Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1891 — A Little Tea Gown. [ARTICLE]

A Little Tea Gown.

“But, ma, she’s set her heart on it so, and it’ll be awful pretty.” “Pretty, no doubt, bitt it’s foolish extravagance. ’laiu’t as if she was goin’ to wear it year in and year out. and besides it will take the dressmaker full three days to make it, and we’ll have her thread and snippin’s ail over the house. I just shan’t do it. Niece though she be, that’s too much to ask alter all I’ve done for her. Anyhow, what’s the use—she can’t take it with her where she’s goin’.” I, the new pastor’s wife, was returning my first calls, and I overheard the above dialogue as I stood rapping at the Widow Stebbens’. A louder rap was answered at last by that lady herself, and I was shown into the stiff, showy parlor. After a short, formal call, I rose to go, when Mrs. Stebbens said, “Won’t you step in and see my niece, Letty; she’s sick, and hasn’t been out to meetin’ since you came. I assented, and she led the way into an adjoining chamber, where lav a pretty young girl, whose bright eves, hollow cheeks, and little cough made an unconscious appeal that went right to my heart. Letty cnatted brightly in that confidential way that invalids sometimes have, showing me her autograph albums and schoolmates’ photographs, and finally askiug my opinion upon some samples of cloth that she drew fiom under her pillow. "Now, wouldn’t this make just the loveliest tea gown ?” showing me a lot of pale pink cashmere, figured with daisies of a deeper shade, with leave i of pale olives and browns. “Made with puffed sleeves,” she went on, “and with cuffs and a high Medici collar of olive velvet.” 1 could see in fancy the sweet thin face setoff by the artistic gown, and I praised both the sample and her taste. “Auntie thinks it’s silly of me, J know, but in a week or so, when I begin to be about, it will be so nice to wear in the house.” The conversation turned to other topics, and soon I took leave of Lettv. "The next time you come I will have on my pretty gown,” she said, gaylv, as I bade her good-by. Two weeks later I "went to see Letty again. She wore her aesthetic gown, but this time there was no flush upon the fair face and the still little hands were crossed over her heart. Miss Stebbens stood with her mother beside the casket. “Ain’t you glad now, ma, that you humored her about the dress? It wasn’t much trouble and she’s goin’ to take it with her where she goes, after all. ” Mrs. btebbens bowed her head, but a sob that shook her angular shoulders with a jerk was all the reply I heard; but Letty, lying there in her pretty pink gown, looked so happy that 1 believe she heard more.— Udall and Express. In an account of Mexican meteorites, M. L. Fletcher, an English mineralogist, describes fourteen huge masses of iron whicn have been found within a small section of country. The largest has the form of. a beehive, rises lour feet above the ground, and is five feet in diameter at the surface of the soil, beneath which it extends to unknown depths. The second ftrass, estimated to weigh 4,000 pounds, is now in the National Museum at "Washington. The Butcher masses number eight pieces, weighing from 290 pounds to 650 pounds, and having a total weight of 4*ooo pounds, The Sandhez estate mass weighs 252 pounds, and the Fort Duncan mass 97| pounds. The greatest dispersion is sixty-six miles.