Year: 1877

ley S offer OF marriage, and sit down to
write him that, before be makes any
further plans, with me for one of them,
he must know that arr one Of those
superhuous beings, a girl who came
into this world with 10 especial place
prepared for her that l have clerked
at Sharp & Snipers ever since l was
seventeen--and | am now twenty.
three that have two young sisters
depending on me for support, growing
up in gawky, ill.clad ugliness, shade
palmer than myself even.


Someway, when l first met him at
that pleasant summer resort, the first
breath l had out of Sharp & Sniper's
store for two years, was so happy, 1
forgot to mention the scrubbing life
had left behind me at home, and | was
SO sick Of poverty and third-rate peo-
pie, | was so glad to forget it.


How should he, being a man, know
that the dress | wore had been turned
twice that trimmed my bonnet N.Y.
self; that the diamond ring l wore /
had borrowed from my married sister,
being the unvalued relic of some for
gotten lover Of hers that the beauty
he said was in my face was due to my
ha ppiness in his society? For | do
think the old saying, BE good and
you will be happy" ought to be re-
versed.


How did he know that charming
naivete of mine was learned tying to
induce customers to buy?


Old Shipper always says when he
expects to sell large bill Of goods to
q customer


Let Miss 10 manage him she can
smile the dollars out of his pockets, if
any one can"


So | smile and smile, and yet l am
no villain, for they are enforced and
impudent smiles for bread and butter.


How round and rosy I grew in those
few weeks Of ecstatic joy What love-
ly walks and rides we had up and
down the woOdpaths and ravines
What charming sails through the dells,
through the Witch's Gulch, and about
the Devils Elbow


How brilliant and agreeable and
how handsome my Fred was Dare
call him my Fred before he knows
that | clerk at Sharp & Snipers?


l am no strong minded woman! !
frankly confess that do not like to
take care Of myself | am no cling.
ing vine, however, having never had
anything to cling to. / have grown
up stiff and straight Mi myself like
weed in the middle Of bare, ten acre
lot


Perhaps viii not make such bad
wife, after all. l am a good house
keeper, and, have been no trouble or
expense to any one since / can renem-
ber, do not see why l should be so
very much trouble now, even with my
two sisters thrown in for ballast. Still,
Fred nust know all about the power
ty and membranes, and make up
his mind accordingly. So l waste
great many sheets of paper writing an
answer that shall be frank and truth.
ful, aud yet ladylike.


inform him, in the most genteel
manner, that he must marry three
when he leads me to the altar.


| send it off in pink envelope. my
heart beating painful tattoo, as |
think of his elegant sister he has de-
scribed TO me, and of him, a rising
young lawyer, and member of the
legislature.


l piece down my sister Sophia's one
summer silk for her, that l bought at
such a bargain, thinking, per adven-
ture there may be wedding soon. l
do not scold May when she comes
home late from the picnic with my
best sash drenched and soaked through,
my lace fchu torn, and her toes
through both her boots, and creeps in
to bed beside me, hug her up into
my arms instead, with that hungry,
unsatisfed longing l always have for
kisses and caresses but she only says,
"4ou strangle me, DO, you soft, musAy
thing !" and moves along out Of my
reach


My name was never 10, but | have
always been called this Oh account OF
my enforced manly accomplishments.


For week | sing about the house
like lark ; the next week | do not
sing so much the next week | do rot
sing at all, but 60 about, heavy-eyed
and slow, and burst into tears when
May sits down to the old, faint. heart
ed piano and begins to storm away at
"Il Bacio," Fred's favorite waltz, and
mine.


might hGvo known all the time he
would never answer that letter it has
always been my luck. Let me see how
many lovers haveI had.


There was No. l, waiting on me
when my father died of heart disease