The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1904-10-07
HER PINK
WRAPPER


T HERE is a place where the leaves
grow more profoundly green in
Summer, redder and more golden in
autumn, and where the brilliant eterni-
ty of sky is of deeper sapphire hue.
Thus is slumbrous Greenton Valley.
Here tiny cottage stood. white and
rose embowered, idyllic. poetic. and
charged with the gentle virginian grace
of ancient Italy. Ii was set in garden
laid on with academic primness. yell
low dwarf roses reared their idle,
creamy heads beside such lurid effects
Of nature as red and white chrysanthe-
NUNS; a sisterhood of passionate red
dahlias fiaunted away in the sunshine
opposite nunlike lilies; and an infinity
of little ox-eyed pansies made for bor-
ders. 1t was a most delectable garden
indeed.
Sweet Ernestine Tebbs looked up
from her gardening. prettily perplexed,
as Col. Sam Raphael Bell shut the alb
surd toy Of white gate with an an
nouncing click. Everything was on a
doll-like, miniature scale.
Ernestine's fingers were buried in the
rich. clean loan. BY her side huge
pair Of shears lay. the only thing of
consequential size about the place. She
raised her hand and pushed back her
hair from her forehead, and settled the
Tapping proportions Of her garden hat
on the crown of her head. The colonel
thought gardening such pretty, pretty
pastime.
Il see you've had your shutters
painted" remarked the colonel, with
originality.
"Um-um, yes" faltered Ernestine
with a streak of the same element
Then she added. softly: 81 did it"
The colonel laughed, his hearty. regi-
mental laugh. and flushed rather under
the healthy tan of his skin.
| Il must confess you made striking
success Of it," he said, letting his eyes
wander over the six gingerbread win
| dows of this doll house. Everything
was SO delightfully."-, ridiculously, alb.
surdly neat and tidy and clean and
prim. And the girl before him was re
markably pretty. with her fresh morn
ing face, her silky fawn-brown hair, anc
her long. fiowerlike hands that now la,
loosely clasped over her dimpled knees
The morning wrapper she wore wa
worthy Of being called an invention
and il was product of her owl
Imagination. 1t was crisp and yer.
pink and clean. with an infinity OF loop
and bows and rufiles. and last, but no
least, a honeycomb yoke and peekabo'
sleeves. Ernestine was also the autho
Of her hat.
This delicious precision and tidines
about the doll house was balm upon tn
cleanly, order-loying soul Of Col. Bel
I'm really Just curious enough q
want to know how you managed. Mis-
Ernestine," he said. expanding his mill
tary chest with the clean, fresh air @
Greenton Valley, as he seated himsel
beside Ernestine.
She bit in her under lip. There wa
TN almost dangerous sweetness lurkin
about the corners of her round mouth.
Suddenly she laughed outright. an
dropped her head, burying her charm
ing, dimpling face in her rosy hands.
"Ohl I'm almost ashamed to tell you,
she said, hardly audible. TITS so r
4 dieulous, but then il seems to me tha
everything that happens during thes
{ summers here is ridiculous"
Miss Ernestine," said the colone
with unction, Il promise to keep PEI
a fectly sober"
Well, then, I'll tell you"
She sighed a delectable little dirlin
sigh that thrilled straight through II
colonel and finally lodged in his heart
i The yellow. impalpable sunshine be,
4 down upon them. and over them broo'
s ed the eternity of lustrous sapphire SIX
You see it's just this way" begs
Ernestine, there are only two of u
II of course. and my sister, being pa
i mistress of expedients and strateg
o suggested that we make q stepladder
: our household goods. So We pill
If chairs and tables up from the grouI
70 and down from the windows. and sto'
or cdess ane hels to the frame while
painted"