to wean any one from a desire is not by
condemnation of it.

"Don't you say anything to grandma about me and the stage or she'd
very nearly turn you out of the house. You just ask her what she
thinks of it some time, and it will give you an idea; but I hate
Noonoon, and would run away, only grandma goes on so terribly about
hussies that go to the bad, and she's very old, and you know how you
feel that a curse might follow you when people go on that way," said
the girl in bidding me good night.

Dawn had many characteristics that made one love her, and a few in
spite of which one bore her affection. Her method of dealing with her
native tongue came among the latter. It was reprehensible of her too,
seeing the money her grandmother had spent in giving her a chance to
be a lady--that is, the type of lady who affects a blindness
concerning the stern, plain facts of existence, and who considers that
to speak so that she cannot be heard distinctly is an outward sign of
innate refinement. She had made poor use of her opportunities in this
respect, but if to be honest, healthy, and wholesome is lady-like,
then Dawn was one of the most vigorous and thoroughly lady-like folk I
have known, and what really constitutes a lady is a mootable point
based largely upon the point of view.

FIVE.

MISS FLIPP'S UNCLE.

I did not sleep that night. Dawn and her grandma had given me too much
food for cogitation. I felt I had incurred a responsibility in regard
to the former, upon which I chewed tough cud at the expense of sleep.

While there was hard common-sense in the old grandmother's point of
view, it was also easy to be at one with the girl's desire for
something brighter and more stirring than old Noonoon afforded. The
fertile valley was beautiful in all truth, but with the beauty that
appeals only to the storm-wrecked mariner, worn with a glut of human
strife and glad to be at anchor for a time rebuilding a jaded
constitution.

Upon a first impression this girl did not seem abnormally anxious for
the mere plaudits or the notoriety part of the stage-struck's fever,
nor was she alight with that fire called genius which will burn a hole
through all obstacles till it reaches its goal; she appeared rather to
regard the stage as a means to an end--a pleasant easy way, in the
notion of the inexperienced, of obtaining the fine linen and silver
spoon she desired. Had she been a boy, doubtless she would have set
out to work for