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Page 7
COUSIN HELEN.
"These must be they," cried Elsie, pouncing on one of the little packages.
"May I cut the string, Katy?"
Permission was granted; and Elsie cut the string. It was indeed a pair of
beautiful white silk stockings embroidered in an open pattern, and far
finer than anything which Katy would have thought of choosing for herself.
"Don't they look exactly like Cousin Helen?" she said, fondling them. "Her
things always are choicer and prettier than anybody's else, somehow. I
can't think how she does it, when she never by any chance goes into a
shop. Who can this be from, I wonder?"
"This" was the second little package. It proved to contain a small volume
bound in white and gold, entitled, "Advice to Brides." On the fly-leaf
appeared this inscription:--
To Katherine Carr, on the occasion of her approaching bridal,
from her affectionate teacher,
MARIANNE NIPSON.
1 Timothy, ii. 11.
Clover at once ran to fetch her Testament that she might verify the
quotation, and announced with a shriek of laughter that it was: "Let the
women learn in silence with all subjection;" while Katy, much diverted,
read extracts casually selected from the work, such as: "A wife should
receive her husband's decree without cavil or question, remembering that
the husband is the head of the wife, and that in all matters of dispute
his opinion naturally and scripturally outweighs her own."
Or: "'A soft answer turneth away wrath.' If your husband comes home
fretted and impatient, do not answer him sharply, but soothe him with
gentle words and caresses. Strict attention to the minor details of
domestic management will often avail to secure peace."
And again: "Keep in mind the epitaph raised in honor of an exemplary wife
of the last century,--'She never banged the door.' Qualify yourself for a
similar testimonial."
"Tanta never does bang doors," remarked Amy, who had come in as this last
"elegant extract" was being read.
"No, that's true; she doesn't," said Clover. "Her prevailing vice is to
leave them open. I like that truth about a good dinner 'availing' to
secure peace, and the advice to 'caress' your bear when he is at his
crossest. Ned never does issue 'decrees,' though, I fancy; and on the
whole, Katy, I don't believe Mrs. Nipson's present is going to be any
particular comfort in your future trials. Do read something else to take
the taste out of our mouths. We will listen in 'all subjection.'"
Katy was already deep in a long epistle from Rose.
"This is too delicious," she said; "do listen." And she began again at the
beginning:--
MY SWEETEST OF ALL OLD SWEETS,--Come to your wedding! Of course
I shall. It would never seem to me to have any legal sanction
whatever if I were not there to add my blessing. Only let me
know which day "early in June" it is to be, that I may make
ready. Deniston will fetch us on, and by a special piece of good
luck, a man in Chicago--whose name I shall always bless if only
I can remember what it is--has been instigated by our mutual
good angel to want him on business just about that time; so that
he would have to go West anyway, and would rather have me along
than not, and is perfectly resigned to his fate. I mean to come
three days before, and stay three days after the wedding, if I
may, and altogether it is going to be a lark of larks. Little
Rose can talk quite fluently now, and almost read; that is, she
knows six letters of her picture alphabet. She composes poems
also. The other day she suddenly announced,--
"Mamma, I have made up a sort of a im. May I say it to you?"
I naturally consented, and this was the
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