KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



177 



STOP KATUS3 IF YOU CAN; 



OR, 



MY LOVELY COUSIN 'S FIRST VISIT. 



BY FANNY FORESTER. 



XDEED IT WAS A GREAT EVENT — 

 THAT OF MY COUSIN'S FIRST VISIT 

 TO US IN THE COUNTRY ! NOW, W6 



begged of the clouds to be pro- 



Y M pitious ; and now, we flew to make 



' the house appear so, — till every 



article of furniture had been 



arranged and re-arranged at least 



half a dozen times ; though we were assured 



by certain older and wiser individuals that it 



had gained nothing by the changes. 



Cousin Walter, a curly-headed, laughing 

 eyed junior, had come home to spend the 

 summer vacation with us. and. if truth must 

 be told, neither "Walter nor myself felt very 

 hospitable. We had lived a whole year in 

 the anticipation of this visit ; and now to 

 have our plans spoiled by the whimseys of a 

 city belle ! Walter hesitated not to declare 

 that it was too had, and, of course, he could 

 hold no opinion to which I would not accede, 

 when I had not seen him before for a whole 

 year. It will do to contradict those we meet 

 every day ; but living twelve long months in 

 two" — all ! we must be in a hurry then to 

 act out half the love that is in the heart ! 

 And Walter and myself were very loving 

 cousins, for we had been rocked in the same 

 cradle, (I a few years later, true, and some- 

 times by his own chubby little hand,) and 

 had eaten bread and milk from the same por- 

 ringer ; aye, and been tied up by the same 

 string, when we ran away together to play 

 upon the shaded verge of the mill-pond, as 

 if to test the truth of the oft-repeated pro- 

 phecy, that we should surely be drowned. 

 We were deep in each other's confidences, 

 too. I knew every little Miss for a dozen 

 miles around that Walter thought pretty, 

 and, as in duty bound, I thought them all 

 pretty too. I knew, moreover, what my 

 father never dreamed of, that Walter had 

 no liking for the science of jurisprudence to 

 which he was destined, and had other and 

 very mysterious views for himself, of 

 which even I could only obtain an 

 inkling. 



Then Walter knew exactly the number 

 and condition of my pretty frocks, and al- 

 ways assisted in wheedling my mother into 

 the purchase of a new one. He knew too that 

 I did not like James Brown, and thought his 

 velvet cap very ugly; and that 1 did li 

 Charley Bill, velvet cap and all, though the 

 head coverings in question were as like as 

 two peas. But, notwithstanding this general 

 knowledge of each other's views, we had at 

 least a dozen profound secrets to whisper 

 everyday, until Walter was >[:i\t away to col- 



lege. And is it to be supposed that, after an 

 absence of three years, Walter would grow dig- 

 nified, and I reserved and prudish? Ah, no ! not 

 we ! We met with hearty kisses, and strolled 

 arm in arm, all over the fields and woods, and 

 sat down together under the old trees, or in the 

 portico, at evening, and were just as confi- 

 dential as ever. But to have a third in our 

 conferences, and she a city lady, in all pro- 

 bability as full of provokingly nice notions 

 as an egg is of meat ! Oh ! it was too bad ! 

 Butthen she was coming per invitation from 

 my father, and must, of course, be duly 

 entertained. 



However, Walter and I set apart two good 

 hours that we fairly concluded might be 

 exclusively our own ; one, the first after sun- 

 rise in the morning, which our guest would 

 of course waste in sleep ; and the other, im- 

 mediately following dinner, when she was 

 taking her afternoon's siesta. Walter's fine 

 saddle horse had been taken from the plough 

 a full week before his arrival; and my pretty 

 Zikka (a perversion of Zeke, I suppose) was 

 certainly born for a lady's sitting, Oh ! 

 what delightful times we might have had 

 galloping away, side by side ! But the 

 arrival of my city cousin would spoil all, for 

 there was not another side-saddle in the 

 neighborhood, and not a horse, save the 

 halt and the aged, that a lady could mount 

 with safety. So there was another pleasure to 

 be sacrificed ! But Walter and I resolved to 

 bear it like two martyrs, and bear it we did. 



On the day of 'Bel Forester's arrival, after 

 I had slipped two or three more choice buds 

 among the fresh flowers in her room, looped 

 anew the muslin curtains, and given the last 

 touch to all the little paraphernalia of the dres- 

 sing-table, Walter harnessed his own horse, 

 and assisted me into a nice little " buggy," 

 and off we drove in search of my dreaded 

 cousin. To be sure we did not know her ; 

 but we resolved to step up to the first cold, 

 formal Miss, with a languid step, drooping 

 shoulders, and a would-be pretty lisp, and 

 hail her as Miss Isabella Forester. We were 

 obliged to wait full ten minutes for the 

 arrival of the cars; and Cousin Walter and 1 

 spent this time in rallying each other out of 

 our sheepishness, and wondering if our ex- 

 pected guest would really be pleased with 

 any of the thousand plans that we had ar- 

 ranged for her benefit. At last there was a 

 sudden tinkling of a bell, a rumbling, pufrhiu:, 

 — whish! fiz ! 'sh ! 'sh! 'sh ! and a furious 

 crazy monster of a run-away .Etna whisked 

 passed us, and camr i<> a stand-still. My 

 heart was in my mouth, and Walter's might 

 have been in his i r aught that I know, 



for the big orbs became suddenly very 

 prominent. 



" Stay here, Fanny," he whispered, " and 

 I wiil go out in search of the lady." 



Vol. V. — 12. 



