Willmar tribune., 1899-12-06
How Mary Emma ~
Took Care Of t the Baby.
BY SOPHIE SWEET.

~ OUR sister Eunice wants you to
keep house for her and take care
of the baby while she goes to Linville
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 blue-and-white-chec
gingham dress, and set out for the
Pillsbury settlement, off on the edge o1
the prairie, where her sister Eunice
lived.
'Do take good care of the house, and
don't let anything happen to the baby,
and keel your wits about you!" her
mother called after her.
'And, if the house gets afre, don't
run for the oil can to put it OUT said
her brother Noah, faeetiously.
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 varnisll
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 gingham
dress might just as we'll have been old
as new, and as if she didn't care wheth-
er Eunice had saved any of the 'hi gh-
top sweetings'' for her or not. But be-
fore she reached the farm her spirits
had risen again. -, -
The farm was delightful place to
60 to on pleasant autumn day. There
was little house, as bright and shining
rs new paint could make it; and big
barn, and 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-a
mere crumb of a baby-but she had
two pearly teeth and 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
as 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 a baby, especially when
one was only H.. Although it made one
very proud, it was quite fearful re-
sponsibility to be left to take care of it
all alone.
The huge buggy in which Eunice was
to drive herself to Linville was already
waiting at the door, and with more eau
tions and charges about the baby than
anyone could possibly. remember,
Eunice drove off, and Hiram went away
to the distant field, where he was gath
ering the last of thesharvest.
Baby Alice wasn't sleepy, but she was
very good-natured, and graciously 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
afew feet from the ground, ,for Towser
was a lazy old dog for her edification.
s. What a beautiful right afternoon It
was, and how still! The breeze that had
been futtering the leaves had died
away: Mary Emma sud denly became
conscinus Of a breat thless hush that
made her look up at the sky.
All clear and blue; but5what was that
black speck away off where the prairie
was lost in the sky Fl I.
0 Only q speck, but it came rushing on
slmost with the speed of a cannon bal
Increasing in size with every instant. M
$sM Mary Emma knew what it nigh be
twice had the town been almost de-
stroyed by eye lone. ..5.
What, oh, what should she do with
y The baby? ne wits which Mary Emma
had been enjoined to keep about her
sa,1if nnxnn1r y q e Il, 4 s ~ = -,