FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106  
107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   >>   >|  
orse than all, even the mirror made similar reflections a little--the only difference being that the ladies and gentlemen said so behind her back, but the mirror expressed it before her face. One by one her sisters and companions ripened and were plucked by the admiring crowd, but Ann Harriet remained untouched. No one even pinched her to see if she were good. And finally, as the throng were rapidly passing on, it became her settled conviction that she must shake herself into some one's hands, or she would be left to wither forsaken on the ancestral tree. Ann Harriet, like some patent medicines, was not bad to take. True, children did not cry for her as they did for the famous cough lozenges of old; but the fact was, that in Peonytown most of the people were homoeopathists, and preferred small doses; therefore Ann Harriet, who was popularly reported to weigh three hundred and one pounds--_vires acquirit eundo_--was altogether too large a dose for any gentleman of the homoeopathic persuasion. Possibly, if Ann Harriet could have been divided into twin sisters of about one hundred and fifty pounds each, her matrimonial chances would have greatly increased; for however it may have been in years past, this putting two volumes into one is not at all popular at the present _duo_-decimal time. Business, too, was dull in Peonytown, and the men could not afford to marry a wife who would require twenty-five yards for a dress, when they could get one that ten yards would cover up. Miss Hobbs's twenty-sixth birthday was approaching. She could see it in the dim distance, and she knew too well that the twenty-seventh was ready to follow it up; and that Time stepped heavier than he used to--the clumsy fellow; for, 'handsome' as she was, she could see the marks of his feet on her face. Ann Harriet had an uncle residing in Boston, whom she had never seen, but had often heard him favorably spoken of by her mother, whose only brother he was. Ann therefore determined that she would write to her Uncle Farnsworth, and ask him if it would be agreeable should she visit him for a few weeks. Her letter met with a cordial response from the old gentleman, who expressed himself 'highly gratified at the prospect' of seeing his sister's daughter; named the day for her to come, and said that Gregory, his son, would meet her at the railroad station in Boston, when the train arrived. Ann Harriet had never been in Boston, and the thoughts of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106  
107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Harriet

 

Boston

 

twenty

 
hundred
 
pounds
 

gentleman

 
mirror
 

sisters

 

expressed

 

Peonytown


heavier
 

Business

 

handsome

 

decimal

 

clumsy

 
fellow
 

stepped

 

seventh

 

distance

 
birthday

require

 
follow
 

afford

 

approaching

 

spoken

 

gratified

 

highly

 
prospect
 

sister

 

cordial


response

 

daughter

 

station

 

arrived

 

thoughts

 

railroad

 

Gregory

 

letter

 

favorably

 

mother


residing

 

brother

 

agreeable

 

determined

 

Farnsworth

 

homoeopathic

 
settled
 

conviction

 

passing

 

finally