News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1913-12-03
he said. we've had our troubles will

| DC6l tdlSiJ'
I'm not Directing to Mr. Dick
coming here, am +? Only don't expect
me to burst into song about it. Shut
the door behind you when you go out"
But he didn't go at once. He stood
watching me polish glasses and get
the card-tables ready, and / knew he
still had something on his mind.
"What has Mr.. Dick been up to
now?" | asked, growing suspicious.
Nothing. But I'm an old man, Min
ME, very old man."
"Stuff and nonsense" l exclaimed,
alarmed. you're only seventy"
"And it," he went on, anything hap
pens to me, Minnie, I'm counting on
you to do what you can for the old
place. You've been here good many
years, Minnie"
Fourteen years I have been ladling
out water at this spring." / said, try
! ing to keep my lips from trembling.
81 wouldn't be at home any place
else, unless 1t would be in an aqua
rum. But don't ask me to stay here
and help Mr.. Dick sell the old place
. IOr a summer uOIGl. rOI Iude Wuot
he'll do"
"He won't sell it," declared the old
doctor grimly. Cali I want is for you
to promise to stay"
ooh, I'll stay" I said. IT won't
promise to be agreeable, but I'll stay.
| SoTebodyll have to look after the
spring; l reckon Mr.. Dick thinks it
comes out of the earth just as we sell
it, with the whole pharmacopoeia in
| it,"
Well it made the old doctor hap
pier, and I'm not sorry l promised,
but I've got a joint on my right foot
that throbs when it is going to rain
or / am going to have bad luck,
and it gave jump then. / might
have known there was trouble ahead.
1t was pretty quiet in the spring
! house that day after the old doctor
| left. I drew chair in front of the
fire and wondered what would do if
the old doctor died, and what a fool
I'd been not to be school-teacher,
which is what l studied for. I was
thinking to myself bitterly that all
that my experience in the spring fitted
me for was to be a mermaid, when |
| heard something running down the
path, and it turned cut to be Tillie
the diet cook
She slammed the door behind her
and threw the Finleyville evening pa
per at me.
"There!" she said, 1--WE won cake
of toilet soap from Bathhouse Mike.
The emperor's consented"
"Nonsense!" / snapped, and
snatched the paper. Tillie was right;
the emperor had! I sat down and
read it through, and there was Miss
Patty's picture in an oval and the
princes in another, with turned-up
mustache and his hand on the handle
Of his sword, and between them both
was the Austrian emperor.
Well, sat there and thought it over
Miss Patty, or Miss Patricia, being,
so to speak, friend of mine. They'd
come to the Springs every winter for
years.
In my wash-stand drawer I'd kept
all the clippings about her coming
out and the winter she spent in
Washington and was supposed to be
engaged to the presidents son, and
the magazine article that told how
Mr.. Jennings had got his money by
robbing widows and orphans, and
showed the little frame house where
Miss Patty was born-as If she's had
anything to do with it. And so now
l was cutting out the picture of her
and the prince and the article under
meath which told how many castles
she'd have, and / don't mind saying
| was smiling a little bit, for
couldn't get used to the idea. And
suddenly the door closed softly and
there was a rustic behind me. When
| turned it was Miss Patty herself.
She saw the clipping Immediately, and
stopped just inside the door.
you, too," she said. "And we've
come all this distance to get away
from just that"
''Well, l shant talk about it,"
replied, not holding out my hand, for
with her, so to speak, next door to
being princess-but she leaned right
over and kissed me. / could hardly
believe it,
why won't you talk about it?" she
insisted, catching me by the shoulders
and holding me off. Minnie, your
eyes are as red as your hair!"
81 don't approve of it," said. "You
might as well know it now as later,
Miss Patty. / don't believe in mixed
marriages. had a cousin that mar
ried Jew, and what with him making
the children promise to be good on
the Talmud and her trying to raise
them with the Bible, the poor things
is that mixed up that it's pitiful."
She got a little red at that, but she
sat down and took up the clipping.
He's much better looking than that,
Minnie" she said soberly, "and he's
good Catholic. But If that's the way
you feel well not talk about it. I've
had enough trouble at home as it is"
with that l began to blubber, and
she came int my arms like baby.
You're all I've got" declared, over
and over, "and you're going to live in
a country where they harness women
with dope and vousll nevar haar an