Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 17, Number 41, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 2 April 1887 — Page 7

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THE OUTGOING RACE.

The mothers wish for no more daaghtere There la no future before tbem. They bow tbeir beads and their pride •i the end of the many tribes' Journey.

The mothers weep ©*er their children, Loved and unwelcome together. Who shn"''* liar« been dreamed, not bora, 81nce there is no rosd for the Indian.

The mothers see Into the future. 'J. Beyond the end of that chieftain, Who shall be the last of the race J., Which allowed only death

to

a oowanL

Tbe square, oold.cheeks and lips firm set,' The hot, straight glance, and the throat line. Held like a stag's on the cliff. Shall be swept by tbe night winds and vanish! —K&sc Hawthorne Latbrop in The Independent.

A Widow, Indeed.

^Mary Hpear Tlernan In Oodey's Lady Book-]

We were nothing but girls, Lottie Linlor and I, and up to all sorts of mischief. Lottie wan nineteen and I a

year

younger

nut «he was smaller and not so sensible £s I thought at that time. We had come rto spend the summer in the country in

Virginia with an aunt of mine, Mrs. Page Brinton. Lottie was

not

related to

mv aunt, hut had been invited as my friend. So I played hostess, as well as .superior intelligence. ''Aunt," I said, almost as soon as we -arrived, for I thought I saw signs of previous occupation. "Who is here, besides

^Mv^mtit laughed at my precipitancy. •'Nobody but our old friend, Mr. Power sand a new one, Mrs. Mossoin. "Vlrs. Mossem? Who is she? "A young widow we inet traveling in

Florida last winter." Tjottie and I exchanged glances. We did not like young widows. St. Paul declared

that young

ites.

widows should

stay at home ana even if he had not -done so, our unassisted wisdom would havo arrived at the same conclusion. On nmore tlian one occasion we had found them dangerous. „uao.» **A voung widow! How old Is she? "Thirty, or thereabout." "Thirty!'' I exclaimed, looking down from the proud eminence of eighteon, "Whv, I consider that quite aged and and what a horrid

name—Mossom.

"I don't think so," said Lottie, decid edly. "It is such a nice rhyme for bios-

I/)ttie wrote things she called poetry, and was oil the lookout for nice rhymes. "Why not 'passum?' I snapped. "You will find Mrs. Mossom a very 4)ice person," said my aunt, leaving us to do our unpacking. "1 don't think wo need bother our Itoads about tie widow if she is thirty, 1 said, unlocking my trunk ^"8 -out one of my second-best gowns for Mrs. Mossom's benefit. Our most becoming things we kept

for

especial favor­

Lottie and I had

spent

the previous

summer in this same house, and, nmong the ytung men in the neighborhood, we mch had a particular— wel we caliod aiim friend, as covering tho Kround, present or prospective. Lottie admirer was a Mr. Archer Dillon, artd mine* Mr. John Bryan. commonly culled JacK.

Mr. Power did not count for much, being a confirmed bachelor of about forty, ffood-lookingt woll-to-do, nut ox•coodinglv shy and a little eccentuc. "I hardly think Mrs. Mossom will be *diinirorouH if sho Is thirty, ehf Lottie? repeated, brushing out my frizzes at one .glass, whllo my friend brushed out burs •at another. "Wo shall see," said lxttie, oracularly. "I wonder liow Mr. Powergetaon with SJior?" I said, after awhile. "The same way he gets on with me, I *tmppos«—by letting her alone.' "Hut widows don't put up with that (kind of thing," I suggested. "Nobody can make anything of Mr. Power.' "How do vou know?" "I have triod it," said my friond

^Atdljinor Mrs. Mossom was tho last to make her appearance. I wan a little takon aback when she came into the room, she was so different from what

I

had imagined. Without being exactly prottv, she was very elegant, her great•oat charm being a sweet gravity of countenance, indicating a character the very opposite of that with which I had endowed her. She was a person whose entrance into a room made itself distinctly Jolt. My uncle's face bflghtenod Mr. Power "turned a shade redder than •usual, and my aunt pointed with a caressing gesture to the chair nearest

herself,

saying, "Hore is your seat,

•dear." The widow's dress was black and sombre, but a gleam of transparent white irills around h«r throat and wrists re* minded me of "the cloud's silver-lin-ntf."

Upstairs, brushing out my bang at the glass, I had thought I was not a badlooking girl but Mrs. Mossom's finished elegance, some how, made mo feel as raw ami uroott its a cubbago btssido uolicato garden-tlowor. liottie's wishful evos showed that she, too, was 1 pressed by the stranger.

We looked at each other again, and in that silent Interchange of glances we concluded a defensive alliance.

Mrs. Mossom greeted us m.lltoly when wo woro introduced, and I 'anoiwl tier oyos rested kindly for a moment on little's prettv face, most persons did l.ut she did not seem interested in us, toyotid what courtesy required.

She and my aunt soon fell to discussing plans for relieving a destitute family in the neighborhood, while my uncle and Mr. Power talked politics, as usual. Lottie and I finding it impossible to confine our thought* to either poverty or polities, talked of the pleasures we were anticipating-—a repetition of the drives, rides and parties we had found so delightful thosumuier before. the bv, girls.' said my uncle, the "drift of our conversation, "•more »s to be a party in the neighborhood next week, to which we are all invited: and its is given to the bride, Mra. 8herwood, I think everybody ought to go. Yon, too, Mrs. Mossom.

By ....

catching the dr "There is

Mv aunt gave him a depreciating glance in vain. Uncle Brinton was one of those healthy, jovial natures, whose wounds, physical and spiritual, lose no time in getting healed.

Devoted as he was to my sure that, once she was fairly dead and buried, he would have considered it a christian duty to get comforted as soo® possible and to look out for somclKxiy to take her place. As to Mrs. Mossom not going to a party on mourning, when her husband had been dead two full years, he never could have been made to understand such nonsense.

Mrs. Mossom was too well bred to appear scandalised by his kindly-meant proposition. She did not mem half as much disturbed as my aunt.

She answered pleasantly, although her face flushed a little and her eyes were

bent on her plate aa she said, "l do "not go to parties, Mr. Brinton.**

My uncle could not, for the life of him, understand the full significance of her manner, but I noticed he never asked her to go to a party agaln

After dinner bottle and down the front, full of the Sherwood party

MahAi* -'Skf- v* »si

at least, I did not—Mrs. Mossom, partly shaded by curtains, sitting at one of the windows that we passed and repassed in our promenade. "Did yon notice how uncle pot his foot into it? *1 do not go to parties, Mr. Brin ton,'" I said, mimicking the widow's voice and caricaturing her manner by lowering my eyes ana drawing up the the corners of my mouth. To my surprise, Lottie did not laugh at my fine powers of mimicry as usual, but turned furiously red and pinched my arm. Following the direction of her eves, I perceived Mrs. Mossom, who had both seen and heard me.

My cheeks turned redder than my companions, as I caught tbe lady

fiance.was

I ought to have made an apology,

ut I too much embarrassed to do the proper thing. Instead of being sorry for my incivility, I was unreasonably angry that my attempt at ridicule bad recoiled on myself. I quickened my steps, dragging Lottie with me. When we reached the end of the portico I did not turn and resume my walk with her, but jumped into the garden below, landing, with my best slippers, in the middle of a damp bed of scarlet geraniums. I hurried on in no dignified way, for I was obliged to skip over flower-beds and tall box borders until 1 reached the main walk, which, fortunately, was shaded with trees and screened from the house. The remembrance of Mn. Mossom's amused glance piqued me.

Instead of being glad that she was

?:ood-natured

enough to smile at all, I

ancied her look expressed an intention to take up the gauntlet. I worked myself into a state indignation, like the wolf who complained of the lamb muddying the stream.

As I walked along the dim, cool avenue my vexation changed suddenly to gladness. Mr heart throbbed with delight I recognized a well-remembered form leaning over the gate at the end of the walk, and a pair of dark eyes, that danced with pleasure at my reproach .... (jof assuring

It was Jack Bryan, who had heard my arrival and had lost no time in assuring himself of the fact. "What a fine color and what muddy shoes somebody has! Have you been running a fiurdle race?" he asked, letting himst lrin the gate and warmly shaking my outstretched hand. "Something very like it," I said, with quickened breath, from my late exercise over the box-borders.

When we had expressed our mutual satisfaction at seeing each other again, Jack and I resumed our acquaintance where we had loft off the previous summer, and began walking up and down tho avenue just as if a whole year had not elapsed since our last meeting there.

Jack liked mo and he was my beauideal of a man. People said he would never set the river on fire, but that did not trouble me. When a man is handsome, goodtompered and bravo thore is no need for him to set the river on fire. Besides, if the necessity for such a conflagration should ever arise, I felt that I was quite equal to the task and, in the wise oconoiny of nature, it would not have done for both to possess tho capability.

I do not know if Jack would have appeared so handsome in a city. His great strong figure, his ruddy complexion and simple, unstudied ways seemed suited to the country. I am inclined to think that naturo, with the background of the everlasting hills, was tho proper setting for his manly beauty.

How glad I was to see him again! My feot" seemed scarcoly to touch the ground my light dress, fluttering in the breezo, mado rno feel like a winged crea' turc, and my hoart, with its weight of eighteen summers, was like thistle down. "You havo not told me yet what all this excitement is about," ho said, looking on my still glowing cheeks with frankly approving eyes. "Oh! mv tongue, of course. It is always getting me into mischief." "But it is a clever, littlo tongue could it not get vou out again?" "Yes, it might, but there is my teinpor, vou see. "Tongue and temper, both? "Yes. They are like the Siamese twins—they always go together. 1 am afaid you will think I am a dreadful girl.'' "I would not have you changed," ho said, in a low voice.

Oh! mv friend, you could not set the river on fire, but—you know how to kindle aflame in my poor heart. "It will not be as pleasant here this summer as last," I said, after a pause. "Why such gloomy forebodings?" smiling at my serious face. "There is a young widow staying hero." "A widow!" he exclaimed in his deep, tender voice. "Poor thing, what harm can she do us?"'

I was silenced with compunction. If I thought the late Mr. Mossom was anything like Jack, his widow might well be cailod "poor thing."

I hastened to change the subject. "Aro you going to the Sherwood's?" I asked. "If you will go with me. That is why I came so soon. I wanted to get ahead of the other fellows.''

Soino time was required—or we imagined so—to talk over tho party, and we lingered in the shade of the lindens until the sun went down behind the mountains.

When I returned, alone, to the house, the family were on the portico taking tea, and watching the golden sunset.

I, with mv nerves atremble, too happy to take tea, or talk about clouds, seated mvself on the steps below the rest of the company, and, clasping my knees with my iiands, looked up Into the sky and dreamed of—tho Sherwood party. A

II.

Our little company soon tanged themselves. Lottie and I, with our young visitors formed the gay portion of the household. Mv uncle and aunt with Mr. Power and Mrs. Mossom were more quiet in their enjoyments.

Mr. Power, indeed, usually kept company with himself. He seemed to have plenty to sav to mv uncle, but when the ladies made* their" appearance, he had always an excuse for leaving. He would either go and smoke a solitary cigar on thi! back portico or bury his nose in a newKp&por* Mrs* Mossom had the most remarkable effect on his nerves. He had become, in a measure, accustomed to Lottie and me the summer before, and bore our entrance into the room where he was with tolerable equanimity but at the sight of Mm. Mossom, he would turn red, stammer and look uncomfortable until he mado hb escape. The lad v. herself, seemed not to notice his painful shyness, but it was great fun to us girls. Mrs. Mossom have a fine talent tor not seeing what she did not wish to see, or she could scarcely have so completely ignored our ill-concealed amusement whenever she and Mr. Power were in the same room. Wo watched them narrowly, exchanged glances, turned red with suppressed laughter. ln fact behaved In a very school-girlish way, but she seemed severely unconscious of our bad manners.

One of Mr. Powers habits were found particularly amusing. Heand the widow were great pedestrians, taking their five miles constitutional every day in the coo! oi the evening but he was so fearful

lest they should meet tn their rambles, that be never set out until he had ascertained what road sho had taken, and then he turned his steps in the opposite direction so that there would be no possibility of meeting, unlaws, indeed, they each walked half round the world and met on the other side of the globe.

The evening after our walk in the linden avenue Jack Bryan ratne again accompanied by Archie Cullen. They were great friends, these two, although utterly unlike. Indeed their points of difference seemed their strongest bond of union. Archie was small and not handsome but he had plenty of brains. In a fight Jack could havo knocked the breath out of his body in five minutw in an argument he tripped Jack up in less time than that. But there was never any rivalry between the two, although Lottie and I sometimes squabbled over their respective merits. Sho affected intellect I admired form, grace, color and had a profound respeot for muscle.

When we got down stairs the gentlemen, who had been waiting a few miniutes while we added some touches to our toilet, were discussing a lady who was in the parlor when they arrived but soon after left the room.

As soon as the first greeting were over Archie asked Lottie, "who is the lady in the black dress with beautiful white hands? Such hands! On her bombazine lap they looked like a flower-de-luce on a field sable."

Lottie, who was poetically inclined, admired Archie's flights of fancy when addressed to herself inspired by another they were not so effective. She answered without enthusiasm. "Mrs. Mossom, I su "What did you think of her?" I asked, turning eagerly to Jack. "The same as Cullen," he said," with delightful indifference to the widow. "Oh! that is impossible," said Lottie. "How so?" be asked. "I den't believe you know what a flower-de-luce and a field-sable are."

The dimples in Lottie's face gave her an immunity for saying what she nleased. "That is so. I haven't an idea," said Jack laughing. "But there goes the lady now."

Following the direction of his eyes we saw through the open window Mrs. Mossom, with parasol and shade hat starting off on her afternoon walk. This time, her elegant figure and graceful movements came in for Archie's commendation. ., "She walks like Juno! Doesn she Jack'"

"Yes, she

walks like—like everything."

Jack was not fluent. We look after her retreating figure with its undulating flow of black drapery until she was lost to sight on the road that, a few miles south of my uncle's, house, ended in a bosky dell, ono.of the most beautiful and romantic spot in the neighborhood.

When she had been gone quite long enough for us to have forgotten tho incident, we were remained of it by seeing Mr. Power, armed with a stout walking stick, come out of the house to take his constitutional, and as Mrs. Mossom had gone south he turned his face due north.

As this oft repeated little comedy was re-enacted under our eyes, Lottie burst into a tinkle of laughter and excited Archie's curiosity.

She explained to him that Mr. Power, being dreadfully shy. was always running away from Mrs. Mossom and then went on, in a grandmotherly kind of way, to express her interest in the two and how nice it would be for them to make a match. When upon Archie intimated that, as the lady had already made one match for horself, she might be trusted to manage her own affairs in regard to a second, and that Lottie had better be looking after her own admirers. Lottie admitted that there was sense in what he said, and took occasion to carry out his suggestion by going off with him to the summer house.

'IIL

The Sherwood entertainment came off and Lottie and I enjoyed it as much as we had anticipated, which is saying a groat deal. Jack was very attentive to me, so devoted indeed as to excite comment. I thought, myself, that he was on the point of saying something very particular, under the stairs after supper but another couple in search of a retired spot found us there, and the Words I was expecting were not spoken..

The next morning Lottie and I, with my aunt and Mrs. Mossom, were talking over the party in the dining-room after breakfast. We were all engaged in some flimsy summer work. Mrs. Messom was knitting a cloud in pink wool for Lottie.

It is true that Lottie amused herself making impossible matches for the widow behind her back, but she was very sweet and friendly when they were together and Mrs. Mossom liked her.

Mr. Power, who had come in to read tho morning news, finding such a feminine array, had gathered up the papers and hurried out again. When he was gone ho fell, naturally, under discussion. "I do wish Mr. Power was not so shy, said my aunt, "he has so much sense and is so thoroughly good. It is a pity for him to hide his light under a bushel of modesty. "He ought to get married," said Lottie gravelv. "I quite agree with you," said my auut, "Hut how is it to be done? How could he ever screw up his courage to make a proposal when he is afraid to look at a woman?" "He might do as the children do when they take medicine shut his eyes and open his mouth," I suggested. "Yes," said Lottie, seconding my motion with animation, "that would do. I have noticcd that when he does open his mouth be speaks to the purpose. Couldn't somebody blindfold him?"

Mrs. Mossom who had been counting stitches, looked up and gave Lottie one of the rare, bright smiles with wlrtch she sometimes rewarded friend's li sr lull ear ted nonsense. It inspired Lottie to speak more freely. "I have a match in my mind for him," she said earnestly.

Everybody laughed. Hie absurdity of a little creature like Lottie mapping out a an in as I re is

She was not disconcerted. "I wish he would let me do his courting for him," she continued. "He would be married before the year Is out." "Whv don't vou make a match for vour friend, 3ir. Cullen?" said Mrs. Mossom, without a shadow of a smile that LotUO or I could detect. My friend, cogitating as to whetbter the widow meant more than met the ear, was pilent for a longer time than usual. "If you were thirty," said my annt addressing me. "I should advise you to set your cap for Mr. Power. He does say a word to you now and then."

I bridled, although I knew the words he said to me were, for the most part, •bout the weather. Perhaps this conversation or the natural depravity of youth, prompted Lottie and me to try and bring about meetings with a view to making a match between Mr. Power and Mrs. Mossom.

I remember well our first experiment and its result. One morning I had purposely left the newspapers in the parlor with tbe understanding that Lottie was to decoy Mrs. Mossom thither on the pretext of

arranging flowers and then leavo her. I statioued myself in the dining-room, knowing that Mr. Power would be along presently to look over the papers as was his habit every morning when be thought the coast was clear of ladies. He was not long in making his appearance. "I beg pardon, but do you know where tbe papers are?" he stammered after an ineffectual search. "Yes, I was so thoughtless as to leavo them in the parlor, wait a moment and I will get them for you," I said, making a motion to go. "By no means, I will get them myself," he said energetically, moving off at the door he turned back, looMng a little flurried. "Is anybody in the parlor?" he asked." "Nobody was there when I left," I answered, turning to the window to hide my guilty face. He went off nothing doubting.

Lottie and I, like boys who wait round the corner to see the effect of their firecrackers, waited in the hall to see the result of the meeting we had brought about. Never were conspirators more completely foiled.

Mr. Power, having reached the middle of the room, before he perceived Mrs. Mossom, whose back was turned, halted with an exclamation of dismay. The lady, busy with her flowers, glanced hastily over her shoulder, startled by the sound. At this moment, Lottie and I, on tiptoe, of expectation for the next move, were brought to confusion by the entrance, through another door, of my aunt, whom we had imagined safe for an hour with her housekeeper. "My! my! who has been littering up the room with newspapers?" she exclaimed.

The spell was broken, Mr. Power recovered himself and escaped. Lottie and I were slinking away, when Mrs. Mossom with heightened color and impatient step came out of the room.

She gave Lottie and me, huddled together near the door, a searching glance, and I knew by the reflection of my feeliugs in my friend's face that we were a miserably guilty-looking pair.

IV.

The very day that our discomfiture an incident occurred which convinced me how desirable it was that Mrs. Mossom should become interested in Mr. Power, or some other suitable person.

That evening Lottie and I, with several visitors, among whom wore our friends Mr. Bryan and Mr. Cullen, were sitting together at one end of the portico. Quite at the other end. forty or fifty feet away, Mra. Mossom, in a low rocking-chair, was swaping gently back and fourth, knitting on Lottie pink cloud. Her pale, high-bred face and the rythmic motion of her graceful figure in widows weeds were very pleasant to look upon, and attracted tho attention of more than one pair of eyes in our party.

I was feeling very happy with Jack on the steps at my feet although, in the general conversation going on, we had not much to say to each other. He never remained long when I had other company, so I was not surprised when he rose to go. He had lifted his hat in bidding us good-bye and in another moment would have been gone, but just a ball of pink worsted fell from Mrs. Mossom's lap and, rolling the length of tho portico, came to stop not far from where ho stood.

He darted forward to pick it up and I watched him as he returned it to the owner with the deferential inclination which mado a bow from Jack such a compliment. The lady's beautiful smile of thanks'was more than a reward for his slight service. He paused a moment to say a few words before leaving, but tbe few words grew presently to be many. Finally he took his seat beside her and as he leaned forward, watching the movement of her knitting-needles, I could hear their pleasant voices in an uninterrupted flow of conversation. I am afraid I appeared distraite to the man who was trying to entertain me. I know my eyes often wandered to where those two were sitting, their figures outlined in beautiful relief against the glowing western sky. "Had it not been for that odious, little

Ealf

ink ball,' I mused, he would have been way homo by this time." His horse stood impatiently stamping and champing at the gate, Dut still he lingered. He seemed so much interested that he might have remained there until

cloud arou'nd her head and shoulders in a wonderful becoming way. I suspect that Lottie was secretly amused at my gravity that evening. I know that when our company was gone, she made herself very merry over Jack add Mrs. Mossom. "I have heard of 'beauty drawing with a single red hair,' but never with a strand of pink worsted," she said, laugh-

'"fler cheerfulness annoyed me. She could afford to be cheerful, Archie Cullen had eyes and ears for nobody but herself.

After tea I was standiug alone on the portico, troubled with vague discontent, gazing sadly at the stars, when a mesfc unusual thing occurred. I heard the crunching of a heavy step on the gravel walk. My heart beat quick with expectation as a figure emerged from leafy shadows into the light, that streamed softly from the hall lamp. My excitement subsided when I found that it was Mr. Power. I remember being half amused to see that he carried a bunch of roses, for I bad never soen him with a flower before. He smiled when he saw me star-gazing alone in the dusk, and coming up the steps, to where I stood, gave me his roses. Had the stars above fallen at my feet I could not have been more astonished.

from my surprise to thank him What "was the meaning of this? Did Mr. Power feel more than a friendly interest in me? The remembrance of Aunt Brinton's playful worlj flashed over me. The idea was abnur j, and yet there came, quick as thought, the desire to make Jack feel the twinge of jealousy I was su Bering. I returned to the house, mv nose buried in the roses, my head full of dreams and fancies.

My forebodings with regard to Jack proved correct. The acquaintance with Mrs. Mossom ripened, on his part, into undisguised admiration. He became as attentive to the lady as she would permit him to be. It was impossible not to see that my empire was divided. Day by day I felt mv happiness slipping away from me. This state of things became apparent to those who looked on. One afternoon, Mop, the colored girt supposed to perform tbe duties of lady maid to Lottie and me, was pretending to brush one of my dresses but, in fact, was amusing herself looking put of the window. Suddenly

miss, dar go Mr. Bryan a-walkin wid Miss Mossom. He ain't yo bo, no mo, Is he?"

My CUP of humiliation was full. My attempt to play off Mr. Power succeeded indifferently. His attentions were sporadic and not to be relied on, and Jack did not seem a bit jealous.

Lottie was atrial to me in those days. She was so light-hearted and secure in

Archio Cullen's loyalty. But her bad quarter of an hour came. One day Mrs. Mossom returned from her woodland rambles, her hands so full of ferns, mosses and vines, that two young men she picked up on her way, insisted on helping to bring them home. She would not trust her treasures to their masculine hands, but graciously permitted tbem to hold up the vines that on either side trailed on the ground. Lottie and I were in the avenue when the party entered the gate Mrs. Mossom, with her stately tread, coining up the walk looked like a conqueror Ibringing captives in her train. That is, it required no great stretch of the imagination for Lottie and me to regard It in that light, for the young men she held in chains were Jack Bryan aud Archie Cullen.

Mrs. Mossom, her face glowing with exercise, her garments fragrant with the breath of the woods, paused when she reached Lottie and me and generously offered us some of her prettiest ferns. "No, I thank you, I nate ferns," said Lottie with unusual asperity. "That is because you are young," said Mrs. Mossom with an indulgent smile. "Young people like flowers better, they are so much gayer than ferns.'' "I am sorry you hate them Miss Linley, said Archie, "I was about to propose that you and I would go fern hunting some day in the woods."

Lottie looked like a blank at having thrown away such an opportunity, and her countenance indicated a willigness to be converted to ferns. "It seems a charming, companionable occupation, eh Jack?" continued Archie his face beaming with a hidden meaning that roused my suspicions.

Could he have found Mrs. Mossom and Jack fern-hunting together? I glanced from the lady, who colored slightly, to Jack who laughed une&sily as ne replied, "I am sure I don't know I never nave tried it.

I wondered, with a pain at my heart, if he was getting to be deceitful. Mrs. Mossom and her attendants pass ed on to the house where she dismissed them. "Much obliged," w« heard her say, am going in now. You will find pleasant in ladies."

the avenue with the young

She was actually turning them over to us. V,

Mrs. Mossom was one of those women to whom—without effort, apparently without a wish on her part—all men pay homage of some kind. Even shy Mr. Power paid her the tribute of being shyer than ever in her presence, while Archie Cullen yielded to the charm of her personal influence as readily as Jack Bryan. Lottie was destined to go through the discomfort I was suffering, but she bore it more patiently. I was very proud and scornful, although on one occasion my curiosity got the bettor of my prido. Jack and I wero on horseback, walking our horses through a green lane after a brisk gallop on the road. Some ferns growing in a shaded hollow reminded me of Archie's inuendo. "Will you tell me something?" I asked inconsequently in the middle of a discussion on the relative constancy of men and women. Jack, who had re-

moved his hat the better to enjoy the breeze that ruffled tho leaves overhead, answered gravely: "Anything in my power."

-.V,1

"Oh,"don't be so serious about it. It is a very small matter, only that I should like to know what Mr. Cullen meant by saying that fern-hunting was a companionable occupation." "Because he thought so, I dare say." "One would have Imagined from the way he appealed to you that he had seen vou fern-hunting with some one," I said, whipping the leaves from low, overhanging boughs." "But I said I never had been," answered Jack warmly, turning Ills honest eyes on mv averted face. "So you'dld I beg your pardon," I said, ashamed of having Buspected him of an untruth. "But,' I. continued, whipping the boughs more vigorously, "didn't M*. Cullen mean something more than he said?" "Well, yes," returned Jack, evidently surprised at my interest in the matter. "Then tell me, please," I asked, blushing at my own pertinacity.

Jack looked at me for a moment, then reining in his horse, pointed with his whip to a domestic fowl that ran cackling across tho road. ... "Do you know what that is? he asked gravelv. "That?" I repeated, puzzled to seo tho connection, "why. yes that is a goose.'* "And so are you," he replied, in a tone that made me nappier to be call a goose by him than a wit oy another.

That was all the Information I got,,. I Not long after this Aunt Brinton decided to give us a party. It was to be a large affair. Everybody was to be invited. The lawn and gardens were to be Illuminated and were to have music and dancing, and everything that could make a country party delightful the house was turned upside down, for the dinning-room was to be tho dancing room, and the supper was to bo upstairs.

Mrs. Mossom was helpful abouteverything. I don't know what my aunt would have done without her. It is true that she had an able and intelligent co-worker in Archie Cullen, who had only to hear a suggestion to understand to obey. What prodigies of work he and Mrs. Mossom performed for that ball. Lottie did not enjoy those preparations as much as I did. Archie followed Mrs. Mossom like ho shadow. Under her supervision he devoted himself to house decoration with an ardor of which, I am sure, he had never until now believed himself capable.

I was enchanted that Jack was a clumsy fellow about some things. He could manage a horse, an oar or a bat, but tacks and taek-bammer, paste-pot and scissors were as impossible to bis hands as a needle and thread. Archie had it all his own way in the decoration business.

One rainy dav in the middle of our preparations, w*hen there was not a place to sit down, I found Mr. Power in the dining-room, the picture of discomfort, but with an unusually cheerful countenance, mounted on top of a stop-ladder, smoking a pipe. "What are yon doing, perched up there?" I asked, gathering my skirt* around me^nd picking my way through rubbish and litter, in search of a book I had left somewhere. "Where else can a fellow sit? I am like Noah on Ararat this is the only *t

iry spot to be found." Mr. Power must have felt very safe, out of harms way in his elevation position. I bad never known him to be facetious before. "You are not a bit like Noah." I relied: "be took the whole family with _Jm, and you have your Ararat all to yourself." .. "Olad to share my seat with you, if yon don't mind smoke*" be said, making a place for me with an airnesa of which I had not believed him capable. "You should always sit on a step-lad-der, Mr. Power, the situation seems to agree with you I never knew you to speak so much to the point. Thank yon, no. I do not wish to sit down." "While I was speaking, Lottie, looking heated and vexed, came in, fanning

E!

she

exclaimed,

mIa]

horself vigorously with a newspaper.c"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" she was saying, "I wonder why some things wero ever made except to bother other things?" "What are you talking about?" I asked*

0

"Flies," she said, slapping at one ineffectually, "and," sotting her teeth, "widows!" bringing out the last word so vehemently that Mr. Power nearly toppled from his seat. "How do you like widows, Mr. Power?" I asked maliciously. "Widows! widows!" he repeated* stammering and reddening, "If I had uiy way there would not be one in tho house." A remark which, from any one else, would have sounded ambiguous.

Lottie and I had one consolation. We wero at least to be queens of our own ball.

Mrs. Mossom declined to bo preseut on account of her black dress, and made arrangements to spend tho night at tho house of a friend in the neighborhood. Mr. Power, too, backed out on the plea of not having brought a dress-coat to tho •country.

I think I never looked so well as on the night of our party. My dress was so great a succoss that, when I entered tho aancing-room, I wondered who tho tall, handsome girl opposite to me could bo, and blushed to find that it was myself reflected in a mirror. Partners for the dance crowded me, and repeated in many a word and glance what the mirror had already told me. I began tho evening in the' gayest spirits, but Jaok, who had driven" Mrs. Mossom to tho house where she was to spend the night, did not oome early, and my eyes often 'wandered anxiously toward the door. I saved several dances for him, but he did not come to claim them. Could Mrs.

Mossom have kept him? I tried not to be uncharitable to her. I wished lior no worse harm than that the late Mr. Mossom had not died and loft her a widow.

The music and dancing wont on, but they began to lose their charms for me. The tender speeches, which at first seemed such fun, grew painfully insipid as I waited and watched for Jack. When at last he came, just before supper, 1 would not look at him. As soon as ho arrived he crossed the room to speak me, but I pretended to be too deeply interested in my companion to see him. He turned on his heel and wont away. 1 rojoiced in the belief that ho was hurt, when the party was over I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.

The next day was as bright as though there wero no aching hearUs in the world. It was the day on which Mrs. Mossom was to leave for her home in tho South. Our company was breaking up. Tho day following, Mr. Power was going back to his home in the North ho and tho widow, to tho last, going to opposite points of tho compass.

When Mrs. Mossom, equipped for traveling, went round, bidding everybody good-bvo, I was disposed to hold back recontfully, I don't know for what, unless for her fascinations, which I dare say sho could not help, but she seemed not to notice my childishness. "Good-bye, girls,' she said to Lottie and me very affectionately and with so sweet a smile that the impulsive Lottie threw her arms around her and kissed her, a proceeding I thought entirely unnecessary.

Mine wero probably tho only dry eyes in the group that waved her to tho station.

The morning after Mr. Power's de-

Eroakfast.Lottiehad

artment and I camo down lute to Wo scarcely takon our places, when my aunt began, "Oirls," sho said, breaking an egg with the deftness of daily practice, "1 havo something to toll you."

We were all attontion. She looked as if her news might bo interesting. "A lady has asked me to toll you of her engagement." "An engagement! ^Anv of thoso spooney couplos who were at tho party the other night? asked Lottie. "No, this couple wore not at tho party, but you know the lady very well, Mrs. Mossom."

Lottie and I lookod at each othor, this time in speechless amazement. "Mrs. Mossom?" I gasped, "to whom?" "Mr. Power." "How? When? Where?" asked Lottie in a breath.

I think from the way iny undo laughed that ho never enjoyed a comedy as

much as

the expression of our faces at

this announcement. My aunt, with laudable effort to tell what she had to tell with becoming dignity, was shaken by his uproarious merriment. It was sometime before she could answer Lottie's comprehensive question.

As to how the engagement took place, I don't know the usual way, I suppose. But I do know when it occurred, for tho lady told me it was the very day bofore our party." "And that is the reason he lookod such a smiling idiot on top of tho step-ladder that day!' I exclaimed. "Possibly. Where it all happenod, I can only conjecture, was among tho ferns." "And his running away from Mrs. Mossom was all bosh?" safd I/)ttio. "All bosh," said my aunt, wiping her eyes. »To deceive us, I suppose?" said I. "Well, to turn your attontion from her aflairs. You know you two were disposed to make fun of Mr. Power and tho widow when you first came." "So she turned tho tables and made fun of us," I said bitterly, seeing with a flash of enlightenment how sho had used Jack and Archie as a blind, and had probably put Mr. Power up to given me a rose. "And tbe courting and the engagement," laughod Ixttie, whose temper was more facile than mine, "took place under our very noses, and wo did not suspect!" "Ibegan to understand why Jack would not tell meahout the fern hunting. He end Archio had probably seen th|» engaged couple so employed, and felt it a point of honor not to tell. "We will not tilt against a young widow again, will we?" said I/Ottie, who had entirely recovered her good humor. "No," said 1 savagely, "for in 'the ways that are dark' they arc worse than the heathen Chinee/' "Come, now you know sho let us off very easily, considering how impertinent*we were.''

4

There was no gainsaying this, bnt I never quite forgave the widow until I had entirely made up with Jack.

As to Archie Cullen, I do not know what explanation he made to tny friend of his temporary defection, but I do know that she took him back and seemed very glad to get him.

Peculiar in mcdieinal merit and wonderful cures—Hood's Barsaparilla. Now is the time to take it, for now it will da the most good. ...

An observant barber says that hair in the ears denotes that a man is forty or more ___________________

After tho most exhaustive practical tests in hospitals and elsewhere, tbe gold medal and certificate of highest merit were awarded to St. Jacobs Oil, as the beet pain-curing remedy, at the Calcutta. International Exhibition.