In Sandy's Clothes.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 78

In Sandy's Clothes.

It was August, and I was pining for a breath of sea air, when an old aunt, in a fit of generosity, sent me £10 to spend on a holiday. My mother was enjoying a sea ■voyage when aunt's letter arrived, and though the cheque was most satisfactory, the epistle was not. "Dear Katheiino," concluded auntie, "'while sending this gift, to enable you to have a change, I trust you will have a reliable person to accompany 3 ou ; no nice girl could possibly go alone." . Now, as luck would have it, my friends ! could not leave just then, and I was deciding gloomily that my holiday would have to be ■-■handoiiod, when my glance happened to fall on a bundle of msy brother's wearing apparel he had outgrown, and which sug° Sested a wuj out of tho difficulty. "No nice girl," a\uu had said, "could go away alone." If my sex was to hamper my enjoyment, why not ignore it? Here "wore Sandy's clothes; we were tug same height j

what was to prevent my dressing- as a boy and enjoying my iiohda3-3 as "sich"? Action was quictk as thought, and next evening found me strolling along the "from" at Brighton, clad in bandy's clothes, feeiing delightfully emancipated. On tho beaoli a crowd had gathered round 1 a piano, a man was playing, a nandsome dark woman sieging duinely. Something of Sandy's devilry must have come into me when I donned his clothes, for when the singer approached me for a contribution I gave her a shilling, and begged her to come with me for a stroll. "Do, 1 * I pleaded, "the night is heavenly." She came, and not only then, but for thirteen nights following. The day after our last walk I left Brighton, and as I seated myself in the train I reflected regretfully that I was leaving the most charming woman of my acquaintance. Just then a man jumped into my carriage. His faco was strangely familiar, and in the masculine form I recognised my lady friend of tho beach — she of the lovely voice. "Why were you masquerading?" I gasped out. "Why are you?" Ac retorted, and he told me he guessed my sex from the first. He confided to me that he and his brother were "busking," and that he had adopted the role of lady as likely to prove more remunerative. And I explained the reason of my disguise. The journey seemed much to short ; but, alas ! Victoria was reached, and then we said good-bye, and never met again.