The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-05-07
IN THE SPRING.
BY A. s. RICHARDSON.

North GLASGOW had never taken
Mabel Farnham seriously nor known
her to take life seriously, yet there
had been lingering hope in the minds
Of the gossips that when it came to
the question of matrimony the pretty
daughter of the big mill owner might
be sensible for once.
But, then, North GLASGOW did not
understand Mabel, and Mabel cared
precious little whether it did or not.
She did not feel called upon to detail
her daily life nor analyze her motives
for the ediication OF town gossips.
That was the sharp tongued women
of the manufacturing town did not
know that when Mabel went tearing
through the main street on her little
mare or trotted past in her dogcart
she was pretty sure to drop into her
fathers dingy Office with kiss and a
merry greeting. Nor could they
dream that the young girl who dane
ed when opportunity offered until al
most morning tripped downstairs in
the most bewitching negligees to pour
her father coffee and smiled sleepily,
but good humoredly, across the table
at him. What they did hear was
that Mabel lay abed till II o'clock
(Which was quite true, for she went
directly back to bed when her father
had driven away and sent to Boston
ana SIX, sucn as uofespectaDie, haIu--
working woman in all North GLASGOW
ever dreamed of wearing. They did
not dream either that she wore cherry
ribbons in those same negligees, when
she loved blue best, just because her
adoring father had once remarked that
red was the only color in the rainbow
worth considering.
At regular intervals what was
known as the social set of GLASGOW
went in its best array and as many
carriages as the town could support
to be entertained in state at the mill
owners brick and stone pile on the
hill and came away to discourse on
the shocking waste of electricity, the
absurdly massive decorations of Amer
ican Beauty roses, the dreadful ex-
pense OF caterer from Boston when
Miss Louise Croker could have man
aged the whole thing for half the
price. And Mabel's gown The
brocade had surely come from Paris,
and it was too elaborately trimmed
for so young a girl. Well, it was a
pity that Mrs. Farnham had not lived
to steady down this frolicsome daugh-
ter and keep a restraining hand on
the household expenses Of Donald
Farnhatn.
Little they knew how hateful the
display was to Mabel, how she longed
sometimes to close down the house,
with its gilt furniture and plush hang
ings, and to join some of the girls she
had met at college in their trips
abroad, where the world was old and
rich in art and book lore. But this
was her fathers life, the life for
which he had longed in those early
days when her pinafores were short
and his working hours long. He was
master of North GLASGOW today, and
he reveled in his sense of greatness
and power.
1t was just when Mabel was hun
gering for broader life when North
GLASGOW seemed unbearably narrow
| and when she had dazed its gossips
by some particularly unconventional
frolics that Harold Barndt came into
their life.
For reasons not stated the elder
Barndt wished his son we'll out of
| New York, for the winter at least.
One of them was a certain pretty
chorus girl who had settled herself in
little fiat unpleasantly close to the
great apartment house wherein dwelt
the Barndt family. Mr.. Farnham
was indebted-or imagined he was
to Mr.. Barndt, and a position for the
younger Barndt was made somehow
on the clerical staff at the mills.
And quite as natural young Barndt
made for himself place in the Farm
ham home Twas the only fit place
in the town, he explainnd to himself
| Mabel had always been accustomed
to admiration, but now she woke ur
| to the fact that there was keen rivalry
| for her hand. Young Barndt frettec
| a week or so for the pretty actress
and then decided that, averaging VI
points, Mabel had a trifle the best o
| it, to say nothing of her financial pros
poets, as the only child of the mil
owner. Jimmy Crawford had lovet
her ever since the first day he hat
opened the big mill gate for Mabel
dainty vision in white and cherr.
sash. Jimmy had been bobbin DO.
that day. Now he was superinten
dent, and better superintendent di'
not boss mill in all New England
said Mr.. Farnham, which went t
. show that the owner of the mill judg
ed the young superintendent by hi
ability to get work out of employee