The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-19
A "Horrid Mistake.'
(From the Pansy.9

ing. She had just gotlen Hel o"i iee'es to send, but she dropped it on the floor with cry of pleasure when Ann knocked at the door and gave her the large, white envelope. It was Rollins
 handwriting; he had not made the slightest attempt to disguise 1t, While she had written in as "backhanded" Q manner as possible on hers. And Rollin had gotten ahead of her. too. He must have mailed his yesterday She stooa
 with the unopened envelope in her mana calculating when he probably prepared it, and trying to decide whether he had sent it when she met him yesterday, and he had told her he had bought the
 only valentine in town that Was WoFth
 buying. She had laughed to herself when he said it; hers she knew were
 worth buying, but they did nct come from this town. Aunt Carrie had se- lected them for her in Boston, and they
 were lovely. Especially the one which lay on the floor ready to be mailed.
 There was a delicate spray of flowers in one corner of that, exactly like the
 blooms on the window seat near which Avis stood. She had smiled as she saw them. and wondered if Rollin would re- member whose they were like. Or did not boys notice flowers enough for thatI
 Rollin did, she felt sure; he was not just an ordinary rough boy; he had been
 brought up in the city, and knew how to act, not only, but how to think. At last she decided to open her valen- tine. Then, if you could have had a picture of her, you would not have ad-
 mired it so much. There was g. dark frown on her face. Meyer, surely, could
 8 valentine have been more disappoint- ing, more hateful. A coarse, ugly pie ture of a girl about her age. A girl who squinted as no human being ever did; a girl who had hands as large as a gi- ants; a girl whose mouth was too large to represent human mouth, and whose face was almost black, and whose hair was almost woolly. Underneath were some verses beginning
 "Oh, lovely maiden, how your charms Reach out and fill my heart!
 Your lily skin, your baby hands,
 Your feet, such works of art"
 There were three verses of the dogger- el Avis read them slowly, with curing lip; she was in search of some redeem ing line or word, but she did not find it. Was it possible that Rollin Bainridge saw fun in such thing as that! If there had onlysheen joke hidden in 1t somewhere bit of sharpness, it would not have been so bad; but no, it was all pointless eoarseness.
 Avis glanced down at her dainty feet, and looked at her small hands; she even walked across the room to mirror and glanced at her fair skin and pretty brown curls. Itwas folly to suppose for a moment that Rollin had thought of such a thing as caricaturing her. It was simply that the ugly picture had struck him as funny. She was sorry for even that. She saw no fun in it whatever. In fact, she walked over to | the grate and deliberately laid it, en- l velopa and all, on the burning coals 1 Not girl should see it, and laugh over 1 1t. Not for all the world would she show it to her lovely, invalid mother who entered into all her joys, and most i of her sorrows. Roliin Bainbridge was
 a new boy in town, and her mother did
 not know him, save as Avis had de-
 scrtbed him. Such a gentlemanly boy!
 such noble boyl such splendid schol- ar such polite, kind way with him!
 These the mother had heard; and Avis | thought the valentine would not fit the
 description; so she burned it. Then she
 tore the envelope from the one she had prepared with such care, and burned
 that-the envelope, mean. The deli
 cate, frosted vines and lovely blossoms
 smiled at her; the exquisite verses, quoted from some choice author,
 breathed delicacy and friendship in eve- | ry line. Avis read them over sorrowfIll- l ly. What contrast they were to the
 hateful lines she had just burned She
 locked the valentine away in her draw
 CT. It was too pretty to burn; but she
 did not think she wanted to send it to
 anybody; certainly not to Rollin Bain- bridge. If he could appreciate the oth-
 CT, he could not be expected to admire | this
 All the morning Avis tried to over- come her feeling of disappointment and annoyance over the valentine she had received; and in part succeeded. She
 assured herself that boys were not like
 
 pected to be; probably they saw fun in what to girls was only eoarseness and hatefulness; and that she was very sil- | ly to do other than laugh at Rollins caricature of the valentine habit, It
 was all stiffness, anyway; probably he | thought so, and took that way to show her he did.
 | At recess she had a curious shock
 which made her feel--ehe hardly knew how. Jennie Hadden came to her with
 her homely face aglow with pleasure. l "Oh, Avisl" she said, Hook at my val
 entine. Isn't it lovely I never had one
 before; not a pretty one that I could show" And then Jennie sighed, appa-
 rently over some unpleasant memory. | Avis, as she took the valentine, won- | dered if poor Jennie had received cari- catures like the one she had burned.
 Jennie Hadden was the honely girl of the school; dark of skin, and with unu- sually large mouth and feet and hands,
 and with painful distortion of one eye. The thought occurred to Avis, as she | held out her hand for the valentine, l that Rollins caricature would have been cruelty suggestive if he had sent it
 to her; even her hair, coarse, and black and curly, almost reminded one of the picture. And then Avis cheeks grew crimson as she read the dainty verses on Jennie's valentine. Not printed
 verses. but written in Rollin Bain- bridges own round hand. Beautiful verses, such as any girl of sense and
 taste might enjoy having sent to her;