Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1898-02-05
THE CAPTAINS W0OING.

"Jennie, Jenniel / do wonder
now where that girl is 2"
The voice was shrill and trife
sharp with impotence but Jennie
did not heed, she did not even hear,
perhaps.
She seemed lost to everything but
the whirr and rustic of the silver
white wings and the soft cooling OF
her doves and pigeons as they came
futtering down, eager for the even.
ing meal.
Mrs. Cooper, her aunt, scarcely
knew how to understand Jennie.
The girl was capable and willing
enough, for that matter, but she
could no more be made a drudge of
than Mr.. Cooper could make a
plough horse of his handsome, thor
oughbred filly.
Jennie was more o kitchen maid
than anything else, eating the bitter
est of ali bread, s'the bread of de.
pendence." But, somehow, her hard
tasks failed to spoil her pretty
hands.
Mrs. Cooper was a tiifle envious
OF Jennie's rare Gifts Jennie had
outstripped her cousins at the viii
lage school, and now she had grown
up even pretier than Adelaide.
Yet che was nothing more. than
the daughter of a thriftlessg half
brotGer,, who had married above his
own station in lie, and yet had con-
trived to die penniless, and leave his
orphan child to his SISTERS care.
The autumn day was closing.
Jennie's busy work was sill over
at last and so she filed her pretty
hands with grain, and sitting down
on the raised hearth-stone of the old.
fashiored summer kitchen, had ut.
tered musical sort of call, which
had brought her pets about her in a
futtering flock.
One silver white, bright, beautiful
little dove, with a brilliantly tinted
sheen on his snowy wings, and a
diamond glitter in his round eyes,
wore blue band edged with silver.
threads about his graceful throat.
"Beauty, Beauty called Jennie.
The bird futtered down at the call
and pecked the grain from Jennie's
open palm.
Jennie q soft, dark eyes grew ra-i
diant, as she watched the pretty,
gentle creature; fol-, she was think
ing of the day when he made his
first appearance at Maple Hill.
1t had been summer day, golden
with sunshine and balmy with gar
deu odors. Flushed from working
in her flower beds, Jennie had taken
her seat on green border and call.
ed her pets. And among them, with
a certain air of good breeding and
superiority, came stranger, with q
blue and silver band about bis
throat.
ooh, you beauty, you beauty ,"she
cried.
Unwittinglv, she had called the
dove by his name, and he fluttered
through the sunshine, and settled on
her shoulder. And Jennie, examin-
ing his blue and silver necklace, saw
a name penciled in black on fheablae
ground of the ribbon. 1t was "Fos
brooke
"Oh,' cried Jennie, regretfully,
"you belong to Woodlawn, then.''
And a little later, when the gar
den work had been finished, she took
the pretty dove and ran across the
fields to WOODLAND.
Captain Fossebroeke, the hand
some owner OF the place, and still
young man, in spite of tie honors
he had won, sat on the long portico,
smoking, when click of the gate
and growl from the dog at his feet
disturbed him..l He rose hastily, and
throwing his cigansaside. confronted
Jennie With the zane deferenceAtAat
he had Shown princess.
.You are Captain Foss, brooke Z p
she began, Slightly embarrassed, bnt
with graceful little hcliHatioa Of
her head.
The cen'a'n 'esed.