Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1875 — TILLY’S EXPERIENCE. [ARTICLE]

TILLY’S EXPERIENCE.

BY LOTTA M’DONALD.

Ptospect Hill lay glittering like thousands of diamonds, as the bright winter sun shone on the pure white snow with which it was covered. The coasting was splendid, and the shouts of the children showed they were improving it. There was no school to-day, it being Saturday, go the hill was covered with merry children, well wrapped and muffed against the pranks of old Boreas. Tilly sat very discontentedly on the piano-stool, practicing her music lesson with her fingers only, for her heart was on the hill, which could be seen very plainly, from the window back of the piano. Tilly held herself exceedingly above dolls, and nonsense of that sort, but was passionately fond of coasting, and she and her pretty sled, “ Lightfoot,” were always foremost in the fray. A few months ago Tilly had taken a great liking to music, and had teased and coaxed papa into getting ner a piano, and then mamma into letting her take music lessons. Mamma had been a little afraid that her hoyden daughter would tire of it after a little, but so far Tilly had done nobly. Until this morning, when, as she rose from the breakfasttable, she was for running out directly for a famous old slide, as she said, and mamma had gently reminded her that her sewing and practicing must be attended to first; but Tilly’s rueful face smote her to the heart, so she finally let her off from the sewing (which Tilly particularly abhorred). Nevertheless, with this concession, the little girl’s heart wasfull of bitter thoughts as she moved off very slowly toward the parlor, followed by brother Joe, who was also obliged to stay in-doors to-day, for he had taken a dreadful cold from getting his feet very wet while sliding the night before; but Joe had an easy, contented disposition, so he threw himself down before the fire with one of Capt. Mayne Reid’s delightfully impossible stories, and had soon forgotten everything else in following the chequered fortunes of his hero. “ One, two, three, four,” counted Tilly. “ Oh, plague take this exercise! I never could get it, if I should live to be as old as Methuselah. I think mamma’s too bad, anyway. She might let me go out and slide; ’twouldn’t make any difference if I should practice six weeks steady. Miss Dean would rustle in like a moving starch-factory, and gaze in such a reproachful way at me, and say, ‘Well, Miss Matilda (I do hate to be called Matilda of all things), have you practiced your lesson well this week?’ and everything immediately would go out of my head and my fingers stiffen up. I despise her, anyway” (last week Tilly loved her to distraction); “ she is all bones and red eyes.” “ Lub your edibles," came in a muffled tone from before the fire, as Master Joe managed to tear himself away from his books long enough to give this sage advice.

“ Why, did you hear me, Joe?” asked Tilly, a little ashamed. “ I didn’t know I was talking out loud; but don’t you think it’s horrid to have to stay in, anyway. Oh, come here; they’re having a race down the hill. Oh, don’t I wish I was out there with Lightfootl” They both looked on delighted until the race was over, and then Tilly concluded she would rest a little while, so she seated herself on the rug beside Joe. “ Don’t you think it’s horrid to be a girl,” she queried, after a little earnest study of the fire, bringing Joe up from the depths of his fascinating volume with a start. “ Horrid? No, I should think ’twould be kind of dice,” he reflected; “girls have a pretty fair tibe." “ I should think they did,” retorted Tilly, indignantly. “ They have to turn sheets, and practice, and everything poky; and boys can whistle and turn all the somersaults they want to, without anyone saying, ‘ There, there, Matilda, that is very improper and unladylike;’ besides, you don’t have to take music lessons.”

“ I thought you were dead to take busic lessods,” said Joe, thickly, for his cold impaired his speech. “ Well,” sighed Tilly, “I don’t think boys begin to have as many trials as girls.” Joe looked calmly superior, as became his sex. “ That’s all you dow about it. You ought to be a boy awhile ad you would fide out.” “ I wish to goodness I was, Tilly, energetically. “ Oh, Joe, let’s swap clothes,, and I’ll be you and you’ll be' me. You may have every last one of my dresses. Y’es, my blue silk and all,” with a little Dang over this last, which was her especial pride. “I, don’t believe baba will let us,” said Joe. “ Oh, I don’t believe she will care. Just the other day she said, ‘ Tilly Huntington, you ought to have been a boy.’ We are just the same size, you know. Oh, won’t that be jolly ?” and Tilly* executed a pirouette that should have been seen to be appreciated. | “ I’m not going to swap forgood,” said cautioqs Joe, “ until I see bow I like it.” “ All right,” said Tilly. “ Now I’ll go up and mamma, and get. a suit of your clothes, and I’ll throw mine down to you. So you can dress by the fire and not take more cold.”

So she flew ta her mamms, who was overseeing preparations for dinner. “All through protticing?” she said, f;lad to see the. shadows gone from her ittle girl’s face. “ Well, now, ran out for a half-hour and we will ring the first bell out of doors so you can hear it.” “ Oh, mamma, Joe and I are going to trade, and he is going to be your little girl and I your son.” “ Why, what do you mean?” said mamma in amazement, and Tilly explained her plan as well as she could. Mamma would not consent at first, but on a little reflection she concluded it would do no harm and might cure Tilly of her wish more effectually than anything else. So finally she yielded her consent to the crazy scheme, and Tilly flew like a small hurricane to Joe’s room and was soon transformed completely. She surveyed herself in the long mirror with much pride; her short, curly hair looked very well, parted on one side, and she made a pretty, red-cheeked, chubby boy. Her first celebration of her liberty*was to slide down the banisters and turn three somersaults on the soft rug at the bottom. She threw a suit of hers in the parlor for Joe, who got himself into it with many mistakes and much chuckling. He had just completed his toilet when the first dinner-bell rang. So he called Tilly in, and they went into spasms of mirth at each other’s droll appearance. It must be confessed that an artist would never have gone mad over Joe’s beauty, for his wiry red hair utterly refused to stay put, and stood up in all sorts of angles all over his head. Freckles, too, are not conducive to feminine beauty, and Joe’s pug nose was liberally indorsed with them, his feet and hands looked immense, and his long steps, as he strode around the room, sent Tilly off into a fresh burst of laughter.

The second dinner-beH summoned them dining-roomward. When they reached the door there was a great giggling and shuffling as to who should go in first, Tilly insisting that ladies shoidd always precede gentlemen. So Joe summoned rp alibis courage, and? essaysd a graceful entree;, but alas! for his sanguine hopes- Mischievous Tilly gave Nim a great push from behind which saused his feet to tangle in his unaccustomed skirts, and he came down on all-fccrs just inside the door, much to the amusement of papa and Uncle Dick, who almost took away the children’s appetites with their merciless raillery. When dinner was pretty nearly over, papa turned quietly to Tilly, and said: “My deer, will you accompany me this afternoon in my visit to my patients?” “ Oh, yes, indeed,” said Tilly, who was always delighted to ride behind papa’s fast ponies, in his stylish cutter. “ And you, my daughter,” turhing to Joe, “may attend to your sewing and practicing.” “Yes, sir,” said Joe, in dismay, for he had left his hero flounderingin a swamp, and was extremely anxious to get him out. He had never sewed a- stitch nor practiced a note in his life, and he thought he was getting the warst of the bargain. Tilly and papa set off in fine style and great glee, soon after dinner. Tilly looked very stylish inside of Joe’s best overcoat, and with his seal-skin cap set jauntily on her curls. Papa’s practice was very extensive, and as the shadows began to lengthen and the air grew frostier Tilly began to be very much chilled, but she was too plucky to own it, and in answer to all of papa’s inquiries “if she was cold” she would say, “Not very, sir.” But she was glad enough when the ponies’ heads were turned homeward; and when they drove in at the gate she could see Joe standing at the library window flattening his nose against the window-pane, making a funny silhouette fgainst the flickering fire-light. Tilly bounded out and ran toward the house so eagerly that it was hard fox papa to call her back, but he was bound to teach her a lesson, so he said: “Come back, my son; you must help Tom with the ponies and cow„ and bring in the coal and kindling, them you can come in.”

Poor Tilly’s eyes filled with very feminine tears as she turned and walked slowly toward the stable, where Tom had driven the ponies. Tom giggled a little when he saw the forlorn little figure in the door, but he had his instructions from papa, so he simply said: “ Now, Master Joe, see how quick you can shinny up to the loft and toss me down some hay.” Tilly was never averse to climbing, so she was up in a trice, and sprang toward the opening, when her foot slipped and she fell through, and lay senseless before astonished Brindle. Tom caught her up and carried her in, with a face nearly as white as her own, for Tilly was a great favorite of Tom’s. The family were much alarmed, and papa could not forgive himself for sending her to the barn, while Joe flew for campho.r and ammonia as fast as his trammeled limbs would allow him, and the first thing Tilly saw _ when she opened her blue eyes was Joe at the foot of the couch, his hair in wilder confusion than ever, and clutching his skirts with both hands, and although she had not an idea how she happened to be lying there, smelling so strongly of camphor, yet she must laugh if she died for it, and she sent opt such a merry peal of laughter that they all joined in her merriment, so much relieved were they to hear it. But w'hen Tilly tried to lift her arm a sharp twinge of pain caused her to faint again, and when papa examined it he found it was broken. Poor Tilly, in the long, weary days of convalescence that followed, had time to grow very quiet and womanlv. They were all very kind to her, but Tilly had great need of all the patience she could command, for the days seemed very long and dull to her. One of her pleasures was the daily visit of Miss Dean, who was so entertaining and kind that Tilly learned to love her dearly, though with a pang of remarse of her unkind thoughts of her the day at her adventure. As for Joe, nothing can exceed his pity for girls, because they have to wear skirts.— Standard. * “ Small Talk,” of the Louisville Cour-rier-Journal, read and acted upontbe advice given in a paragraph stating that gum arabic mixed with the starch would give an appearance of newness to old shirts. The gum arabic turned his- shirt yellow, and for four days he remained a restless prisoner in bed, with so other occupation than to gaze out of the window and watch the yellow garment bleaching on a line, while the ruthless wind snapped its swallow tads into ribbons. - , A million dollars* worth of silver has been forwarded from the Pacific coast to the Philadelphia mint, and will be coined into tive-ceut ®piom and tvfentw-cent pieces.