DD WEEKLY NORWALK - GAZETTE. nnnt Essen. By AUGUSTA LARNED. CHAPTER 1. i=2 2 raw: 4. , v a , _. .. , -.-———uu-v~\._\_. “Coma right in, Mrs. Bissell‘s cottage windows stood wide open, and ,the Nottinghamelace cur- thins flew out of the south room, where the scent of the damask roses and old fashioned pinks arose in Warm pnfl’s from the pretty garden. »Mrs. Bissell, a checked handkerchief pinned over. her head, was briskly sweeping the i'ngrain carpet with a quick, short motion of the broom; the narrow hall was incumbered with chairs and tables, and a horsehair sofa blocked the front door. suckle vine above the porch was thickly hung with blossoms, and piazza chairs with scarlet cushions were set out in the shade, with the inviting air of summer repose. A door through into the back regions was also open, and a delicious odor of baking bread came from the kitchen. From the dining room arose a slight clatter of dishes, the sound of clearing away after breakfast. the trip of girlish feet, and a pleasant young voice humming a tune. “Anne,” shrilled Mrs. Bissell from the south room, “look out for the bread in the oven and see that it don’t get a scorch.” - “We must make haste,” responded Anne from the dining room, still invisi- ble, “or he will be here before the room is ready.” “Ain’t I making haste?” piped Mrs. Bissell, also invisible, on her side and with a touch of asperity in her voice. A woman of Mrs. Bissell’s active tem- perament never likes to be hurried, es- pecially by her own daughter, an inex- perienced slip of a girl, with no proper idea of turning OE work. “I guess it won’t hurt him to wait a few minutes if his room ain’t ready,” she added, mak- ing her broom fly at a more rapid rate. “I didn’t say it would,” retorted Anne on her side, just interrupting ,a snatch of song on her lips, as she put the blue edged plates on the cupboard shelf. Miss Carver’s room door was also open just at the head of the stairs. She had heard every word that passed between Anne and her mother, for the little house was like a sounding board, and Miss Car- ver could absorb its sounds without mak- ing the slightest effort to listen. It oc- curred to her now, as it often did, that Anne was rather impertinent to her mother. Miss Carver gave a little im- patient sigh over the degeneracy of modern youth. She was one of the old inhabitants, of Littlefield, born and brought up there, knowing every family history from time immemorial, every mote .im'a neighbor’s eye, all the town affairs, to the probable amount of change that people carried about in their purses. People consulted her about the past as they would go to a gazetteer or town history, and the present poured itself into her ears. She had boarded many years with Mrs. Bissell, so exactly calculating her ex- penditures that they came out to within fifty cents of her income every 1st of January. She invariably allowed for a month of visits to old friends during the twelve, and if she was invited for only three weeks it involved a little extra pinching, and if for five or six weeks corresponding financial ease. Miss-Car— ver had a little industry by which she occasionally earned a trifle. She made paper flowers and sold them for the adornment of Christmas trees, children’s festivals and church fairs. It was easy work of a clean kind, such as a gentle- woman could dolwhose father had-been high sherifl‘.‘ of the ecunty without de- tracting from her social position in Lit- tlefield. She called herself an artist in flower work. and on this particular morning she had arranged her little ta- ble with bright tissue paper.,iine wire, scissors and glue pot, but it was impos- sible for. Miss Carver to ‘settle to any thing. She sat by the window. and through her spectacles spied the coming of the new boarder, gazing out under the great elm trees that shaded the brown road in front of the Bissell cottage. It was not a matter of small impor- tance to Miss Carver that a new doctor was coming to Littlefield. The old doc- tor, whose place he ' was taking. had been a great friend of Miss Carver and of her family, when she had a family, for now she was all alone in the world, with no kin nearer than second cousins. The Bissell cottage, a boarding house of the cheapest and humblest sort, gained a kind of importance from the fact that the new doctor was to establish himself there for the first experimental months of his stay in Littlefield. Miss Carver felt this added importance as a slight in- crease of her own individual respecta- bility. She would no longer feel obliged to excuse herself for living at Mrs. Bis- sell‘s by the fact that she liked the air of that end of the town, leaving it to be in- ferred that she could if she chose live at the Oak Hill hotel or any of the more fashionable places. _ She had talked the young doctor over at ninnv Iva tables. In her set he had almost supplanted Mrs. Bissell and her lapses in management, the inefficiency of lies-:13. :md'the independent, slightly- impudl-u; .lll’ assumed by Anne in the household. . The honey- ‘ . these things. ” . fashion of weighing and measuring, ‘ glad Providence had so arranged things that at her age she did not find any for- ‘ ' of managing her afiairs. They had bet- There was only one thing that trou- hled Miss Carver: the doctor belonged to the wrong medical school. She had always been very stanch in her orthodox medical views. A doctor in the house would certainly be a convenience, for Miss Carver had her pet infirmities, and she regretted the expensive luxury of, talking them over with a regular prac- titioner. But a doctor in the house, whom one met familiarly at meals, would hardly estimate his professional talk as highly as Dr. Leavitt did. She would doubtless be able to pick up a good deal that might be useful to her gratis. But, alas! he was of the wrong school. She could not in all conscience ever bring herself to take those absurd little pills, even if they were given away. Miss Carver had been going over these questions in her mind when a station hack drew up to the front gate and a young man of fair complexion, “well set up” as our English cousins say, and decidedly good looking, stepped out and banged the he ck door. He had no lug- gage, and had in his hand a little sign in- scribed with the words “Dr. S. L. Tib- bets.” Miss Caz-ver flew out to the pas- sage and called down, “He’s come, Mrs. Bissell!” in a hysterical voice. The horsehair sofa still blocked the hall, and“ a large ‘éasy chair filled the front door. “Mercy! what shall I do?” exclaimed Mrs. Bissell. Anne rushed out from the dining room letting down the sleeves of her pink morning dress and with a pretty blush on her fair face. “Come right in, doctor,” Miss Carver heard her say. “Mother is a little be- lated aboutyour oflice; but step intothe parlor if you can manage to climb over ‘ The doctor replied in an easy, good natured, languid voice. and Miss Carver thought to herself in her New England “He hasn’t got much force.” The doc- tor was telling Anne that his luggage had been left by mistake at the junc- tion where he had taken the Appledale branch line, and would not arrive for some hours. He had therefore appeared with only his doctor’s sign in his hand as proof of identity. The young people went into the parlor, and in a few mes ments Miss Carver heard sounds cf laughter, the doctor’s easy voice and Anne’s girlish staccato notes. . “What confidence the girl has,” thought Miss Carver, “to be going on like that the very first minute! I should think her mother would try and check her: it looks so flirtatious.” The risk that poor, unsuspecting young man in- curred in coming into the Bissell family filled her with a kind of pity. She was ward, pert girls on her hands to man— age. Surely the single state has its ad- vantages. It at least affords one a lofty pedestal for criticising one’s neighbors. Miss Carver could see in many ways how Mrs. Bissell had missed it, and how differently she would have done in her place. There was an old Grandfather Bissell, a stone deaf old man, who sat in the kitchen in a rocking chair close to the stove, with his hat on even in warm weather. Sometimes he worked a little in the garden, or pottered about on errands in the town, or assisted at the cooking when a crisis occurred in the domestic arrangements, as often hap- ‘ pened. But in a general way he was of no use—only another mouth to feed. The old man had married daughters far l room door, where Anne received them. You could hear the scuflling of his old feet as he went to and fro in the passage. Mrs. Bissell’s other boarders, the Holmes family, had been Waiting round hungry for half an hour. They wefe slow, silent people, even to the little boy and girl, who, with hair “slicked” down close to their cheekbones, the upward turn of the eyes and rather fiat noses, had a Mongolian cast of countenance. When the bell rang Miss Carver came in with that irritated pinch of the thin lips they always were when dinner was late. But as Mrs. Bissell kept her for a dollar a week less than any of her other boarders the privilege of open complaint was taken away. The young doctor occupied the head of the table, and Anne filled her mother’s place with easy assurance, as if nothing ever went wrong in the Bissell establish- ment. It was a shame, Miss Carver thought, for Anne to look as cool and unrufiled as ice cream while her mother was stewing over the kitchen fire. And then she was so undeniably, so exasper- afingly pretty. Her auburn hair—peo- ple called red hair red when Miss Carver was young—rippled in a mass across her white forehead and down the slope of her round neck, and was gathered in a great flufiy, curly nest at the back, just dé'fining itself in loose coils. Thg pale pink of her gown suited well with" her dazzling complexion and dark hazel eyes, dancing in the light of innocent. .mis- chief. She talked all the time, as if the light flow of her girlish chatter could cover up the deficiencies of the table ser- vice and the irregularity with which the courses came in. Miss Carver, intrenched in aggressive silence, felt that Anne was a sham and wondered how far she would succeed in pulling the wool over the young doctor’s eyes. ' But the doctor had no starch about him. He seemed to find some amuse- ment in the difiiculties of the situation. He made himself thoroughly at home and told so many funny stories about a healthy old town where he had tried to establish himself, and had been starved out for lack of patients, that Miss Carver found herself laughing until the tears came under her glasses. The Holmes children were grinning from ear to ear and stretching their lipless mouths like indra rubber hands over the doctor’s funny stories. The table grew so merry that tired Mrs. Bissell in the kitchen stopped to listen, while the o1 1 man, put- ting his brown, crooked lllmd up to his good car, did‘like wise. "He’ll be popular,” said Miss Carver to herself as she went slowly up stairs. “He’ll make friends as easy as water runs down hill. Father always said we must distrust easy popularity. I do hope he’ll see through Anne Bissell. If her mother had any judgment with the girl she wouldn’t let her throw herself at that man’s head." Miss Carver spent most of the after- noon spying out of the window to see the doctor’s office furniture come—heavy mahogany and rosewood, all the best and handsomest; desks. chairs, cabinets and pictures, implying the cultivated and rather luxurious tastes of a young man of pretty gobd length of pu , . . Miss Carver opened her eyes when she remembered the depths of poverty to which he had declared himself reduced by the unnatural healthfulness of Ket- tletas. Guess he’s extravagant, she thought to herself, as she tied on her bonnet at nightfall to go and call on her particular friend, the Widow Harkaway, better elf than Mrs. Bissell, who refused to keep him on the ground that he was I hard to get along with, though appar‘ , ently a more harmless old 5 :11 did not live. Miss Carver was strenuous on the fact of Gran’ther Bissell. If she could I have had her way the old man would ' have been sent packing, and the hard hearted daughters brought to terms. Then there was Bissell himself, part carpenter and part teamster: but both teaming and carpentry were now at a low ebb in Littlefield, and as there was nothing for Bissell to do he did nothing, and let his wife support him. The sight of Bissell hanging about the place when there was a mortgage on the property filled Miss Carver with suppressed rage. If Bissell was her husband she knew she would find some way of making him earn his salt. She dared not hint of her feelings to Mrs. Bissell, for the little woman was very touchy and truculent about her “men folks. ” She said she “guessed she had a right to keep as many men folks as she pleased, and the neigh- bors might just stop talking. They sat back in their easy chairs doing fancy work and crochet, and saw her digging away for dear life. and could find noth- ing better to gessip about than her ways ter look to the beam in their own eyes.” CHAPTER II. . . . ~ « p.._:5:;:..-"' ‘5‘? 1-" ‘ .4 mm had filleda'oasc with moss roses for the center table. The dinner was late that day, and the meal had the air of being scrambled to- gether, which sometimes happens in the best regulated boarding houses. Things had “hitched” early in the morning, and poor Mrs. Bissell had striven in vain to catch up with her work. She did not ap- pear at the dinner table, for her Irish maid, Bridget, seemed to have complete- ly lost her head, and the kitchen was up- side down. Mrs. Bissell dished up the food, and the old man carried the plat- and, though the widow was deaf of one ear and partly blind, before the next night the whole of Littlefield knew that young Dr. Tibbets was a humorist; that I he had been frozen out of Kettletas by the longevity of the people, and had come to Littlefield without any visible means, but with alarge amount of hand- some office furniture, and that Anne Bissell—well, it is easy to conjecture what was whispered about Anne Bissell. The office was all in apple pie order when Miss Carver reached home at tea time. The ofiice door stood open, and there was the doctor with his coat OE arranging , his medical cabinets and whistling softly to himself. Mrs. Bis- sell .bad put new muslin curtains to the windows, and Anne had filled a vase with moss roses for the center table— those precious roses she cherished like gold—an attention Miss Carver never had received in all the years she had lived in Mrs. Bissell‘s house. ‘The sun is going to rise and set on his head." thought Miss Carver as she took her way up to her room, smelling the tea biscuits from the open kitchen door But she could not irate the young doctor There was something engaging about the creature. she acknowledged inwardly. as she laid ofl“ her things. Dr. Tibbets certainly was a cheery soul. and be secured to infuse a breezy life and temper into the rather distracted Bissell menage. 'Mrs. Bissell felt her work lighter. and Anne seemed to take a new interest in home and to talk less about the dullness of Littlefield. Some people piticd Anne and felt that she oc- cupied a false position. She .had been graduated at the normal school, and had mught a year or two in a country town, but it Was "beside all the traditions of the Littlefieldians to take a mechanic’s daughter. whose mother kept a cheap boarding house, into the best set. She was prettier than most of the daughters of the'wealthy old families, but Anne‘s beauty did not seem an advantage in the eyes of the Littlefield dowagers, and her independent. free ways appeared rather lacking in reverence to the pure Littlefield blue blood, whose pretensions Anne did not hesitate to laugh at in Miss Carver’s presence. ~—-~———-—~<-o>—-————-~~—- I have tried Salvation Oil in my own case for neuralgia and experienced muchbenefit from its use. It’s very penetrating and always gives relief.—— [J. S. Lewis, Manufacturer boots and shoes, 54 Fayette st., Baltimore, Md. Mrs. H. F. Daskam is seriously ill with pneumonia at the resrdence of Mrs. B. A. Austin, in River street. Learn a secret of health in the "Im- proved M. D.” advertrsementin another column. For sun-burn, tan or rough hands. bathe ters and vegetable dishes to the dining with Johnson’s Anodwne Limnrent at night; wonderful. o ....................... . ............ '.............................................................H...- ............. 0 3E s. E. 8.; EDWD ........ S TREET ———- OFFERS—— New llress Goods In lhe’ leading Slyles AT VERV LOW PRICES. Many of them are exclusive and are NOT TO BE FOUND ELSEWHERE. them before the line is broken. - The LADIES’ RIBBED VESTS at 12.2: cents are going fast. are worth 19 cents apiece. . In GINGHAMS, SEERSUCKERS. OUTINGS, FLANNELETTES we have the choreest line in town and at the LOWEST PRICES. . The TOWEL STOCK is full of genuine bargains. The 10c., l2§c., 22c. and 250. are the best value shown yet. , . HQSIERY STOCK is now ready for spring. One of the leaders this week 1s_ a Ch11dren’s Ribbed Fast Black Hose, sizes from 6 to 9:}, at 100. a pair; all Sizes worth 160. You all know that on ' FANCY ARTICLES, NOTIONS, Best Stock and Lowest Prices. Look at Remember they &c., Ac, we 'are the headquarters. Edward Street, No. 5 Gazette Building, Norwalk. _ Dill WILL I HAVE THEIR Spring Opening of Duns Gun 3 On W'ednesday. March 4. and will ofler a larger stock of Fine Goods than ever before to the residents of Norwalk, and AT PRICES THAT DEFY COMPETITION for good goods. \Ve don't intend to sell trash. We think there is enough offered in town already. WPLEASE CALL AND Exams}: GOODS AND PRICES “@131 We have our line of GAREE’JS complete with all the New Styles in market. Also large lines of Rugs, Door Mats, all sizes, Mattings. Linoleum, Oil Cloths, &c., &c. Our Kitchen Department is well stocked with all kinds of Wooden and Tin Ware from :1. 9c. Broom to an 89c. Wash Tub. Our trade is rapidly increasing and we intend to supply all the wants of our customers to the best of our ability. Goods not in stock will be purchased next day. Agents for J ouvin Kid Gloves, Butterick’s Patterns, Hall‘s Bazar Forms, &c. Special Agents for Agra, Angora and Glenham Mills Carpet. SCOFIELD & HOYT. WILL FOR A‘: FEW DAYS MORE PASS OUT Unma In ’ Bangains FROM TH E = AMBLER s'rocK. L500 cloaks canlhe Bought for $5 Each. Wonderful Bargains-in Rugs. DRESS GOODS at about HALF~PBXGE. Laces, Corsets and Cotton Underwear at fully one-half under price. Ribbons, Small Wares, Buttons, Umbrellas, Fancy Goods and a full assortment of General Dry Goods at same low prices. IIII. II‘AII. ll Ell. ADAMS EXPRESS CoMPANY. Low Rates. Prompt Delivery. Branch Ofiice. Norwalk, at Morris Benedict’s. Main Office at Depot. South Nor-walk. L. HUNT. Agent. PENSIQNS as an. GEN. WM. II. N OBLE. No. 91 STRATFORD Ava, Burncnronr. Has all blanks needed under New Low f ; Soldiers, Widows Parents and Ch'l . 01 or send for question blanks at encladren Can _ a . D YES Tl!” In? Own Dyeing, at Home. ey in. yo everythin . Th are sold where. Price 10o. a package. Cray have 1:353: for Strength. Brightness, Amount in Packages or for Fastness of Color. or non-fading Qualities. They do not crock or smut; “colors. For sale by J. G. Gregory A: Co.’ J. A. Bi s 11 ' 1/ street; George 13. Pleisted, Druggigs‘t'. ‘ Him HENRY TILLYT— CARRIAGE MAKER, SOT/"TI! JVORIVALR’, CONN. Manufacturer of— Famlly Carriages, Vlclnnas, Buggies, in. ALL KINDS OF REPAIRING O. E. WI LSO N General Insurance and Real Estalnngl. —— MONEY r0 LOAN. Stocks. Bonds, etc., Bought and Sold. and. Loans Negotiated at Lowest Rates of Interest. GAZETTE BUILDING. NOR IVA L K, CONN. Buunme LOTS. eON INSTALLMENT PLAN.) FOR SALE, 0n -:- Wilton, -:- Avenue, '} U ROOM APPLY TO llharles Olmslead 0r 0. E. Wilson. Norwalk ~:~ Gazette. J on Pl'illllml Establishment. ’“ ————.——_ Wedding Cards. Posters. Visiting Cards, Handbills. Business Cards, Programmes. Fancy Show Cards, Dodgers, Ball Cards, Billboards. Statements. Circulars; Tag Cards, Receipts. Hotel Registers. Letterheads.. Books and Pamphlets, Not-eheads, Milk Tickets.. WPrinth in the Neatest Styles and at the Lowest Prices. SPRING WHEN. HOUSE AND GENERAL PAINTING, Paper Hanging, Kalsominlng. 8m. Town and Probate Records. . The Subscriber has opened a general Paint- ing and Paper Hanging Shop. at NO. 7 WATER STREET, (Jamar Bloch) Nor-walk. where he would be glad to receive any orders from old customers and as many as may favor him With their work. The best materials andbest workmanship guaranteed and done at tho lowest rices. GEORG H. OSTERBANKS F.KOCOUR. MBRGHANT - TAILOB, Is ready to show the Finest and argest Stock of" FALL .& WINTER GOODS, Which he will make up in the Best of Style and Lowest Prices. Satisfaction Guaranteed. 17 North Main Street, SOUTH NORWALK. n. 9115017331, MERCHANT TAILOR, Is ready‘ to show the Finest Stock of GLOTESJASSIIEBESAND OVEMOA'I‘ING And a great. variety of Fancy Pants Patterns E. GUSOWSKI, Corner Wall and Water Streets S. 8. WILSON, Carpenter and Builder.- AWING. Window Frames kc. -Mou1dings S made to order. Jobbin ' l to. Shep—Cross st.; Residirlidg?$tili¥allt:€ded First floor at Belden avenue to let at 89 er month. Houses and lots for sale on easy tel-£18
Norwalk Chronicler