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Unrestrained

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 40.

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Unrestrained.

A VISITOR at a small summer resort at the sea coast entered the railway station one sultry July day, to wait for a train. Two young girls of about fourteen entered, attired in embroidered white dresses, which left their arms bare; lace, gay ribbons, and jewelry were heaped on them; the dresses were, in fact, such as they would wear at an evening assembly, except for the shoes muddied by trampling through the lanes. The following conversation took place:
"That's the down express, Ella. The conductor's your young man."
"No; I've taken up that fellow on the second accommodation. He's brakeman. He said he'd bring me something from town to-day."
Giggle. "I wonder what it'll be. That brakeman on the express brought me a box of caramels yesterday. I promised to have a bunch of roses for him to-day."
"Caramels! I'll bring some roses to-morrow." Giggling, long continued.
The ticket-seller, a coarse young man, with a whisky-tainted breath, thrust his head out of the window.
"Say! None o' that, Miss May! I want all the roses you bring."
Miss May tossed her head. "Nonsense! You didn't speak to me on the promenade last night."
One or two brakemen loungers had been listening this colloquy, with unpleasant leers.
"I know why he didn't speak to you, Miss," said one. "'Cos he's married, and that was his wife with him."
The girls tossed their heads, and went out to meet the conductors of the in-coming train.
"Who are they?" asked the visitor. He was surprised to hear that they were the daughters of a most respectable and influential family, who were spending the summer at the hotel.
The next day he was introduced to their mother, who said to him presently,—
"My little girls are not fond of books. There seems to be nothing to occupy them here. I let them wander at will. I do not believe in this new system of guarding girls so closely. Nothing is so charming as innocence and freedom."
The story is true, and might be true of countless American mothers and daughters this summer.—Companion.