The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1897-01-07

On the eve of visiting her city cou-
sins the little village beauty, Mamie
Stevens, made elaborate prepara tons.
She did not want them to think her
countritied and was even tempted to
bleach her brown hair yellow because
the town politicians wife said it was
the proper thing among the Upper
Ten" in the city.
The twin cousins went with their
father TO the station on the day Mamie
was expected.
While they stood there arm in arm,
eagerly watching the travellers as they
filed past them, Grace exclaimed in a
low tone:
"Oh, Gertie, look at that dreadful
girlr
The next moment the dreadful girl
came up to them and said, with easy
self-possession:
isn't this Uncle Will and the girls?"
Grace and Gertrude managed to muir
mur some words of welcome and then
they took their seats in the carriage
and were driven home In Mortified sill
cnce. Having arrived, they left their
mother to look after their guest and
fled to their own room, where Grace
threw herself upon the bed and gave
way to tears.
ooh, it's too badw she moaned. "And
to think l was afraid of her being cOun-
trified! Why, the greenest country girl
that ever lived would be better than
thisv'
"And she is here for the winter"
cried Gertie. wringing her hands. "What
are we going to do? should be ashamed
to be seen in public with herr
"Uncle Will" had escaped to the office
as soon as possible, but Mrs. Stevens
could not escape. In sore perplexity
she attended to the wants of her young
guest, and was as courteous as possible,
but she was secretly filed with dismay
In very truth, what were they to do
with her?
At lunch the mother and the daugh-
terS were conscious of the look of we'll
bred surprise on the faces of the serv-
ants, but Mamie talked and laughed,
and felt that she was making fine i'm
preston on her relatives. When she
retired that night satisfied smile was
on her pretty face.
IL think have shown them that we
are not quite out Of the world, if we
do live in little town." said she.
The next morning she came down in
all the glory of her new silk dress, and
greeted her cousins with:
'Well. am ready to start on my
round of sightseeing this morning"
But not in that dressv' exclaimed
Grace, in spite of her mothers warning
look.
This dress? Oh. certainly! This is
my street Dress" Mamie replied. with
airy complacency, willing to show them
that she could afford nice things as well
as they.
isn't it too bad?" cried Gertrude,
| tearfully, when they went to their own
room to prepare for their outing. "And
| just think how quiet mamma has al
ways kept us and how she has never al
lowed us to associate with girls that
made themselves conspicuous"
BE patient, girls" said the mother.
with an attempt at comfort. 'She seems
to be a bright girl; perhaps she may
soon discover that she is not showing
good taste"
So the girls went with their cousin,
and devoted themselves to her enter
tainment, but it cannot be said that the
experiment was successful one. Wher-
ever they went people cast looks of sur
prise and amusement at Mamie. In
their sensitive condition the sisters no.
ticed these things with unusual quick
ness, and perhaps gave them undue
prominence. They had worked them
selves up to a nervous watchfulness.
and when they were passing through
one of the parks and saw a group of
their schoolgirl friends approaching as
though to speak to them, with a horri
fled glance at each other they turned
sharply down a by-path, not Quickly
enough, however, to avoid hearing one
of the group say:
"WhO can that be with Grace and
Gertie?"
Looks rather 'freaky.' doesn't she?
Where do you suppose they picked her
up:" came to them in the clear. high
tones of Fannie McGregOr, the sarcas-
tic girl, whom the whole school dis
liked and feared.
Mamie had been watching the swans.
and the sharp speeches had fallen on
deaf ears. She could not understand
why the sisters hurried home Mt such a |
rate when she was in the midst of her |
pleasure. She wrote to her mother that |
night:
"Grace and Gertie are nice looking |
girls but awfully prim and dull and |
not at all stylish. dress a great deal |
better than they do myself"
For an entire week the sisters took /
their cousin here and there, doing their |
best as hOstesses to entertain their |
guest; but at the end of that time they
rebelled
81 can't endure it any longer" Grace
cried, throwing herself on the floor at |
her mothers side and leaning her head
against the motherly knee There's
no hope of its getting any better, man.
ma. Gertie and are worn out What |
do you think she did with that pretty,
simple dress you bought her? Put it |
away in her trunk and wore that dread
full, loud-loOking silk into the streets |
again! When l asked her Hhy she
didn't wear the new dress he said: oh,
that's SO plain; / shall wear it about
the house,"
'That's just the trouble said the