Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1898-03-04

Low and long, with gabled fronts
and bay windows, all wreathed about
with trumpet creepers and blue-cupped
convolvulus vines, the Jocelyn farm
house stretched itself ont under the
outrageous walnut trees, with Ellice' $
hammock swinging in the porch and
Ellice herself, posed like woodland
nymph.
She was certainly very pretty, this
fair-haired blonde, with the complexion
of sea-shell pink, the ehina-blue eyes,
the dimples on cheek and chin, the
muslin dress that looked as if it might
have been just takel out Of the win
dows of New York modiste-and she
came forward, cool and composed, to
meet Miss Haven, as if the June sun
were not blazing overhead and the
thermometer in the porch did not stand
at 80 degrees in the shade.
$50 glad to see you, dearr' said
Miss Jocelyn, with the princess air
which seemed to sit so naturally on
her.
Dear Ellice," said Mary, plungiug
precipitately into her subject, where
have you been all the morning?"
'Where have | been?"
''Believe me, / am not asking fror.
mere curiosity" pleaded Mary. "I
have a reason. You viii answer me,
/ know"
Certainly Why shouldn't I?s
said the Serene One, lifting her golden
brows the sixteenth part of an inch.
''Let me see-I was in the glen, sketch
ing the beautiful messy boulders by
the spring, until the shower came up.
and then I sat in my own room and
wrote few letters"
"Ihen it couldn't have been you,
after alll' bluntly CALCULATED Mary.
"What couldn't have been me?"
''The girl with the pitch-fork on the
top OF the load of hay"
And then, laughing heartily at her.
own blunder, Mary related the morn
ing adventure Of her brother.
''It must have been Una, said Ell
lice Jocelyn, with a slight shallow Of
annoyance upon her smooth brow.
''Unal The little sister who has
just returned from boarding school?"
Miss Jocelyn inclined her head.
''There is no end to that child's
pranks, " said she, impatiently. "And
papa indulges her in everything. Dear,
dearl hope your brother wasn't very
much shocked?
'I'm afraid he was" said truthful
Mary. she supposed it was you, of
course. And he said you were reg
ular Amazon aad that he didn't care
to make the acquaintance of a farm
boys assistant"
ElIice clasped her hands together in
sylph-like despair.
sits enough to drive one frantic, ;"
said she
And in the same moment brown
checked damsel, with chestnut curls
tangled around her neck and a pretty
brown cambric dress, burst into the
room like beam Of sunshine.
''It isn't truel" said shs, defantly.
'Im not an Amazon, and nobody has
auy business to call me a fam boys
assistantr'
"Unafn softly pleaded Ellice, lifting
her white palms, as if to ward off this
sudden gust of breezy defiance.
''And the hay would have been
spoiled if l hadn't helped to get it in
and poor old Hans would have bsea
d sehargel for forgetting; aud, besides,
wasn't Maud Muller, in the poem, a
haymaker? And did anyone dare to
criticise her?"
II an sure" mildly commenced
Miss Haven.
"Oh, don't make any apologiesl'
said little Una, with her retrousse
nose in the air aad two red spots on
her cheeks. ''And tell your brother.
Miss Mary, that | an as little anxious
to make his acquaintance as he is
mine"
And exit Una. not without some