The Opelousas courier., 1898-05-07

Ao" anu lung, VIII RdOiSu lioulS
md bay windows, all wreathed about
with trumpet creepersand b~lue-cupped
,onyolvulus vines, the Jocelyn farm
house stretched itself ont under the
outrageous walnut trees, with Ellice's
hammock swinging in the porch and
Ellice herself, posed like a woodland
aymph.
She was certainly very pretty, this
.air-haired blonde, with the complexion
IF sea-shell pink, the china-blue eyes,
The dimples on cheek and chin, the
muslin dress that looked as if it might
have been just taken out of the win
lows Of a New York modiste-and she
same forward, cool and composed, to
meet Miss Haven, rs if the June sun
we're not blazing overhead and the
thermometer in the porch did not stand
1t 80 degrees in the shade.
$50 glad to see you, dear!" said
Miss Jocelyn, with the princess air
which seemed to sit SO naturally IN
her.
"Dear Ellice," said Mary, plunging
precipitately into her subject, where
have you been all the morning?"
''Where have I been?".
"Believe me, I am not asking from
mere curiosity" pleaded Mary. "I
have a reason. You will answer me,
[ know"
"Certainly! Why shouldn't II"
said the Serene One, lifting her golden
brows the sixteenth part Of an inch.
"Let me see-Iwas in the glen, sketch
ing the beautiful messy boulders by
the spring, until the shower came up,
md then I sat in my W room and
| wrote a few letters"
"Then it couldn't have been you,
after all!' 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.
1T must have been Una," said Ell
lice Jocelyn, with a slight shadow OF
annoyance upon her smooth brow.
"Una! The little sister who has
lust returned from boarding SCHOOL,"
Miss Jocelyn inclined her head.
"There is no end to that child's
pranks," said she, impatiently. "And
papa INDUCES her in everything. Dear,
deari I hope your brother wasn't very
much shocked?"
ssI'm afraid he was" said truthful
Mary. "He supposed it was you, of
course. And he said you were a reg
ular Amazon and that he didn't care
to make the acquaintance OF a farm
boys assistant"
Ellice clasped her hands together in
sylph-like despair.
aIt's enough to drive one frantic,
said she.
And in the same moment a brown
| checked damsel, with chestnut curls
tangled around her neck and a pretty
brown cambria dress, burst into the
/ room like a beam of sunshine.
"It isn't true!" said she, detiantly.
ssI'm not an Amazon, and nobody has
anv business to call me a farm boys
assistant"
aUna" softly pleaded Ellice, lifting
her white palms, as if to ward off this
sudden gust Of breezy defiance.
ssAnd the hay would have been
ssoiled If I hadn't helped to get it In
and poor old Hans would have been
discharged for forgetting; and besides,
wasn't Maud Muller, in the poem, q
haymaker? And did anyone dare TO
criticise her?" !,
II am sure mildly commenced
Miss Haven.
ooh, don't make any apologies.
said little Una, with her %retrousse
nose in the air and two red spots on
her cheeks, "And tell your brother,
Miss Mary, that ! am as little anxious
to make Ais acquaintance % % y
Ana ssis Una, not Without ssaas