The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1904-06-10
The Courtship of Miranda Jane
BY MINNIE \. GREINER EDlNGroN

BY MINNIE \. GREINER ELLINGTON.
Miranda Jane Brown was the cldcst
daughter in a family of twelve children
Three boys older than herself, had already
! tumblcd out of the home nest, and were
| providing for themselves, each after his
! peculiar. fashion; but there were still
enough left to make people wonder how
! they managed to turn around in the
ovcr-crowded nest.
Miranda Jane had now reached her
! sixteenth birthday; and her mother said
Miranda Jane, it is high time We were
looking out for yourself Sence your
father is laid up with rheumatic | kin
hardly git cornbred enough for the kids,
an backy for the ole manan myself.
well, marm," Miranda Jane answer,
ed as she twisted a corner of her apron
about her finger, how'll doit? Ican't
get pace, cause don't know how to
cook anything but cornbread, taters an
bacon
'Git married. WAS the short and
pointed reply.
Miranda Jane opened her eyes wide
with astonishment.
"Why, Marin Brown, who in the name
o sense kin | marry? l never had a
beau, an men don't grow on bushes like
blackberries, to be got for the pickin'."
mo reason why you shouldn marry.
Marry that long-legged, rcd-haired Jim
Shade, He's got Il Lighthouse, an an
acre of ground his grandad left him. 1t
amt good fur a man to live alone; an
Jim's mighty good worker, if he amt
Jest so hansum."
"But pose he don't ask me, marm:,
And Miranda Jane looked to her mother
for an answer to this puzzling question.
"Ill help We. He'sgot a kind ofhanker-
ing arter you, anyhow, cause yersort of
purity, Miranda Jane, with them yeller
curls, red checks, an big blue eyes. Yer
ought to marry a man of property like
Jim. Yer needn't be a poor mans wife
With the lace Oh NOuln.
Miranda Jane blushed, giggled, and
looked bashfully at the reflection of her
pretty, but not overclean face, in the bit
of broken mirror hauled out from the
city, and had been most carefully treas
ured.
Miranda James home was a miserable
little shanty i'll recently cleared part of
--county, Ohio. The soil was black
and rich, but almost swamp-like, even in
dry weather. What it was during a
rainy season l leave the reader to im-
agine. There were half dozea such
shanties, scattered along either side of
the railroad newly-built through this
region. The thriving city of k-was
only some two miles distant, but Miriam
da Jane had been there only once; they
had moved to this place some three years
before, when work on the railroad was
first commenced.
Miranda Jane went about for the next
two or three DAYS in a sort feXpectancy,
as though the much needed man might
even drop from the skies, or. like the
princes i'll the fairy tales, come riding
across the marshes on a snow-white
horsc-glittering with gold and jewels;
or might spring up ont of the ground
like mushroom. Miranda Jane was
romantic, and INDUCED in many blissful
day dreams that closely resembled the
cheap novels that she now and then
found n chance to read. She kept her
face and hands half clean, and washed
out her best, but sadly-faded red colico,
In imagination, she went through,
numbcrless times, but with lis many
changes, the exciting moment when Jim
should fall upon his knees and in impas-
stoned words, declare his ncverdying love.
Jim was not at all like the heroes i'll the
novels; but of course she could not ex-
pect any of those grand personages would
come in her way.
aspect I'd orter faint" she said to her
self, when Jim pops the question. Only
don't know how they do it. All the
fine ladies in the stories does that, orfalls
gracefully against his manly breast"
She did practice falling against a tree
n few times, in lieu of 'manly breast
but when her mother CHANGED to see her
and asked her if she was trying to
knock her brains out, she gave up her
practice and determined to depend upon
the emotions of the moment to help her
out.
Three days passed by as usual, and
i'm had not even been near the shanty.
Miranda Jane began to yield to the de-
spairing thoughts and jealous fears of her
favorite hcroincs.
"Marm's been fooln' herself" she said
dejectly, as she sat on q stump, and dug
her bare toes into the damp black soil;
"an | 'xpcct there's nothin fur me to do
but tramp it. Jim don't kecr fur me, l
'spect he's stuck on that red-haired Sal
Perkins, who thinks she's some at cause
her folks live on the hill where its dry.
1t sets some folks up wonderful to have 4
bit of prop'ty. Them as has wants as
much more as they kin git she added a
little bitterly. "Jim's got a acre an a
log cabin, an he's sot on gittin' sheer
of old Perkins forty acres. Wall, hope
he'll he happy with Sal if her tongue is
| sharper nor a razor
who's that yer hope'll be happy
asked Il voice behind her.
Miranda Jane started, and blushed
! under ber linn, sruhpunet She had NOT