tea, company came in, and all were pleased with young Mrs. McClure. "You had better retire soon, dear," said her Uncle. "Come, I will help you up stairs. A night's rest will do you good; good night. "Well, Charles, how you like the looks of your little wife?" "I like her so well that I shall leave home until I can control my hatred better," answered Charles. "Do as you like, my boy, and your uncle will bid you God speed." Long before Kate was up Charles was on his way to Mississippi. Old Kate's health improved, and her uncle felt such sympathy for the unfortunate young wife, that he secured to her twenty thousand dollars, where she could draw at pleasure. Kate was a special favorite with everybody. Dinah said she" loved her as well as Massa Charles." Kate's kindness won upon her father and mother. She played for them, sang their favorite pieces, and was never tired of entertaining them. 66 If Charles only loved Kate," said the Colonel," I could die happy." "She is a delicate flower, and is easily crushed. I fear that she will droop and die in the uncongenial soil to which she has been transplanted," said Uncle William. "I fancy I can see her now in her narrow house, and before another year rolls round, Chas. will be free.” "God protect the innocent!" ejaculated the Colonel, "and may she yet see the day, when she will be the dearly beloved wife of Charles. This is my fervent prayer." "We could die in peace then, dear husband," said Mrs. McClure, "for she is all we could ever wish in a daughter, and I cannot think what has altered Charles so much; he ought at least to pity her, for he was as much to blame as she; and she is as innocent as she is lovely, and could not have been in any way leagued with Allen, as Charles thinks." "We are all satisfied of her innocence," said Uncle William, but here comes BACHELOR PENNYWHISTLE AND heart, as every candle-end in the house HIS HOUSEKEEPERS. BY DOCTOR DN. I am a bachelor, worse luck, and what is worse, getting into the sere and yellow leaf of my anthropical vegetation. I kept my college fellowship long, that it deprived me of the opportunity of any umliebric fellowship. I succeeded to the property of a fellow sufferer, an uncle, on condition that I should alter my patronymic from Entwhistle to Pennywhistle. can testify. In vain I tell her my fortune requires no such parsimony. I know nothing about it, I have not seen as she has, how large fortunes are dwindled into less than nothing by constant little wastes, and then she refers to her own disposition to waste, how if it were not kept under proper subjection, what would become of me, although I am the last man in the world to meddle with such a waist as her key zone encircles. That is my present housekeeper. The one before her was a widow, one of the sauciest, coaxingest little sluts that ever killed a man. She had the prettiest arm and hand I ever saw, and she knew it as well as myself. I have always been a very susceptible appreciator of beauty and fine form in any shape, from a candlestick upwards to the Venus de Medicis.. This little wretch took as zealous and tender care. of my health as the present one does of my property. She would never let me go out of my house without con My housekeeper is not only keeper of my house, but keeper of the master of it. She is scarcely of portable size sufficient to be moved without a lever, yet she has the art of ubiquity to perfeetion, for of every rag-hole of the garret to the rat hole of the cellar, I do believe she is fully cognizant. I must be of a strange, dishonest nature to myself, for she insists upon putting under lock and key every blessed thing that may be placed under the house, in the house, above the house, and around the house, even to the jalap and Ep-sulting the weathercock, nor come into som salts department of the family my chamber without looking at the medicine chest, and such a parade of barometer; and then the exit forsooth locking and unlocking goes on through must be accompanied with a belcher the whole of the day, that I often wish handkerchief around my throat if foggy, from my heart that some clever thief or great coat if cloudy, and my enwould pay us a visit, and with his pick-trance with change of shoes and often ock, pick a quarrel with every keybole in the place. of linen. It is not my fault that I am a bachelor as the sequel to this and other histories of my housekeepers can prove. Such unwearied solicitude for my health, I mistook for ulterior design on my celibacy, and nothing loth, I favored and fell into the deception. If she would confine to her own capacious zone, these steel guardians against stealing, I might submit to the thraldom; but she insists upon my being my own turnkey and jailor to certain prisoners that every liberal, generous housekeeper scorns to deprive" Dear me," said she one morning with of liberty. If I want a glass of wine for a friend, or to recommend a dose for an enemy, the trouble is all the same, my attention must be attracted to a particular key, with a particular mark, with sundry cautions how to put it in if worn, and how to pull it out if rusty, how to turn it, if stiff, or how not to turn it, if broken. She has all the "penny saved a penny got" maxims by her little pouting, plump, red, cherry lips; "How ill you look Mr. Pennywhistle, have you passed a bad night? You do look so careworn and so anguish struck like, that I am quite concerned about you; do call on my friend Doctor Dolittle and ask him to prescribe for that frightful cough you had last night." It was in vain I assured her I never felt better in my life, and to my knowledge never coughed once during the whole night, but slept as sound as an owl. "Do look at yourself in the glass," said she," and be convinced." I looked, I saw nothing but a round, fat, dumpy face, glowing with health, with cheeks as red as porter steaks. Why Mrs. Dimples, said I, (that's a playful name I gave her instead of Mrs. Temples) the reflection appears glowing with health. "Apoplectic," said she, "Mr. Pennywhistle, apoplectic; that red and white, coming and going like sunshine and storm is treacherous, very treacherous. Do be advised by a friend, Mr. Pennywhistle." Charming little sorceress, I could have thrown myself at her feet and popped the question, if I could have stood any chance of getting up again without help, I am so very short and fat. 'Twas strange, although the dear creature saw the canker in my blossom of health. I told her that in the words of Springfield, or Summerfield, or Bloomfield, or whatever the poet's name of field may be. the next stage to the country, and off I went. As I was being lumbered along a thought struck me I had not made my will, I might die and my worldly traps. be scattered to the four points of a stranger's compass, and leave the dear little thing without a dime, unpitied and uncared for by a ruthless world. So I got myself wheeled back again. Thought I to myself, now I will give the dear litte soul a funny surprise; I'll creep in at the back door, ensconse myself in the china closet, and enjoy a peep unseen through the key-hole. I wondered how she would be consoling herself in my absence, and I longed to make the experiment of a sudden surprise. Two or three times previously I imagined she had been shedding tears in secret. Who knows but that I might be the unconscious cause of them. As I neared the house towards evening I was amazed to find the whole front of the parlor, having a goodly display of fine windows, all lighted up. What can be going on thought I, so I crept in unperceived into the cloak room of the hall, leaving the door just "I felt myself so sound and plump, ajar so that I might hear and see all That hang me, if I could'nt jump." the proceedings. Will the reader beYet I was resolved to see her friend lieve it, the minx had availed herself Doctor Dolittle, more especially as his of my absence to give a grand party name implied that he would'nt do to those very friends who had so darmuch to unsettle me by his prescrip-ingly given the lie to my good health tions. So going out for that purpose I encountered another friend of the in the morning. In this my pleasant Two or three times was I obliged to check the ardor of my resolution to sally out to break the head of that scamp, Doctor Dolittle, who it seemed had been the author of the vile humbug practised on me, but I forbore, being determined to see the farce played out in spite of my teeth, which were often grinding at her vile ingratitude. All was passing mightily pleasant, when a certain lawyer called for the song which she the said widow, had composed upon myself, and which he assured them was a very gem. This gem as near as my outstretched ears could catch was as follows: "Old puppy Pennywhistle, Old fogy Pennywhistle Is so fat and greasy, With a cough too so wheezy, No courage at the trigger." What does the candid reader think of this heap of insults? It was much as ever I could do, to keep my wrath bottled up. However, I comforted myself by the remark that listeners from time immemorial were never designed to hear any good of themselves. But the slander of “fiery red hair"now will the reader believe it, there is not a particle of that odious color about it, on the contrary, it is of that delicious light auburn that the divine Raphael loved to paint; as for my no-e, I never presumed upon its Grecian or Roman charis, for I know that there is no grace about it, from an unfortunate circumstance in my boyhood; being entrusted to a mere girl, (I hate girl nurses) who left me after I had fallen flat on my face on one part of the ice-slide on which she was with a long line of street boys recreating. The consequence was, as the reader may imagine, that the bridge of my nose was not only broken, but the fleshy part so completely frozen as never to have recovered since, its full vitality. This broken nasal bridge, has always been a" bridge of sighs" to me. As for my hands, they are such a size as distinguish the gentleman; but why waste more words on such vile slander. Now for the denouement; I listened again and heard the wretched little syren in the most gentle lisp ask whether her dear lawyer-who it seems always managed her affairs-whether he thought the action would lie? Action! asked I to myself, "in the name of all the Gods at once," what action? That worthy affirmed it might, with a slight erasure of two words," horse, and cart," substituting instead of them, the two euphoniai" heart and hand "—Was ever such a vile conspiracy-Upon my first engaging her as housekeeper, I had written to her that she was to give herself no trouble about the removal of her furniture, as her apartments were sufficiently furnished; if she wished otherwise, my horse and cart were at her service. These innocent words he proposed the important question; which most thus to turn, provided I did not pop indubitably I should have done had it not been for this discovery; but now, that proceeding was quite out of the dissimulation and humbug, she and her question; her poetical powers and the friends had so ruthlessly played upon me rendered such a consummation devoutly to be shunned. Yet despite of her mortifying dessuch an old fool, and have such a meltcription of my personal qualities, I am ing nature, especially when a pretty woman is in the case, that I do believe I should have forgiven her and married her, if she had shown the slightest compunction of remorse at parting. I looked in vain for the slightest symptom of it in her delicious eyes; but instead of it, I only perceived a roguish twinkle lurking there, ready to make sport at the first opportunity offered her. FINALE TO BACHELOR PENNYWHISTLE. NETTIE. In my childhood or youth, I many times used to wish that I could paint a picture. I used to wish that I could, form the white marble, chisel out a human figure that would almost breathe and speak to me; or that in the loom of the wizard fancy, I could weave a story or a poem that should melt other hearts as mine had oftentimes been melted, by the influence of the strange imagery that came upon the canvass of my brain, that marvelous realm which no physical instrument can penetrate, and who-e mysterious writing the spiritual eye alone reads, I often yearned to embody my soul in some thing that might speak silently to all who should come into its presence; that should make them feel what I felt, without saying anything; that should command the soul and draw along and bear her upward, silently, I loved silence for it is the power of the Soul. But I could seldom catch the subtle visions, and a dark cloud rose on my life just then, which has never left it; and now they do not come to me any more as they used to do many years ago, oh! how many! It seems centuries since I was a child and saw these things, I wish now, to make a picture of childhood, to call back a translated form, that may speak to you in few words, but which will call up a thousand memories and speak to you al ways. glorified by a radiance streaming over it from another world. We have al most instantly forgotten all its earthly elements and it stands in our memories now a sanctified life; and as if it had never been anything else-passionless-sinless. Nettie was a sun-beam in the home where she dwelt, bearing light and happiness into every recess where her of others might all be defeated-hope presence might enter. The life-plans be crushed-disapointment and sad ness set on the brow and care and anguish complain from the life-but Nettie was a child and the hand-writbrow and the overburdened spirit was ing of sorrow was not yet upon her often beguild from despair by the serene illumination of her eye. Whatever cloud of sorrow stood over that home, the radiance of her spirit gilded til the gloom was forgotten in the it and played upon its dark bosom unthe storm-wind was abroad, and the supernal beauty of her light. When black tempest hung low and shut out the warm sun-light from the earth, when the tropical rains flooded all the streets and a sense of loneliness and desolation brooded on all things, the sun-light of her face streamed across every hall and into all places. The ter! light was within, the light of a storm might reign without, what mat child's love, which is eternal. In the bright mornings, when the You knew Nettie well. We all great sun poured into the windows his wealth of light, she stood there among knew Nettie; just as in the North Atthe flowers, the brightness of the lantic States everybody knows the violet or the primrose, and seeks them morning-the brightest of all flowers brighter than light itself. She stood from their very modesty. She has gone away now, and when we close among them as if she was of them, and our eyes and look for her, with the in- belonged there, and the blue beams ner vision and sometimes catch glimpses their white petals. She stood among from her eyes seemed incarnated in of her in the "Magic Glass we see the lilies, genius of the flowersher, almost as she was before only less earthly; Nettie is to us now a celestial figure and it seems as if she had always been such-some partition seems to have been taken away, so that her two existencies have glided into one, and now her little earthly life seems the angel of purity, as if the source of their embodied loneliness, come to bring them their sustenance-light, and dew, and rain-drops, and a pure atmosphere. She stood there, their minister, dispensing rich ambrosia. |