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 MARCH'S

BOARDERS

189

MRS.

1

tains, that we read about in the illustratiorated "Take city fiddlesticks ! " says he, whittling newspapers -them fellers that one is awfully away on a round stick with a hole through it. afeard of, and yet sorter falls in love with at "No," says I, " boarders . Mrs. Brown made e time. money last summer, and I mean to see if I can't theI sam took him to once, and give him the north do as well as her. My Melissy is crazy after t chamber . one of them new-fashioned pepperlambs that frun The same day there came a woman , all in they wear hitched onto the waists of their black , and as handsome as a picter . She'd lost gounds , and I calkerlate she shall have it. her husband not long afore , she said, and And Isaac needs a new bedstead in his room , wanted to come out into the country to recooand I mean to have some furniture in the fore pera . her I didn't know about the cooperattold I te room, jest like Mrs. Brown's ." "You can do as you'r a mind to," l, kinde r cross Lemue like ; e"but if you do says take ing. It wasn't common for women folks to larn boarders, you'll wish yer cake dough afore you the cooper's trade ; but then, if they was a going to vote , I didn't know as there'd be anything gh . man git throuific And hadn' they'ltl ort bothe me bothe to death A scient red !! onproper in their learning one of the men folks' tor be

de. laffed They'll put me back so on my machine that I traShe , and sed I didn't quite understand shan't git it ready to go to Washington till next Her health was poor, and she had come winter. And I meant to use some of the money her. country to recruit. I shall git for the invention in buying that farm to the And then she talked so pitifully of her grief and trouble, and flurrished her scented handof Spencer's ." s I,kno n't he fullynkercher so sorrowfully around her eyes, that I sayhe "I'm talke,", for to mor used no no sai " Tai ws whe and sot," agreed to take her. I gave her the south frunt I'm deetarmined on a thing that I hain't easy chamber, and told her there was a young man by the name of Cliffe in tother , with black eyes , persuaded to give it up. I got Eustace Atkins , the schoolmaster over and a red neck-tye ; and she sithed , and said to the corner , to write me some advertisements black eyes and red neck-tyes were nothing to to put into two of the Bosting papers , and he did it powerful . To have read what he writherHer now. name was Myra Westley , and she came you'd have thought our farm was a Paradise from New York . I felt well pleased with her, for I calkerlated upon airth. He called the house Poplar Lodge , and there that being in trouble she wouldn't be likely to hain't but one popple on the farm that I know have much appetite . People don't ginerally, of, and that's out back of the hog' - house . you know. So thar'd be a saving. Well, in three days , I was overrun with folks The next day Mrs. Wilson came, with her that had come out to see the primises. And three children, and I agreed to take ' em if most of ' em smelt of musk , and carried their they'd be contented to sleep in the tool-house heads dreadful high, and turned up their noses chamber, because all my rooms was full. Mrs. at everything. The men they tip-toed round Wilson was dreadful genteel, but she said she'd among the cabbage -plants and ruty-beggars, stay if she had to roost in a tree ! For her and wondered what kind of flowers them things neighbors, the Joneses , and the Smiths , and the would turn into ; and the women, they screeched Jenkinses , had all gone into the country , and and held their smelling -bottles to their noses she'd die but what she'd be as much as they when the geese and turkeys chased ' em, and stuck out their necks at ' em, as them animals was! Them children of hern was awful ! If you ld sarch the world over from Californy to shou is apt to do. The fifth day there was a feller came that I the Gulf of Mexico, you couldn't find three such thought would do. His name was Henry Cliffe, youngsters. Adolphus, he was twelve year old, and he was about as nice -looking a chap as and Katrina Adelaide was ten, and Ignatius Catyou'll see anywhere out of a picter-book. He ngus wasvok seve ed n .Lemuel's life out of him. was tall, and wore one of these short coats tera They pro that is a kind of a cross between a coat and a Dolph, as his ma called him, cut Lem's machine jacket, and he had a red neck-tye, and a buff all up to kindle a brush -heap with : and Adevest, jest as if he was reddy to be married. laide tore the picters out of his Patent -Office His hair and eyes was black, and his mus- Reports, and papered the hen-house with ' em ; tache was black, too ; and he kinder put me in and Angus, the little one, he upsoot my whole mind of one of them pirats, or bandanna chief-