The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-01-22
"a Bachelor Girl Farmer.

, engulting all else, and stretching for
miles and miles over the watershed
slope towards the Sound. And you
paid $500 tor the whole thing?" said
Thomas. Eyes, sir, $500, quite inclu-
sive,' as Thomasine's English friends
would say. All the buildings and sixty
acres of land; I'll show you later But
| now get ready for supper I'm going to
turn my hay. Your suit cases are in
the front chamber, ground floor"
"Thomasine, said Thomas, when
their chamber door was closed upon
them, what have you brought in your
bag?" WELL" said Thomasine, Il did
not know how much abandoned it
really was, SO l brought an evening
dress and some long gloves to be on
the safe side. What did you bring?"
"Oh, knew better than that" said
the man. Il Just put in my patent
feathers and some ties. You know
what that Mt. Desert cottage turned
out to be. For goodness sake, don't
tell her. The jokes on U.S. Isn't that
a great f1replace?"
And real Windsor chairs, too"
whispered Thomasine, "and look at
that bedspread-regular Deerfield!"
Supper daintily served by the girl in
the fading sunset light, on gate
legged table, wilt chairs, "thirty-five
cents apiece. my DEAR" tea in real
pewter" teapot. tomatoes from my
garden" sauce from my apples" water
from my WE'LL" and waited on by the
picture book farm boy now thoroughly
sterilized, what more could one want?
How perfectly charming to be real
ly abandoned in a place like this"
chartered Thomasine, especially when
you entertain so much, and can have a
telephone and New York groceries.
don't wonder you have SO many WIS.,
itors. But who does your cooking?"
PUT out the most of it," replied the
girl, that is, the heavy cooking.
keep Alcibiades here all the time, and
he's a treasure"
"Of course. Alcibiades isn't his own
name" said Thomas. "This is Connec-
ticut, not Athens
NO." laughed the girl, "he's the real
LAWSON call him that because he's
down on the System. He finances the
farm. I've often trusted him with SO
cents at a time
And then the moonlight on the very
modern piazza, with the lights CT an
other abandoned" farm far down the
J,,y oil
New York family! How friendly the
katyGids and the crichets; how iestful
the stiffness.
But don't you lock your doors?' we
asked, when bedtime came. Never,
except when l have company, and
they're scared. There's no one to get
it. Goodnight, Alcibiades is in the
attic, fully armed
lawfully sorry to disturb ycu,' said
a quavering voice half an hour later;
"but did you hear something crawling
or walking on the piazza?" Moo" we
said, with freezing blood. well,
didn't either,' said the wicked girl.
with a giggle, as she went off with the
lamp.
Morning bright and sunny, the hill
lost in a soft haze After breakfast,
a tour of inspection; and first to the
barn, where Calico was stamping nols'
lily to keep off the abandoned" flies.
There was another barn when
bought the place." said the girl, "a
spite barn, and l pulled it down. be-
cause it spoiled the view" "A spite
barn." we queried-"what's that?"
Eyes, built for spite, you know. !
heard that the old farmer here said
his wife spent too much time looking
out of the window, SO he built the barn
Just so that she couldn't see thing.
She got even with him afterwards, they
said, for when he died and they had
the funeral all ready she wouldn't come
in because she was busy frying dough
nuts! But come ana see my garden.
I've got the biggest cucumbers ever
raised in captivity. and all the Burbank
freak vegetables besides. hire
man to do the digging, and l do the
picking. have heaps to give away
and to SELL"
Sure enough, there were rows OF fat
beets, beans, tomatoes. lettuce, and
monstrous things which the girl said
were English marrows, with many
other novelties.
Isn't the air just delicious" said the
girl. 'It's about seven hundred and
fifty feet here, and that point is twelve
hundred. I sold my hay for twenty
dollars, standing, this year." she went
on. land the taxes are nothing. I've
got my eye on another farm down the
I fhron hundrPd VIII