The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-10-25

maid of-all.work. 'Tunia. were terribly
busy. For 1t was Mrs. Cheney's birth.
day. and company was expected ia
tea. The parlors and the drawing
room had beens placed in an
inviting condition, and SO had the
combined room at the top Of the
house.
Mrs. Cheney was fair, buxom. amia.
BILE, and-as she herself put 1t vaguely
i'm her forties. Her house was the
incest looking, neatest, and prettiest
in long road in Remington, which
still retained traces of its rural days.
Mrs. Cheney's house was known as
The Winery, and real vine grew on
the front of it, and occasionally, to the
joy of the inmates; there were real
grapes on it. They were very small
and very green, and they never got
larger or ripper, but they were grapes;
and the newspaper boy and the butch
er's boy, and boys of indefinite occu-
patton, invariably stopped to gaze at
them and to admire them when, in
the month of September, they were
distinctly visible to the naked eye.
Mrs. Cheney herself was rather glad
that the grapes stopped at the green
stage. Had they advanced beyond
that her vine would constantly have
been damaged, if not destroyed, by
the boys of the neighborhood, whose
habits were predatory, and whose
methods of helping themselves to the
contents of front garden were sum.
mary.
The house, taking its name from
the vine, was called The Winery, and
Jane Cheney, whose husband, town
traveller for a firm of sweetmeat max
ers, had early in their married life
gone out one foggy day and never
been heard of again, having it on her
hands comfortably furnished, decided,
after she had abandoned all hope of
solving the mystery of Tom Cheney's
fate, to keep it on and earn her liv,
ing in letting it out in apartments.
She was an excellent cook, a good
housewife, and splendid little wo.
man of business, and she managed so
we'll that she not only let her rooms
we'll, but kept her dodgers.
Her sole assistant in the homework
and the waiting was TUNA, who came
to her a child of fifteen, and was, on
the occasion of the little birthday
party at which we are presently to
assist, twenty-five.
Mrs. Cheney trusted 'Tunfa implic.
lily, and the dodgers were on terms
of general familiarity with her Which
almost amounted to personal friend
ship.
For 'Tunia was treasure, and, be.
ing such, there was grief almost
amounting to despair when she-be.
ing of a loving and romantic nature
became engaged to a young policeman
whose beat Fay in the immediate
neighborhood. Having a handsome
face, little black moustache, and
big brown eyes. he had won 'Tunia's
heart while strolling by her side when
she fetched the supper beer from the
Princess of Wales, public house
with all the latest modern improve.
ments at the top of the road.
'Tunia's peculiar name was no mys-
terry to the dodgers, as they had all
been at The Winery long enough to.
learn all about it. This pattern Of
generals had been named Petunia
by her father, working gardener,
who had determined to call his female
children after flowers. He didn't name
any more, because all the rest were
boys.
Petunia was quickly shortened to-
Pet; but when the girl, owing to fam.
lily circumstances-her father died and
her mother married again-sought
situation and came to Mrs. Cheney, It
was felt that there would be incon-
venience in calling her Pet. The
dodgers would not be likely to take to
the din1inutive kindly. So the other
half of the name was adopted, and,
TUNA had been TUNA ever since.
Ito Be continued.)