Year: 1874

with us! 1t doesn't make any differ


ence that she went back on her


word, grew up to be hatchet-faced


old maid, her voice like file and


her temper like catsup-she was


lovely then. "Would the fair and


lovely Augusta accept of our com.


pany to spelling school out at Duck


Lake Thursday night?" The fair
Augusta would, she said, and did.


Such moon! Such an easy motion
of the sleigh! Such singing in
chorus! Every girl had a 'front.'
door key in her pocket, and every


young man felt as if he could climb
shed forty thousand feet high to
get into his own chamber window.
The fair young creature-how she
pretended to shiver with cold until
an arm was gently and atfectionate-
ly placed around her delicate waist!
Then the weather suddenly grew


warmer and she didn't shiver any
more. 1t was a beautiful night. we
observed. She said she'd noticed
the same thing, and she seemed to
lean over little more, like some of
the telegraph poles on Michigan
avenue. Emboldened. we observed
that Bill Jones and Sarah Smith
seemed very atfectionatc. She said
it seemed so to her, but having
stuck the end of horse blanket in
her eye she wasn't prepared to
make an affidavit. Somehow, after
that the conversation began to grow
more and more interesting, and with


that fair young creatures head on
our shoulder we'd have set ont to
ride to Vermont and back without
stop. She was SO artleSs and in
nocent; so child-like and confiding.
She told all about how her step
mother pounded her with the rolling
pin, and when we thought of roll
ing pin whacklng against her frag


lie form and bounding over her ala
baster shoulders, our hair stood on
end with mad frenzy. She said she
sometimes thought she'd get mar
ried tc escape further persecution,
and we were about to lay our hand
on our heart and offer to be hers for
evermore when the sleigh stopped
at the school house. Then came
the spelling down. 1t was Brigh-
ton against Bungtown. Such words
as catarrh, turkey, parallel, ETC.,
soon reduced the sides to half a
dozen, and at length we were left
alone to sustain the honor Of Brigh.
ton. The schoolmastcr was deter
mined that Bungtown should win,
and it did when we spelled omnibus
with double "s." He said ii
wasn't right, and when Brighton in
sisted he offered to uphold Bung.
town with the iron poker. Howev.
err, it was an Offset to be conso'ed
and sympathized with by "our girl"
She positively shed tears of anger
and sympathy, and she said OF
course there was two SIS on an ON.
nibus, one on each side, and she
wasn't positive but that there was
one or the door behind. BY and
by the conversation went back to
stepmothers, rolling pins and ala.
baster shoulders, and getting mar
ried, and she said she'd be ours.
We figured up how we could keep
house on $3.50 per week and have
a dollar left; just how the woodbine
would trail over the door; how we'd
make her stepmother die Of brok'
en- heart; and, but you all remem-
ber. 1t was a boys dream. She
discouraged me when she thought
she could catch a dashing clerk,
and her father set the dog on me
aud her brothers threatened to
shoot; but as l said before, 1t
doesn't make any difference now.
When l think over tho past I feel
to cxclaim with Walt. Whitman:
"Oh, gimme back them other days!"