The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-12-21
How Mary Emma X
Took Care Of the Baby.

BY SOPHIE SWEET.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

w OUR sister Eunice wants you to
keep house for her and take care
of the baby while she goes to LinyiIle
to buy the baby's winter cloak" said
Mary Emma's mother.
And, accordingly, Mary Emma
brushed her tow-colored hair tightly
back from her round, freckled face and
tied it with blue ribbon, and put on
her brand-new Observation-Disclosures
bingham dress, and set out for the
Pillsbury settlement, off on the edge Of
the prairie, where her sister Eunice
lived.
DO take good care Of the house, and
don't let anything happen to the baby.
and keep your wits about you!" her
mother called after her.
''And, if the house gets afire, don't
run for the oil can to put it out, said
her brother Noah, facetiously.
Noah wouldn't forget the time when
he cut his finger and Mary Emma
brought the mustard to dress it with;
nor the time when little Shadrach fell
off the haymow and bumped his fore
head, and Mary Emma got the varnisli
instead of the arnica, and vanished him
so that he was sticky for days.
And her mother was continually say
ing that she didn't suppose Mary En-
ma ever would learn to keep her wits
about her.
These little reminders which her
mother and Noah gave her made Mary
Emma feel for time as if her Bingham
dress might just as well have been old
as new, and as if she didn't care wheth-
er Eunice had saved any of the high
top sweetings" for her or not. But be-
fore she reached the farm her spirits
had risen again.
The farm was delightful place to
go to on a pleasant autumn Gay. There
was a little house, as bright and shining
as new paint could make it; and big
barn, and a garden and orchard that
Hiram, her sisters husband, was very
proud of; and great fields of grain that
stretched away to the prairie-the
broad prairie that rolled and rolled, like
a vast green and misty-blue sea. and at
last seemed to roll itself into the sky.
And besides all this, and much more
than all this, there was the baby. She
was the smallest baby in the town-;I
mere crumb of a baby-but she had
two pearly teeth and a golden curl on
her neck, and her name was Alice Maud
Grace Evangeline. because her mother
didn't see why her baby shouldn't have
us many names as the queen of Eng
lands.
And one couldn't stay in the house
ten minutes without discovering that
she was considered the most remark
able baby that ever lived, and that moth
in the world was of much importance
except so far as it affected her.
1t was great responsibility to be the
aunt of such baby, especially when
very proud, il was quite a fearful re-
sponsibility to be left to take care of it
all alone.
The huge buggy in which Eunice was
to drive hersel: 20 Linville was already
waiting at the door, and with more eau
llOHS anu NlldIS tS dBpul NIG DdDN IMAM
anyone could possibly remember,
Eunice drove off, and Hiram went away
to the distant field, where he was gath
ering the last Of the harvest.
Baby Alice wasn't sleepy, but she was
very good-natured, and gracioIsly per-
mitted herself to be amused by patty
cakes and rides to Banbury Cross"
and when these diversions were ex-
hausted, Mary Emma took her out on
the broad doorstep and let her try to
catch the yellow leaves that foated
down from the maple trees, and made
Towser jump over the well sweep-only
a few feet from the ground, for Towser
was a lazy old dog-for her edification.
What a beautiful bright afternoon it
was, and how still! The breeze that had
been fiuttering the leaves had died
away. Mary Emma suddenly became
conscious Of a breathless hush that
made her look up at the sky.