LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2196, 10 March 1881, Page 3

LITERATURE.

PUSS IN BOOTS. [Br Helen Luqueeb.] • ' Hitcii np old ' Nanoe,' Josiah, the girls are going berrying.' ' How you do Indulge them wild young critters, Maria. They'll break their necks yet if they keep on,' sighed the old gentleman, as he walked away to execute the imperative commands of his wife. ' You'll have to hurry, girls, for ' Nance' won't stand a minute for ye, the files be so bad,' called aunt Maria from the foot of the stairs leading up to the chambers of the humble farm-house, where a bevy of young voices were in an animated discussion over their equipments for the projected berry party. ' Anything will do, and the more grotesque the better,' exclaimed Hattie Willard, fastening a pair of shoes, three times too large for her dainty little feet, with white cord in lieu of the original strings. They had fished out of Aunt Maria's huge garret all sorts of antiquated cast off garments, and arrayed themselves, and came down dancing at her call as perfect a set of gays as. ever was seen.

'Ye are a sight to behold,' exclaimed that lady, laughing until her fat sides ached and the tears glistened in her kind blue eyes as the young city misses stood before her.

Hattie had on the great coarse shoes and dilapidated brown dress figured with green ' Polka dots,' and looking, as she said, like a multitude of cats' eyes minus the lids. She was clad in an old calico wrapper which she declared Mrs Noah would have considered too ancient for her. May was completely overshadowed by a bloe skirt and sacque, which she asserted was ample enough to contain the whole party if they would only keep together. And petite Rose, the youngest and pet of the party, had, by dint of a fancy leather belt and any quantity of pins, surrounded herself with another of her aunt's ugly old gowns, while over her sunny tresses she had tied a battered broad-brimmed hat of Uncle Josiah.

' Oh, gracious me,' exslaimed Aunt Maria, as soon as she could recover her breath from laughing, ' you don't think, Sobs Willard, you are going berrying in them little (slippers and lovely pink stockings ? They'd be in rags in no time ' ' I shall have to, Aunty. I haven't another thing to put on. I don't want to spoil my new kid boots and my gauze slippers are newer than these, and the girls have appropriated everything.' ' Well, you can't go that way, child,' returned her aunt decidedly, and Bhe inarched off and returned with a pair of boots which she designated as 'fine.' * Your Uncle Josiah has got smaller feet than I have, and though, of course, they will be forty miles too big, you won't have much walking to do. So put them on, and you'd be puss in boots sure enough. 'lhe young lady compiled with the commands amid peals of laughter, and then climbed into the one-horsy waggon with the rest, and with Miss Hattie for driver they rattled down the road, leaving their fat and jolly aunty standing in the vino- wreathed porch of the country home, laughing until the tears ran down her ruddy cheeks. ' Such comical young things,' she said, as her husband entered the house.

'You are just as simple as they be, Maria, and I wish to goodness they were safe back in New York,' he replied, pettishly. ' Oh, dear me, sus I Ye forgit ye was ever young yourself, Josiah. If ye couldn't laugh at little Rose in that big bag of a dress and your big boots, you couldn't laugh at anything. And then Hattie, so tall and grand-like, in that old spotted gown, a foot too short,' and she began giving way to mirth again at the mere recollection.

'Laugh away, Maria, the day of judgment is coming for all that, and these trifling things will have to be accounted for,'

'Oh, goto pot with your day of judgment. You are the longest-faced Christian I ever saw. As for me, I intend to enjoy this world and get all the innocent pleasure I can while I live, even if it ia a hundred years, and when I die I shan't be any more afraid of the day of judgment than some folks I know on as thinks a long face is going to take them straight into Heaven.'

With that parting shot she indignantly wiped her eyes with her check apron and returned Into the great kitchen, preparing dainties for the children of her brothers, and remembering the time when she, Charley ard Fred, were of one household, they to drift away to the great city, grow rich and marry far above ber station in life, while she was left to plod in the old homestead as the wife of Deacon Josiah Stubbs. Her heart was as warm and tender as when they were all children under one roof, and the annual coming of the daughters of Charley and Fred to the old homestead had become the joy of her life, and though her husband sighed and groaned and was mad miserable generally by the laughter-loving set of mad-cap girls, he was obliged to remember that the place was once the home of their fathers, and they were to be denied nothing in the power of Aunt Maria to grant. Meanwhile, the girls in their picturesque costumes went jolting along the green shaded lane.

' Never a jollier set of blackberriera !' exclaimed Sue, holding up a pair of whitegloved hands. 'Who would think these same ten-buttoned kids had mingled in the grand festivities at the Opera-house, and actually been clasped by the exquisite.Theophilus Manley in the German !' ' And never a jollier darling than good, dear Aunt Maria. Why, she's not a day over sixteen," laughed May, adjusting her antiquated 'shaker.' ' Bless her great heart,' chimed In Hattie, queen of the party, as she sparred on old

•Nancy' to her best efforts. 'But how she ever came to marry that walking tombstone, Josiah Stubbs, passeth my understanding.' 'Turn to the left,' interrupted May, mimicking the nasal toneß of their uncle, ' and keep_ up the road a good bit till ye come to 'rquire Buttles' waterin' trough, and let "i->ancy" drink there; then turn to the right inter a sort o' blind wood road, and you'll soon come to the berry patch.' ' Verbatim,' laughed Bose. ' What a memoryjyou have, Cousin May. ' But I hope we shall not encounter that nobby 'Squire ; Buttlec while Nancy regales herself at the trough.' ' You haven't the least idea he would recognise Aunt Maria's city nieces in such rigs ?' questioned Sue. * He certainly would know the horse.' 'Well, for your comfort, yonder is the stately white mansion of the Buttles family, and here is the watering-tonga a good halfmile away, and not a sail in Bight,' said Hattie, drawing rein. They sat ohattering and laughing, aa only girls cm, talking altogether, and, what ]w strange, intelligibly to each other, while the patient old steed was Bipplng from the mosscovered basin, when the sound of clattering hoofs broke upon the merry chatter, and a splendidly formed and graceful young gentleman went dashing by, lifting his hat au he passed. 'Shades of Erebus,* gasped Rose. 'lt is no other than the Squire. I shall die of vfx»tlon. I wonder if he saw uncle's boots ?'

'Nonsense,' laughed Hattie, turning down the obscure wood road indicated; *do you suppose he could see four pair of feet and as many old hats at that Gilpin pace ? ' Thus rattling on, they reached the berry patch, and were soon in the midst of the luscious fruit, planning how they would surprise Aunt Maria with full pails, and of the pies and short-cake that good soul would make for them on the moriow.

* There ! I've completely demolished aunty's dress,' exclaimed Hattie, while May held up a pretty white arm marked by ngly ■c atches, and declared she was disfigured for life.

'Oh, dear! it is high noon, I know,' interposed Rose, coming out from a tangle of briars, heated and dusted, ' and I have picked my last berry. It is fearful work, and lam completely fagged out. Let's have dinner.'

'lt isn't more than ten o'clock,' langhod Hattie.

' I don't care, I am in a starving condition.' ' Oh ! oh ! oh !'

' What in the world is the matter ?' asked all the girls in a breath, as Rosa ended her sentence with scream after scream, and then dashing in haste down the glen. ' Oh • a great snake,' exclaimed Sue. Instantly they all followed Rose, who was tumbling over stones and logs, and at last would have fallen head first over a little precipice had she not landed in the arms of a gentleman who was lying at full length the green award beneath a majestic oak, beside a babbling brook. Fortunately at the sound of the girl's screaming he had risen to his feet, and so saved her from a most ignominious fall. As it was, she stood breathless, pile and trembling in every limb, minus one boot, and her hat having disappeared to keep it com pany, leaving her gloriouß hair in a state of wonderful enchantment.

' What has happened.' questioned the gentleman, as he supported the trembling girl. On the Instant, waves of brilliant blushes swept away all the pallor from the face of Rose, for she knew her preserver was no other than the young Squire Battles, 'lt was a snake!' she managed to articulate, as she sat down out of his arms at the foot ol a tree, where they were joined by the rest of the frightened girls. ' £ stepped right on it,' Rose oontinned, 'and but for Uncle Josiah's boots I must have been bitten ;' and then she blushed divinely still as she glanced at the pretty, pinkstookinged foot. A smile lighted up the face of the gentleman as he took in the picturesque group, all disconcerted and rosy as a June morning. 'lt is a most disgraceful escapade,' exclaimed Hattie, 'and you will think us a disreputable set to be gotten up in such costumes,' and she turned with great dignity to the gentleman who had introduced himself.

'Not in the least, Miss Willard," he replied; ' people do not go berrying in silken hoee and Sunday hate,' and he smiled down into the apple-blossom face of Rose.

■ Oh, yea, they do,' laughed roguish Sue, 'aa Rose, for instance, bho wanted to wear tiny kid slippers also, but Annt Maria vetoed it and sacrificed Uncle's boots. ' And the loss will never be remedied. I fear we shall be victimised by a fresh supply of groans and moans,' said May. 'Aa for myself,' said Rose, with tears springing into her eyes, 'if they were the famous even-league ones I would not go back an inch for the last one. Henceforth all woodland charms are gone for me. In everything I shall see that ugly monster.' ' And there are our lunch-baekets and our berry-pails,' said Hsttie, ruefully. The young gentleman at once volunteered to go for them, and during his absence the girls repaired their wardrobe as best they could; and when he returned they urged him to lunoh with them. Afterward, in the cool of the evening, he assisted them to their waggon, and stood hat in hand as they drove away. In explaining the events of the day to Aunt Mary, they all declared that ' young Squire Buttles was just splendid—so intelectual and all that.'

'I should think he ought to be,' returned the old lady, ' for he has travelled all over Europe, to say nothing of hiß own country.' A week or two later Aunt Mary stood in the vine-covered Terandah, looking over her spectacles at a group of young folks playing croquet. 'I wonder, Josiah,' said she, 'which one Squire Buttles is after, for ho upends most of hia time here.' 'lt don't make much difference.' growled that gentleman. *lf he would marry the whole of them and cart them off, I'd be very glad for one.' ' You're a pretty Christian,' replied she ; ' but I do believe Rosy is the one, because he is her very shadder. See, he is bending over her now, asking her to go somewhere, and here they come, and she a-leaning on his arm.'

' May Igo boat riding with Mr Buttles, Aunty ?' asked the young lady from the foot of the verandah steps. 'Of course you may, child. You'll take good care of her, sir, and won't let her get flightened to death by any more snakes?' questioned Aunt Maria. •I thick I can safely promise that,' he returned, laughing down into the vexed and blushing faae of the girl; ' but she must be provided with a shawl, as the evening may be chilly.' While her aunt was absent for the required article, Bose said—'l do wish Aunty would permit me to forget that unfortunate episode.' ' I had hoped you would not desire to do so,' he whispered warruly. ' Why ?' she questioned. ' Because our meeting was so romantic an i altogether happy and—' The shawl and Aunt Maria's many injunctions interrupted them, and they walked away in the glooming. 'lt is a match, sari in,' ejaculated the old lady, 'and I shall have little Rosy always near me,'and she wiped her misty glasses and went into the house triumphantly, happy in Fpite of the caustic remarks of Uncle Josiah.

' You're as romantic as any young gal, and about as silly. At your time of life a body ought to think of dying instead of love and marrying ' ' Botheration! If I was set on dying as you be, I'd go off and be done with it. As for me I shall rejoice with the young folks as long as I live, and take comfort in seeing such a sweet, pretty thing as Kosa win the love of such a grand gentleman as the young Squire.' On the river, in the moonlight, he told his love and wou the consent of Kerne to become his wife, and before another Summer had como with all its flowers and f ruitago they were married, and Hattie, Sue and May vacillate between the Buttles mansion and the old homesitead when in the country, and Aunt Maria declares that Uncle Joala's Ixotß made the fortune of Bose.

"Where are you going in such a hurry, old fellow." " Well, Fred, I am glad I have met you, for I am on my way to see by daylight what I last night saw by gaslight. Hay's Fine Art Free Exhibition, and Art Union, at the corner of the Market Place and Papanui road. His Art Union Tickets are only 2a 6d each, and I mean to hare fonr chances. Besides, the Exhibition is free, and better worth seeing than many for which I have paid a shilling admission. So come along." They go together.—[Adv.]