|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
 |
||||
|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
|
|
||||
|
this latter point was never satisfactorily ascertained, and remains, in fact, unset- tled to this day. Miss Ophelia, as you now behold her, stands before you, in a very shining brown linen travelling-dress, tall, square-formed and angular. Her face was thin, and rather sharp in its outlines; the lips compressed, like those of a person who is in the habit of making up her mind definitely on all subjects; while the keen, dark eyes had a peculiarly searching, advised movement, and travelled over every- thing, as if they were looking for something to take care of. All her movements were sharp, decided, and energetic; and, though she was never much of a talker, her words were remarkably direct, and to the purpose, when she did speak. In her habits, she was a living impersonation of order, method, and exactness. In punctuality, she was as inevitable as a clock, and as inexorable as a railroad en- gine; and she held in most decided contempt and abomination anything of a con- trary character. The great sin of sins, in her eyes,- the sum of all evils,- was expressed by one very common and important word in her vocabulary-“shiftlessness.” Her finale and ultimatum of contempt consisted in a very emphatic pronunciation of the word “shiftless;” and by this she characterized all modes of procedure which had not a direct and inevitable relation to accomplishment of some purpose then defi- nitely had in mind. People who did nothing, or who did not know exactly what they were going to do, or who did not take the most direct way to accomplish |
