The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-06-17
Entertaining The Editor
By ELLA HiGGlNSON.

ILL anu "OlC vi DildIo NSd
IN with our brother Tom. Tom was
an orphan, too, of course, but then
male orphans are never the recipients
of sympathy and motherly advice from
every dear old lady in the neighbor
hood, so that by-and-by they really for
get that they are orphans.
Tom was 20, and he kept a stationery
shop, and we lived in four small rooms
in the rear of the shop. This was one of
the new towns that spring up in night
Oh Puget Sound, and although the town
itself was rough, bustling and noisy,
we were very happy there, for our
rooms were within 100 yards of the
opaline waters, ard the shore sloped
to them, green as emeralds the whole
winter through.
Nell assisted Tom in the shop, and I,
besides being housekeeper, contributed
to several magazines, which helped
wonderfully in the way of new gowns,
gloves, bonnets and all the dainty
things which delighted our souls, for
Nell and liked pretty things.
We were quite the noisiest and most
imagine. AS l have said, we had only
four rooms. In one of these Tom slum-
bered the dreamy hours away nightly,
and it was "the meanest, darkest,
smotheriest room in the whole She
bang" Tom was given to declaring
each time he entered it on slumber
bent. Then there was room wherein
Nell and 1 slept, and from whose win
dow we could see at dawn dear, white
Mount Baker towering into the prim-
rose sky. Then the kitchen, and lastly
the parlor, which Nell called the draw
ing-room, and which also served as din
ing-room. Between the parior and the
shop was a tiny cubby-hole of a room,
about six feet square and dark as a
dungeon, in which Tom kept surplus
stock, and in which we likewise snug
gled away sundry bags from the green
grocer's, trusting to the friendly dark
ness to conceal them from the inquisi-
tive eyes of our visitors.
Our parlor was thing, having once
been seen, to be remembered. 1t was II
feet wide and 16 feet long, and in it
were one stove, one organ, one sewing
machine 1--WE made our own gowns),
one three-ply carpet, one big, black
dog (by the name of jeff, who was a
fixture and the object of our devoted af-
fections), one dictionary and stand, one
walnut table, four chairs (more or less
broken), one trunk (deceptively ere
tonned and cushioned up to allure un-
suspecting guests into the rashness of
sitting upon it), one bookcase, some
pictures, and, alas! that must chron-
icle it of parlor! q bureau! "a really
and truly bureau in parlor," as lit
tie girl said once, to the hysterical
mirth of ourselves and the speechless
modification of her mother, who had
brought her to call. However, the size
or lack of siZe-of our bed-chamber
forbade the introduction of bureau,
so into the parlor it went.
One autumn evening Tom was in the
shop, and Nell and were making our
selves very comfortable in the parlor,
tipped back in our rocking chairs, with
cups of chocolate in our hands, and our
feet on the low nickel rod that encom-
passed the stove. We had been sewing,
uHu lIe IOOIl WIS III lllS NlluGSG ulSOT-
der. The machine was in the center of
the floor, its box was upside down, the
bureau was Uttered with yards and
yards of embroidery, spools. scissors,
tape-lines and buttons; there were
piles of muslin uncut, and dozens of
muslin garments in various degrees of
''cut, basted and sewed" all over the
floor, chairs, organ and trunk. The
confusion was really immense.
"We1l have our chocolate" Nell had
said, land then We'll have a 'cl'ar'n'-up'
spell, and fix things before Tom comes
in"
But suddenly we heard the shop door
open, and then a gentleman's voice
the kind of voice we did not hear fire.
quently in that rough town. 1t was
low, quiet, courteous. In another mo-
ment he had introduced himself to Tom
as "Mr. Everett, of the South African
Review" l waited to hear no more.
l leaped to my feet, overturning the
tootstool and the dog with dreadful
,acket; the smile and the chocolate
:roze on my lips; my heart jumped into