it. Guess she'll hev a
s'prise party when she sees me tricked
out in frock jest like hern! The
patron come from Paris !"
Phronie Meeker's English was not
rs correct as her clothes. Her mother
was the dressmaker of Canaan, and
Phronie's costumes were the envy and
admiration of the other girls. Malind
especially admired the Tapping leg
horn hat with its soft white feathers
dropping over Phronie's mop of yellow
hair. That pink aud white face with
eyes about as expressive as blue beads,
seemed the highest type of beauty to
her
Malind was sallow and thin, with
dark, eager, questioning eyes. Her
shabby gown of faded purple like her
sunbonnet, sagged loosely down from
her sharp shoulderbladeS as If hung
on pegs. The skirt touched the top
of her coarse shoes, and the sleeves
nearly hid her little brown hands.
Phronie sat down on stump and
began to open the bundle putting the
pins in her mouth till it looked like a
rosebud set in little rueful thorns. "
81 don't dast shake it out" she
tald, "but you kin see what it's like.
Amt it just splendiferous?"
Malind looked at the dainty gown of
Fhite china silk with foam Of lace
RIFLES sprinkled with pearls. Her
eyes kindled.
ooh, Oh" she cried, 'T don't be.
lieye queens have anything more
beautiful Amt them pale pink bows
just like Aowers?"
They're sight prettier," said
PhrOnie, who was very artificial in her
tastes, "pn' just think I'm goin to
hev one like it, only not silk-silk
muslin I'm goin' to wear 1t to the
Sunday-school picnic. What you 60
in TO wear?"
Malind flushed a little. ooh, I don't
know" she faltercd.
you do like mo, an git new
frock, said Phronic. 81 Jest mp an
told ma I wouldn't go step without
one. Say, do you know what indie
Bingham says you look like in your
old blue haunin'? A pen wiper? Hal
hn You know one of them things
with q head and hanuin' skirts?"
Phronie seemed to find the idea so
amusing that she giggled for o
minute, whilo Malind felt the blood
rush hotiy through her veins.
'WrIl, ] got to hurry said
Ihronio, shaking ont her skirts. "I'm
.oiu TO buy the ribbon for my irock,
soon as / take this bomc 10 that nifty
lh'ug. Want 20 come with me ana
sca mo buy it?'
''No don't, said MolinI. turning
way without another word She,
.uy, carried n bundle, whose contents
ua was not anxious 10 disclose
IHn june afternoon seemed sudden
j. to have grown hot and close Even
tln river seemed summing away iu "a
vrm hnzo md tho white dust Of Tho
r.a titled her The yellow beltcJ
u.a- droucd Iazily over the flowers ns
o. glad their Days WORK was over
I.aU tho butterflies swayod lnziIy
tuo clover and told one another It
0aI been trying day.
Nr.ind saw nothing MS sho ploddcd
doug Wrath burned like u fire in
Deer heart phrouic's mDckiug words
YIuJel iu her cars. A vision OF her
tho picnic In that lovely white
I-oc. aoated before her, while she saw
hereof iu tho 100 fitting blue flannel,
mlao from one Of her mother gowns.
Doc never remembered having had a
new irOck
Wonder how IL would feel 10 hey