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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 1, 1882.
The llmvo Girin of Vllln^IIoheinln.
Follct was sitting upright in bed in
the apartment to which four young
girls hnd retired for the night. Tho
room was just under the sloping eaves
of an old country-house, and was dis
mal enotfgb, lit as it was by only the
sputtering, flickering tlanie of a tallow
candle. Carol combed her brown hair
in front of a cracked looking-glass, and
the two were earnestly talking about
a namefor the home into which they
had moved for the summer season.
Follet shook her auburn head obsti
nately, and said, “No. I quite disap
prove of the name on the spot.”
“0/tho spot, lie lucid, my dear,” re
turned Carol. “For my parti consider
It very appropriate—the Villa Bohemia.
It means all that is free and comfortable;
no brothers, nor rules, nor men; we can
take care of our selves and not be bur
dened by encumbrances. Yes, it seems
to me, the name is singularly fortu
nate. We have come here where we
are independent of other people, and
can work and act as wo please. I vote
for Villa Bohemia, and ask a resolution
of thanks for the suggestion. Don’t all
speak at once."
“Their’s no ‘all’ here, Carol,” res
ponded Follet, who had crept undor
the bed-clothes, and answered in a
sleepy; voice from beneath the yellow
and red patch-work quilt. “Tho other girls
have gone to look for burglars in tho spare
chamber.”
“ Say guest-chamber, Follet. What is the use
of having an extra room in ahouse ifitis not
used to add dignity to the establishment F'
“I don't see how it can add dignity,”
complained the sleepy voice." We shall
never have anybody in it”
“ We do not desire anybody, young wo
man. Itemember it la seclusion, study and
general improvement wo have come hero for.
Ahem ! ahem! There, sho’s off to the ‘land
of Nod.'"
Carol yawned, disclosing two rows of tho
whitest and cvenest of little teeth.
Just then, her mouth closed almost with
a snap. There was n sudden running, scuf-
flingand scrambling heard without, followed
by tho bursting in of the chamber door. In
an instant Fly and Dimple, with distended
eyes, pallid faces and extinguished tallow
dip, rushod into tho room and tumbled over
her as she sat on the floor.
FABLES FOB THE YOUNG.
“HelpI Robbers! Mammal Oh help 1”
cried Follet.
“Stop that noise, Follet, for mercy’s sake!
Don’t you see that it is only these two girls 7
You ought to be ashamed of yourselves,
girls. You’ve just torn my one decent skirt
off my back, and smeared me all over with
that nasty tallow dip!” cried Carol.
“Sme—sine—smeared you, indeed, you
thing,” panted one of the
girls, struggling up to her feet, very pale
about the lips. You wouldn’t think of tal—
tallow, if you had seen what we—we saw.
Would she, Dimple 7”
"What was it?” inquired Carol, suddenly
dropping the brush on Dimples prostrate
head.
“O Fly, can’t you speak? Here, quick,
smell this ammonia, and do speak 7” groaned
Dimple.
"Thieves! Robbers! Where ore they?
Oh, I wish I was out of the horrid old place.
Maybe they’ve got Aunt Daffy 1" screamed
Follet, disappearing under tho bed-clothes.
“ Don’t make such a noise," said the trem
bling Fly, straightening the broken candle,
while Dimple, with very red cheeks, and
rumpled frock, slowly drew her roly-poly
form upright. “And some of us must go and
see to Aunt Daffy.”
“I’ll notstir a step out of this room until
you or Dimple tell us what you saw," said
and I thought we had better take a look
through the house to see if anybody was hid
away in it. Such a lonesome old ratty place,
and no dog.” “Take all night in telling
about it! Oh, take all night !”•
“You are a regular snapping turtle,
Carol."
“Go on," groaned Follet, from under the
quilt.
“We started. Dimple would not go first.
Of course I wasn’t in the least afraid,—but,
well, I didn’t care to go. Oh, I remember;
I carried the dip, and going first made a
draught. So we sort of went along, and by-
and-by we came to the spooky entry-way
leading to the spare”
“Gnest, Fly,” corrected Carol, solemnly.
“And Dimple clung to me, and wanted to
go back, and the dip sputtered and smudged—
and you couldn’t see your hand before your
face—and I pushed open the door wide,— it
was a bit ajar,—and oh, girls, there I saw—I
saw”
“Go on 1 Go on I say 1" cried Carol, her
hair rising in tho latest fashion, and her
hands clenched in suspense. There was a
smothered groan from Follet, whose head
protruded from a hole in the enveloping
bed quilt.
“At an instant I saw something white in
the centre of the room. Girls, it rose up,
and rose up as high as the ceiling and then I
excitement the water-pitcher against the
door.
There was a renewed chorus of exclama
tions from the bed, while Fly wildly tugged
to the resetfe the dressing-case, scattering
mirror, bottles and knick-knacks in every
direction.
A pause ensued. Not a sound was heard
outside the door.
“Do you hear anything 7”
“Not a breath.”
“He’s planning,”
“How do you know it’s a ‘he 7’ ”
“Could an animal plan 7” -
”’8hl I do hear something.”
“Hark!"
There was a still more oppressive silence,
then a furious fluttering that sonnded like
wings, and again something came with a
crash against the door.
Another scream arose from the brave bo-
hemiennes. Then Fly, after a pause, with
chattering teeth exclaimed,—
“Girls, it—sounds—it—seems to me—it
sounds more like—a bird—than—than—rob
bers."
Quack 1 Quack j Quack, quack, quack!
Qu—a—ack I was heard in the entry.
Follet and Dimple reappeared simultane
ously from among the bed-clothes.
“It’s nothing in the world, girls, but that
horrid old white grander Mickey gave me,”
said Dimple triumphantly. “I shut
him up in the hall so he wouldn’t run
away."
Fly and Carol arose from among the
disorder of the chamber furniture, and
smiled idiotically at each other. The
latter, removing the now noseless water-
pitcher, and cautiously apply! ng;her
eye to the crack of tliedoor, demurely
exclaimed.—
“If it is the goose, ho, is, doubtless,
ashamed of you two.”
“It is, Carol 7 "jimplored Fly.
“Is it. And the next time’you and
Dimple go looking for a burglar, just
try to remember our mission here is to
be brave and strong, and not to suc
cumb to the quacks of life. You should
have accosted that goose, not fled from
him.”
"Are you done 7” inquired Fly, with
recovered sarcasm and dignity. “Then
please hand me the remains of thW*
disgusting tallow tip, and let us have a
little light on this disagreeable'matter."
The four tlion tiptoed into the entry
and drove tho poor gander out of tho
Window.
“My dears,” said Aunt Daffy’s soft
voice at the door, “did you hear any dis
turbance 7 My head being well wrap
ped from the unusual draughts in this
old house, I am not positivo as to
whether or no I heard a noise."
“Ob, it’s nothing, Auntie, it’s noth
ing,” said Fly, escorting the deaf old
lady back to her room, below stairs.
“Wo were celebrating our first night at
the villa, os independent and brave
bohemiennes." — Maris LkBauon, in
Youth’s Companion.
The Donkey Philosopher.
A GROUP OF DEER.
Carol, crouching down behind the door.
" Dimple, tell us this minute.”
" Indeed I can’t. It was Fly who saw it.”
“O—o—oh 1" returned Carol, a trifle more
composed behind her barricade. “ Nobody
saw nothing!’’
“But I saw something!" was tho indig
nant Fly’s rejoinder, os she cast a furtive
glance towards the hall-way. “You see
Dimple and I thought wo had better just
take a look— Hark 1 Did you hear that?”
“Oh! Ohl I heard itl Harry! O
Har”
“ Follet, if you dare to screech that way
again after that soft-headed Harry, back you
go to him ! We are sworn estatics.”
“Ecstatics? Ascetics, you mean,” mur
mured Follet, tearfully.
“Hysterics! more like,” snapped the val
iant Carol. “Fly, I don’t hear the slightest
noise. If there is anything horrible to tell,
tell It or hold your peace and go to bed.”
“Poor Aunt Daffy!” sobbed Follet.
“Woll, you see," continued Fly, “Dimple
—exclaimed, and Dimple screamed, and a
cold, unearthly breath blew out the dip,
and Dimple nearly pulled me over, and then
we scrambled, somehow, through the entry,
and finally—well, here we ore! Oh, it was
awful!” Just then there arose a noise, as of
something strggering along the hall, and
then something struck the door.
“0—o—oh!” screahied the four bohemiennes
in prolonged and terrifying chorus.
“They’ve got Aunt Daffy. Oh!” Then
there was silence for the space of one min
ute.
“It's coming Fly! I know it! Here it
is,” panted Carol.
A smothered scream rose from Follet, and
a wild and ungenerous battle ensued be
tween her and the distracted Dimple, in an
attempt to secure tho greater portion of the
sheltering bed-clothes.
“Help me, all of you! Bring the wash-
stand; move up the trunk; hand me the
bowl and bandbox. Bring everything!”
commanded and urged Carol, placing in her
“Come close to the hedge, Teddy,”
said a worn-out horse to his friend the
donkey, with whom he was picking up
a scanty meal by the roadside.
“Why ?’’ asked Teddy following with
his measured pace.
“Look who’s coming?” said the horse,
and there passed a well-conditioned cob
drawing a cart full of beans.
“How nice they smell I” said Teddy. "I
should think they must be very good, but I
never tasted any."
“I used to get them in my better days,”
said his companion, sorrowfully; “but I can
never hope for them again.”
“He’s a happy fellow, isn’t he 7” said Ted
dy, turning his head slowly around to watch
the cart going up the hill.
“Some are born to prosperity, some to ad
versity," sighed the old horse.
And he went on to entertain the donkey
with his recollections of the taste of beans,
and to draw comparison between their com
dition and that of the happy cob.
Some hours afterward, while they were
yet in the road, the cart returned empty,
and while the driver stoppod to chat with a
friend passing by, the horse walked up to
the cob.
“Good-eveningsir! Pray what have you
done with all your beans?”
"Loft them behind,” said the cob.