The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-09-09
The Sovereign Of the Village.
"a story in the English magazine, Mac
Millan's. In four parts)
PART L

ner wears, ana these measured luIS6. S4ic
balanced the deficiency by breadth. and
toddled about on the latest of short legs.
She was not pretty after the angelic pat
tern, and was all the more engaging.
II would be difficult for her biographer to
say which were the more adorable-her
| smile, that raced like pink radiance frous
the soft little chin to the crystal blue eyes.
! OF the two perpendicular lines of thought
and fearful anxiety that sometimes spranS
between the mobile brows, and generally
furnished the occasion for stamping her
foot at some refractory subject, or were
brought into play by an earnest insistence
on having the unanswerable answered
without delay.
AS most of her hours were spent out OF
doors, and hats were antipathetic 10 her,
it followed that few of her subjects en-
jcyed sight of the carefully combed and
curled little poll that left her mothers
hands every morning. Instead, they had
the more disturbing, If less elegant, pict-
ure of fine brown silk rolling and shaking,
Ike the floss of a King Charles, in the
dearest confusion imaginable round and
| about the bright little face. The invasion
| of curls just permitted the pretty upward
| play of brown eyelashes against the pro-
| truding arch of brow, so that the big
blue eyes looked out from a forest of WIN
an arched rosy bud. formed as chiid's
! mouth rarely is, sweet and perfectly
! shaped with an imperious claim upon
/ kisses. Not to wish to kiss her was to
prove yourself inhuman. She was never
dirty, though not exactly precisian IN
the matter of raiment- 1t would not be
safe to trust her with an orange, II IT were
| intended she should sit upon the chairs OF
! civilization, an emblem of spotless child
| hood but she could be relied upon any
| day to pass a neighborhood where mud
| pies were being manufactured and not sue
| cumb to the burning temptation to bemire
| herself
Such was Norry, the uncrowned queen
of a remote little town on the edge oil a
glorious Irish lake. Like the Oriental phi
lanthropist, she loved her fellow-men. Her
existence was based on the first law of
Christianity, with such a surprising result
that her fellows of all classes, creeds, SEX
es, and ages worshiped her.
She was not of the order of female infant
that is content to stay indoors and play
with dolls Nor were outdoor games the
chef delight of her life. What she liked
was the making and sustaining of univer- |
sal acquaintance.
She awoke with the dawn preoccupied |
with the fortunes of Tommy This and |
Molly That and chatted about them while |
she graciously submitted TO the encroach- |
ments of soap, water, bath-towel and |
brush; and she was still discoursing OF |!
them in passionate interludes while Mar
celia fed her upon bread and milk and |
porridge in the kitchen.
She it was who welcomed all newcomers
into the town-tramps, travellers, and Wis
itors. Her formula was as rigid and I'M
oi,op royal efiuuptfp- She drew no
line between beggars and nobemen, but
simply said to the trousered male: Man,
what's your name?" If there were any
genialty in the reply, (and there usually
was), she as invariably added: " The bless
ings of bod on you. Kiss me!' Upon her
lips, however, the command took the form
of fish. The person in petticoats she ad-
dressed as ''oman," and If the oman hap
pened to be accompanied by baby, 1t
was an exciting moment for Norry.
Babies, puppies, and kittens constituted
the most interesting portion OF humanity
in her eyes They were all doaty, as she
called them. She insisted on kissing ev-
cry baby that crossed her path, even on
occasional visits to the thronged city where
her grandmother lived, to the dismay and
discomfort of her handsome young aunts.
Whatever she had in her hands she needs
must bestow upon the long-frocked crea-
ture not lnfrequently to repent of her
generosity five minutes later, and de-
mand restitution of the gift.
When she had, so to speak, conferred
the freedom of the town upon the stranger,
Norry instantly toddled off with eager in
tent TO acquaint the world that Johnny
Murphy or Biddy Magrath had been well
coined to her dominions.
The episode of Norry and the Marquis
is tale in which the town takes much |
pride. The idlers round the bar still tell it |
TO one another with undated glee; and |
Norry's kindness to the big man is one
of the reasons why the town has lately
begun TO look with less open disfavor upon
that naughty aristocrat. For the lord of
the soil is not genial person. He is dis
tant, high-handed, and ungenerous. He |
takes no incons;derdble income from an i'm Z
pover:shed land with never so much a
thank you" a humane inquiry into the |
OF his tenants. or single evil
dence of thought for their welfare; and ,
he spends 1t to the last farthing. along with
his good manners and smiles. in England. :
There we hear of him as delightful type ,
Of the Irish gentleman. off-handed, witty. |
and capital host: in Norry'S town (Which
ought to be his) he is known as a morose.
close-fisted. and over-bearing Saxon. So /
much may man differ in his attitude '
towards one race and another. /
A wave OF universal Joy passed over the
Town the day Kitty Farrell publicly re- /
buked him for his lack of manners among | L
MS own people. Kitty keeps the newspa- a
per shop. and an Irish daily paper beng Y
1re of the few things the Marquis could | il
lot import from England. II followed that !
le ran up small account with Kitty dur | =
ng his last sojourn before Norry was born. | !.
Driving through the town on his way 10
he station, the lord of the soil stopped :
lis carriage and called out from the W,n- =
low to Kitty to know the amount due
Half crown, me lord said Kitty.
ropping an elegant curtesy that quite ear b
led OF the inelegance Of bare feet and n
altered skirts. a
There, girl cried the Marquis fingfR ?
silver piece on the ground. n
Kitty did not move so much as an eve
ASH il the direction OF the fallen coin, but | h
S the carriage began 10 roll on again, my if
o7d lying back as proud as an invader | h
he ran after II. shrieking al the top Of 81
er voice: Me lord. me lord, I tsled We
e owe me half crown"
IT'S on the ground" the Marquis retort-
4. frowring. ~ threw it out OF the win .'
ow'
"Oh. ne lord. 1 have nothing to DO with .
our throwings. Maybe It's your div4rsson: =
IS TO affair OF mine, anyway. What I e
ant is me money paid into me own hand
: between Christian and Christian Your OF
river IS welcome 20 the orbit OF silver | IS
he likes It, but I must be paid IN me Ae
WI fashion III
1t was chantei in the sing-song broxue ! III
I over the town that evening, how grand
sight II was 10 see the Marquis take