Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1911-12-07
Miss Fidelia's
--Carden
BY Jerome spssgue
tcopyrishs. 1911. By Associated Ls.r.v Pres,


miss the privileges OF girlhood.
"When | was young" she said to
her most intimate friend, Mrs. Per-
kins, "when was young, Phoebe,
you know how things we're with me.
Father and mother didn't believe
that sentiment was necessary, and
they made us wear practical, plain
things, and entertain our company
when the whole family was present,
and the result was that Mary and
Margaret ran away to get married,
and |, not having their courage, have
remained single. And now Mary and
Margaret are doing just as father
and mother did, driving their five
pretty daughters to clandestine en-
gagements, and making all sorts OF
trouble if they look at young man."
"Well," Mrs. Perkins said, "you
know how | used to pity you, Fidelia.
1t was only when you came over to
my house that you ever saw Andrew
Stokes, and at last your conscience
worried you about that, and you
stayed away, and he thought you
didn't like him any more and went
out vest"
There was q pretty blush on Miss
Fidelis's cheeks. "Oh, Andrew
Stokes" she unused, che was a nice
boy, Phoebe, and if / had it to do
over again I'd act differently"
Her calm manner deceive Phoe-
be. "She's forgotten that she
thought her heart was broken. / re-
member she cried for whole night
in my arms when he went away"
But she did not voice her thought,
she merely asked, placidly, what
are you going to do about your
nieces ?"
'I'm going to provide everything
that will help them along the road
to matrimony," said Miss Fidelia,
firmly. Owe been happy enough,
Phoebe, but I've missed lot-and
Pm not going to have them follow
ing in my footsteps. And since I'M
Gle Jude died and left me the old
place have planned to fix it 10 that
when those girls come to see me there
will be everything ready to entertain
their young men. I'm going to have
hammocks and cozy corners, and
big fireplace where they can pop corn
and make candy, and Pm going to
have the floor in the dining room
polished so that they can dance. And
if they don't have a good time it
won't be because | don't know how
to plan it for them"
Miss Fidelia's sisters argued that
the little lady's ideas were ridicu-
lous. Her garden, for example, she
called 'the garden of love-" and
there was fountain in it, with GU
pid in marble holding the water
spout.
Everybody will think you are a
sentimental old maid" was the I'M
vanished statement of sister Mary,
when she came over one night to
find her own three pretty daughters
and Margaret's acting as hostesses
to crowd of laughing young folk.
Il am" said Miss Fidelia, serene
ly. 81 wasn't allowed to have any
sweetness and romance in my own
youth, and Pm going to see that
other people get it"
81 wouldn't let my girls 90 there"
Mary confded afterward to Marga-
ret; ''but Uncle Jude left Fidelia all
his money, and it won't pay to make
her mad. He was always furious
over that Andrew Stokes affair; he
thought father and mother should
have let Fidelia marry him."
THAT reminds me-" Msrgarst
said. Andrew Stokes is in town.
Rufus saw him at the postoffice =
Mary stared. swell, of all things"
she said. Then she leaned forward.
conlidentially. "We'd better keep
him away from Fidelis," she said.
"Fidelia amt fifty, and you don't
know what notions she might have
about him."
II they had only guessed, the
memory Of Andrew Stokes burned in
Miss Fdelia's heart. She had never