The Brussels Post, 1892-11-18, Page 3Nov, 18, 1892,
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ZILPAH'S ROMANCE,
Nino o'clock wan the middle of the fore-
noon in Mrs. Omlike's neat kitchen, The
breakfast work wan cleared away, the daily
baking done, the batter worked and stamp•
th
ed, and for e apace of five minutes Mrs.
Opdiko enjoyed the sone of a "pease in
the day'n once -potions." Ina mechanical,
accustomed way she listened to hear if Zil-
pah was stopping lively as site ought in the
charnbersshewasswoeping, overhead, Ib was
eeocndnaturo with Mrs. Opelika to gouge
the duality of Zilpah's work by,tho settee of
bea'mg when she was not gauging it by the
00000 of sight. In fifteen minutes Zilpah
must start for the meadow with the hay -
maker's lunch.
"Is these cookies to go, Mis' Opdike? "
Tho mistress started limn her daydream.
She had not heard Zilpah enter the kitchen
with the jug of molasses and water which
had been lowered fu the well to cool, and
the basket in which oho was to convoy the
luncheon to tho haymakers.
" Of course," she said, somewhat sharply,
"Lift 'em easyfromtho board. They're
hardly cold." Sho wont down cellar for e
dried -apple pio, while Zilpah was lifting the
cookies with a thin-bladod kuifo and piling
them in one end of the basket.
"Carry the jug steady so as it won't
slop," she warned Zilpah, while tho girl
was tying hor gingham bonnet securely
undor her chin.
Zilpah was a thin colorless girl of seven-
teen, with long arms and rod hands, She
had sloping shoulders and straw•colored
hair, and pale blue oyes. Hor small foot
and slander ankles were named in a pair of
shoes many sizes too big for her, and she
moved awkwardly, with the jug in one
hand and the basket in the other, toward
the hot road which len to the hayfield.
"Move along," palled Mrs. Opdike from
the door. The things'li bo all of a sizzle
before yon got there. An', Zilla—"
Tho girl, who had obeyed the injunebion
to move along, paused uncertainly.
" You may conte back through the pas-
ture and pick a pint of huckleberries for
the johnnycakes, 'I you'll be spry."
Zilpah plodded on. She hada quarter of
a mile stretch before her tinder the vertical
July sun, but she did list mind. Hor trip
to the hay-fleld with the men's luncheon
was a bright spot in her daily experience.
She dreaded to have the haying come to an
0nd.
There were four mon at work in the
meadow. Ona of them, separating from
the others, walked in the direction which
Zilpah took.
You gain' home through the pasture,
hilly?" he asked.
Yos, I'tn to pick berries.'
" I'd like a mouthful of 'em myself along
o' your 000kios. 'Pears to me no cookies
ever tasted so good's those you bring."
He wets a short, bow-legged little man,
named Luther Baggs. Ho hired out with
a horse -rake which he owned, and tho pos.
session of which made him in demand dur-
ing harvesting. He had a round face, and
his features seemed to spread like his legs.
His eyes wero far apart, his nostrils flat and
wide, and he had tight curling blank hair.
He ate his wadg0 of pie as he and Zilpah
walked on side by side, and shortly came to
the pasture where the huekleborries wore
beginning to ripen. Luther Baggs took a
jack-knife from his trousers' pocket and
opened the big blade.
"Set down, Zilly, and rest yourself," the
said. "I'mgoin' to out down a loto'huahes,
and we'll pith tho boories off easy natio' in
the shade"
" Oh, I'm not tired,, Mr. Baggs," said
Zilpah, taking her pint measure and begin-
ning to pull off the berries with her elite, hot
little fingers.
Tired ? Umph II donne why you're
not tired trapsing over that hot road bring-
ing our lunch. I iepoat 'tisn't all you've
dons this mornin', neither."
" All I've done 1" said Zilpah, in dismay.
" No, indeed, I eau do more'n you think ;"
as if Mr. Baggs' remarks reflected upon
her character.
' I des'say you do your sharo. Mis' Op -
dike she's a master hand to get it out o'folks.
Doesn't she work you pretty hard now ?"
" Why, of course she do. I'mn her bound
girl," said Zilpah, with a conclusive air.
" Yes, you're her bound girl. But that
is not to say she's got a right to impose upon
you. Dont you know she'd have to pay a
good deal niore'n you cost her if she had to
hire the work you do."
This problem was more than Zilpah was
equal to menage.
" Sot down and get cool," said Baggs.
" You look fit to drop. Sit right down
there in the shade and piok these bashes."
He took hold of her long thin arm kind-
ly, and half pushed her into a patch of
shade oast by the stone wall, and threw the
armful of huckleberry bushes into hor lap,
" Pick away, little one," he said, seating
himsoll on a flat gray rook near her feet,
and talking on. ' I ain't sayin' Mis' Op -
dike hasn't done right by you and brag
you upwell. But you're a young woman
now, and Lord knows we're never young
but once in this world."
Zilpah's fears were somewhat subsided,
but her heart still knocked laud in her fiat
breast under the bod•eurtain gown. She
looked into Luther Boggs' face from under
• hor sunbonnet. Never within her remora.
bream had she looked into a human Moo
which expressed, as his did, at this moment,
gentle approval, recognition of hor value,
and above ell, a shy hope that rho—Mrs.
Opdike's bound girl—might return the com-
mendation with whioh he honored her.
" We're never young bub once," repeat-
ed Luther Boggs with a sigh, "and 0o wo
ought to make the best of our youth. It
shquldn'b bo all work --as yours is Zilly.
We ought to get a little pleasure as we go
along, Now, don't you suppose,"he eon-
tinuod a little awkwardly, that Mis' Op -
dike would lot you off onoo in a while for e
arteruoon'£ yon had a chance to take a lit•
tie pleasure?"
Zilpah's young heart was going through
with it firsb tumult. What slid Luther
Rages mean 1 What lead ho meant by all
the kind words and thoughtful nitric acre
toward hor daring tide hay tame? Neer an.
other human beiei,g, man, woman or child
had made her of the slightest °miscellanea
in her seventeen years of life before Luther
Beggs. Whitt did he mean? She drooped
her oyes on the huckleberry bushes Which
she mechanically stripped of their fruit as
she listened.
"T.hey aiWays take me to the fair" she
said, instinctively resenting the man's pity,
sweet as it was,
"Yos, I know, But—now--aoon's the
grass is out,I shan't have no work to spook
of till oats is ready. Sposin' 001110 day when
I'm
hitched up to go to Mayville, I should
come atter you to go along. You, see I have
to take Sissy when I go to Mayville, and I
ooukl just as well oarry;you, too, and mobbo
yoti'd like the drive, Sissy is six years old
now. She ain't a mite of trouble. 1 think
you and she would got along fust'rato to•
g
Otho "
Zilntth was calming rho tumult of her
thoughts with the mmigihty eifoet which the
most uneophisbieeted woman is minable of
Malting. ,She looped silently at Baggs, and
II In hsneet eyes and homely fwaturen, and
above ell, hia perauasive air ransomed her.
aha furtively noticed his tinn,enned elo1h00
ids shirt fastoned together with etrings, Iris
torn straw hat 'thnilgitt hove hem saved
by n few timely otibohes. Sho remembered
having heard 11.10' Opdikn wonder " how-
ever that lone, leen man got on keepin'
house for himself and itis little gal ?" Site
felt for a moment a sense of ou priority, a
recognition of her power to be of use to this
man who was 00 kind and civil to her. Then
11 oomo over her—who she wee. Luther
Baggs' wife had been n Mayville girl, the
daughter of very rospeotablo people. A
sense of utter humiliation swept through
Zilpah's soul.
"I ain't goG no clothes fit to ride through
Mayville in Mr. Beggs," she said, flushing
and trying to swallow the Balt tears,
Her pint cup wee filled with the round
blue -buck barrios. She rose, Her com-
panion rose also. His homely foes glowed
with satisfaction, and his oyes looked long.
ingly into the thin reef face within the green
sunbonnet
"Poe got nineteen acres paid for, and a
]rouse and a horse and a cow, an' Int good
for all the days' work 1 kin get. What I
want is a lovin' little woman—like you,
Zilly—to keep things sort of comfortable
indoor, and to bo there to mast me when I
come home."
Sho was scuffling along in her big shoes
ahead of him. In a moment their ways
would part. She would go home by the
road, and he would return to the meadow.
Site dare not look at him—though sihe long.
ed to. She could not speak, though she
thought he wouldn't like her not saying a
word.
'Just keep thinkin' about that ride to
Mayville, Zilly, an' let me know," he said,
as they reached the point where they must
part,
Teen Zilpah found her tongue at last.
"I ain't good enough to ride to Mayville
with you, Mr. Baggs, an'—she'd never let
me, nohow."
"Would you go if she'd let you," he ask-
ed.
"I—I—guess so," said Zilpah, in alarm.
"Then look hero, Zilly"—they stood under
a juniper tree whose sparse shadow lay
along the stony pasture—"'I'm the man
that'll take you, said Luther Baggs.
Zilpah hastened homeward. Was the sun
hot ? She did not fool it. She had had her
revelation wi't'hin this brief hot half hour.
She also was "real." A real woman to be
oared for and desired, to be of uso, of value;
to rale the housework in a home of hor own;
to hove a husband to love and to wait upon;
that is, to got married like other girls.
She walked along the dusty roadside as if
she was walking on crystal pavements.
Sho wondered if she could not do her short
straw.colored hair in a ovist, and stink a
aonnb in it. She resolved that anyway Mre.
Opdike should not cut ib off again.
It was not until Sunday afternoon that
Zilpah got a chance to essay the desired
twist of her straw-colored hair. Mr. and
Mrs. Opdike went to morning meeting, and
Zilpah to Sabbath school in the afternoon.
Mrs. Opdike had written and mailed a
note in response to an advertisemene for
summer board, and in tho quiet of rho Sab•
bath afternoon she was talking over ways
and means with her husband.
" I ealsulabo," said Mrs Opdike, " that
'ceptin'the butcher's meat, and sugar, and
flour, and such, it'll be about dear profit.
Zilpah's turned mighty handy this last
year, and if she and I con's make le go for a
month 'shout killin' ourselves, why, its a
pity."
y"
At that point Luther Baggs entered the
gate. The Opdikee watched hie approtwh
with some sunrise, having no suspicion of
the object of his call. 1{e did not leave
them long in suspense.
" You've been good neighbors to me," ho
said, addressing the husband and wife, " all
along the last two years, and I don't wont
to do an nnneighborly act by you. So I've
come this afternoon to put my meaning
plain, and not to be behavin' like n snake
in therass or anything of that sort."
The Opdikos, a large, portly pair, looked
with increasing surpriseat their ulster, who
woro the black suit purchased for his wife's
funeral two years before, a bright bluoneck-
tio, rod stockings, and a new straw hat.
"I want to marry your Zilly, Mis' Op.
dike. That's what I carne to say. I can
give her a comfortable home, and I'll take
good acre o' her."
The words fell like bombs, A moment's
silence ensued.
"Have you spoken to Zilpah?" Mrs. Op•
dike asked at length, in chilling tones.
"1 can't say I have, and I can't say I
haven't, 'lf your willing, I hope she'll be.
You loin's got nothing against me, neigh-
bor Opdike?" looking to Silas, and rather
abashed for 1110 frigid reception of his
snit.
Termer Opdike cleared his big throes.
No, Luther, I hai0 t got aothin' &gin you,
ns I know on, but Zilly's my wife's notion.
You'll have to hear her say about Zilly."
Mrs. Opdike had regained her presence of
mind.
"I don'b wonder you felt as if you were
sneakin' in where ,you'd no right, Luther
Baggs," she said with asperity. " Zilly is
bound to me till she is twenty-one, Her
services belong to me in return for what
I've dono for her. After all the bother and
cost of hor bringing up, you don't suppose
that I'll give her away just as she's getting
useful."
"She's always been useful, Mis' Opdike.
She's paid her way, and yon eau't deny it.
Site's young, an' you ain't givin' her none o'
the pleasures of youth. She's a tender 1 ittlo
thing, an' nobody round hero cares for her
110 more'n than they do for a cab. I've seen
lb, au' my heart's ached for hor—"
Mrs. Opdike rose from her rocking-ohair,
quite =jostle in tho skive of hor Sunday
gown worn with a white ground cambric
saoque.
"Look here, Luther," she said, " I won't
hoar no more o' that. No one can say I
haven't done fair by Zilpah. it's natural
you should wane a wife, but you needn't
oomo oourtin' here. Zilpah's bound to me
to three years and Dight menthe, and for
throe yeero and eight months here she'll
stay, Now, no suenkin' round, mind, Silas
anti mo we're her legal t;mtrdeels, and we'll
tape the law to you if persuasion dooan't
work."
Silas Opt'iko walked dove the path to
the gate with his Snuday guest, In wished
Luther iiaggs' love tarok could have been
postponed till atm he was through with
his horee.reko,
"There's other girls in rho village who'll
mento good wives, Luther. Don't take
this to heart. Zilly rho ain't very much
for looks--"
"She's goocl—as gold," said Baggs, "ash'
I like hor,"
"But you sop WO can lmuld her till who's of
ego."
"I dunno 'bout that—I'm going to goo
about it," said Boggs. He stood moodily
loaning on the gate, "I'ut porn," ho wont
on, tolable porn. I haven't had vary good
luck, brit I'm wtllin'to work—'in wijdtt' to
work for you as a see ate Zilly's services
—if that would suit."
Stipa Opdika pp1 hi$ thumbs through his
suopondoreneea his waistband, "Yen Boo
THE BRUSSELS POST. 3
s,0 how it's for her to say, Luther," indicate
ing Mre, Opldike who stood in the doorway
with 0 look on her face malez whioli her
husband's sympathies for the lovers 000lod,
I3agge e'ant on without redly, 'and Op•
dike rammed to the doorstop.
Preoontly they saw Zilpah returning
homeward. She carried her head up, and
there was a look of exnoctanay on her Moo,
but it vanished as she perceived the farmer
and Ida wife were alone.
Nob a word was acid abont Luther Beggs,
neither than nor afterwards,. 'Zilpah
thought a good deal about the ride to May-
ville, and practiced at twisting up her hair,
but and
did not oomo either with his
horse -rake to work, or in hia buggy to take
her to drive. During the days which fol-
lowed she bad time to recall every little
look and word of kindness he had given her,
to indulge in an innocentsolf-satisfaction �
the thought that oho had found favor in a
man's eyes, and to dream of herself n0 mitre
tress of a hone—a tired, overworked little
woman of course, but mistrese of her pots
and pans, with a eitting-room of her own,
and no longer called Zilly—a name peculiar
in the community to herself, and regarded
as one of her afflictions.
One day, in going through the pasture
whore Baggs had set the huckleberry
bushes, she pinked up a withered bough
whioh my where it hod fallen from her
hand on that memorable morning, and hid
it in her bosom with furious blushes ; and
when she undressed that night she laid the
poor curled lea' es within the pages of her
hymn -book.
' I don't see but you'll have to go to the
post -office, 'Lilly," Mre. Opdike said ono
afternoon. "The men are too busy, and
I've got to know today whether the folks
are Donning in the morning or no."
So Zilpah started on her errand about
five o'olodc in the afternoon.
On the outskirts of the village ole was
overtaken by Luther Bagga
"I've watched and 'potshot! for ye, Zilly.
I began to think she wouldn't let you out
no more," he said.
"1 didn't know as you wanted to see
mo," Zilpah answered.
Her countenance showed pleasure. She
had taken off her sunbonnet after leaving
the village, and it hung on her areal. Her
straw-colored hair was growing out, and
the air of assurance she took on in Luther's
company gave her an unwonted comeliness.
"Yes, 1 wanted to see ye," Baggs said.
"Did she ever toll ye 'bout my call?"
Zilpah shook her head.
"I didn't b'lieve she'd tell ye, Zilly.
She's got a legal right but I don't believe
she's got a moral right to hold you."
And then Beggs related his interview
with the farmer and his wife, including
his proposal to marry Zilpah and to conn-
peneato them for the loss of her services.
The girl's Moe was red and white by
turns as she listened. The thoughts and
hopes which she had treasured in hor secret
soul shone out of her eyes. She had grown
accustomed to the idea of being wooed, and
Luther's wooing no longer frightened and
distressed her. It pleased her. Site liked
him. She lilted the idea of going to live in
his poor home, and of taking care of his lit.
ale girl, and of mending his clothes and
choking his steals. She did not think he
was homely; and ae for him, he thought Zil-
pah's little pale, reddened face and shining
eyes and panting breast the most charming
and delightful objects he had ever looked
upon.
"Now, '.illy, I'll tell you what," he went
on. "I want you to marry me, and then
let Mis' Opelika help ]herself as she can."
"Ob, she'd never let me—nover."
'I don't 1nean for you to ask her. I
mean for you to run off with me to where
hve could get spliced, and you know whose -
over God has joined, man can't put asunder.
I've hung around hoping to meet you, and
it seemed as though I never should. Now
I've met you, and this is our chance.' It's
only two miles to the watering station, and
there we oan gat a train. This evenin', or
tomorrow mornin' sore, we'll find a parson
to marry us, and then let Ms' Opdike laugh
on the other aide of her face."
But Zilpah looked very grave. "I'm oar-
ryin' home the letter site's waibin' for—and
the extract. She can't snake the seed cake
'thought the extract."
"Yon'vo waited her pleasure lots o'
times, little one. Let her wait yours now.
I ain't a ettyin' I an a saint, but I'll do a
sight better by you than IYIis' Opdike over
did—come Zilpah—we're wastin'time stand•
in' here."
"I couldn't go nowhere in these clothes,
Mr. Baggs. They're just my oldest
olothes, '001100 we've had a sight of work
to do to.day on account of the company."
Then Luther Baggs took a wallet from
his pocket, and disclosed to Zilpah's as-
tonished eyes a roll of bills.
" I've boon sollin' off my things," ho
said. " 1've sokl my cow and my horse
and my rake, I ain't a goin' to stay
around here oftor we're married, an' have
folks epeakin' about how you wee Mis'
Opdike's bond girl. I've put, Sissy to
board with ]tor grandma over in Mayville
for the time beteg, and yon an' I'll go an'
settle somewhere where wo can got a fair
stent. I ain't &feared. I can shoe horses
and carpenter a little, an' do any Bort of
farm work, an' you are as smart as a but-
ton to work, I seed what yon were all
through Silas O?cliko'shnyin', Wo'llmake
a fresh start, an we'll gob on in the world,
too, ploasin' Providence. Won't you like
that better n beim ordered round and made
110 110000111 in ,1'd[s Opdiko's kitchen?"
The salt was sinking. The summer wood
was bathed in rosy light. Luther Boggs
hold out his hand to the girl.
"Pub iyour pore little paw in miue, Zilly,
and you 11 mover repoub what you've clone."
She looked at him pleadingly. "She
Meng me up, Mr. Beggs, Hainb rho got
a right to mo on that amount?"
"Marry mo, Zilly," he equivocated, "an'
then I'll have a right to you."
He took hold of her hand to lead her back
along the road they wenn slowly following.
'i don't want to do nothing wrong, lir.
Beggs I 'Pears as if that wouldn't bo a good
way to begin. No, I most go home
now, an' carry the extrmm'. An'—in the
fail—alis' Opelika don't have eo muoh work
in the fall—in the fall, or in tho winter,
maybe, she'll be wining. Would you mind
waitin' till lioo, Mr. Boggs 1'
Zilly, sho'll never be willin'—nob till
you're twonty-Duo, She said so, an' she'll
01and to it."
Zilpah's face was turned up to alto rosy
sky, Her lips trembled lovingly and her
blue eyes eboone.
"'Pears as if we could Wait till wo was
sura it was right," she acid, humbly,
The uplift of hor feelings communicatect
itsnif to her hv0001% Ho took her in his
arms and kissed her gently.
" I won't do uothing contrary to what
you want, Zilly, for you're jceb an eu el'f
over more was Ono in a calico droos welkin
along the turnpike."
Sho smiled as he set her down. "We'll
wait till Alia' Opdilre's willin'—that'll bo
best?" she said interrogatively.
Luther Boggs noel od. "I guess you
know what's tight moro'n moan ollte, Ito
earl ; and then Zilpah quickened Icor scope
ab the sound of an approaoltieg team,
The seasons came and went, seed -tints
anti harvest, the long windless autumns,
the long 800110y winters, and Luther Bagge
came 110 more. Zilpah reached her twenty-
first birthday. Site thought Luther would
conte then mealy, but he did not. She was
not much changed. Perhaps what change
there was 1100 in the way of improvement,
Mrs, Opdfko had failed in health within
these few years, She woe very dependent
on Zilpah, and so when her majority was
retched 1110 farmer and his wife consulted
together, and offered to Zilpah to tamale
with them as a daughter, end inherit the
faint in return for oaring for their declining
years. "And Zilpah accepted, and so
bound herself again."
One autumn Mee. Opdike, who had been
for some months confined to her bed, died.
Zilpah was now twenty-five, Sho was very
oapable, and managed the housework as
well as her mietrosa had managed it before
her. hive more years wont by, and Zilpah
was thirty,
harmer Opdike came in from the hayfield
ono noontime overcome by the heat, and a
u oak later he was carried through the open
door, past the ayringabushes to the cemetery
and laid beside his wife. When the will
was opened, it was found thab everything
he possessed was left to his "adopted
daughter, Zilpah Opdike, "
So many years have passed, and ono eve-
ning Zilpah stood at her gate watching for
the return of the manned woman who lived
with her as help, from their weekly trip
to Ivlsyville.
" Le, sakes, Mis' Opdike, but we've had
a scare, " the woman begun, as she clumsily
dimension from the wagon in which the
farm products had been carried to Mayville
market. " They've got a case o' smallpox
in Mayville."
" Who insick?" Zilpah inquired, receiv-
ing it haskeb and an empty firkin.
' Why, Jenny Baggs—old Mrs. Nelson's
granddaughter. The poor thing wont off
to the city to learn dressmaking, and came
home sick ; and there elle lies with nobody
but that old woman to tend her. The house
is quarantined, and the neighbors jist soar-
ed out, of their senses. And from what I
heard they're pretty poor off withal. "
The woman bustled on into rho house,
and Zilpah stood thinking—thinking--
thinking.
Early next morning site had the horse
hardessed, a basket of provisions put fn the
wagon, and a valiao packed,
" I'm going to Mayville. If I find that
Jenny Beggs needs help, I ahall stay and
nurse her. I'd rather you shouldn't tell
anybody whore I've gone, " Was the word
she left.
ahem clays afterwards the summer morn-
ing was breaking in a chamber of death.
Jenny Beggs was breathing her last. Her
grandmother sat by the bedside, and Zilpah
stood in the open window drinking in the
sweet, damp air, hearing the twitter of the
birds. Through the faint light she saw a
figure appproaching—the short, spread
figure of a small noon. Her heart choked
her for a second.
" Jenny, your pa's coming," she said.
Tho taco of the siolr girl lighted. She
understood.
1 wanted to tell him how it wasn't his
fault that I went away to work and caught
the sickness. Ho's been good to ane—al-
ways good to Isle and grandma," she mur-
mured.
" Como in, Luther," said the old woman,
in a whisper at the door. " She's livin',
an' thab's all, and Zilpah Opdike you know
is here taking caro of her. She's staid with
me right through,"
Some weeks later Luther Baggs and Zilpah
talked over their post together.
"I strove along for three years," said
the man, "always meaain' to Dome back
when your time was up, I wasn't very pros-
perous. But all the same I allowed to come
when you was of age. And I diel come.
I was in the village. An' there I heard
the talk 'boot your bein' adopted and in-
heritin' the farm, and I sez to myself ' I
mustn't ;tan' in 'Lilly's way.' So I went off.
It kinder took the heart out o' ate. I ain't
amounted to much since. Poor little Jenny,
site thought she would try to help herself,
seeing I was so down, and she went off to
Tarn dressmaking, and so got her death
I ain't of much account, Zilly. I don't
mean to ask yon to marry a poor coot
like me now. It's all different betwixt its
as to what it was once."
They were in the sitting -room of Zilpah';
home. She opened a book that lay on the
table by which she eat. It was a hymn-
book, and between the pages were some
withered sprigs of huckleberry boughs,
"Luther, ' she said, "do you remember
outtin' the huckleberry bushes for me that
hot mornin' in the hayfield eo long ago ? I
ain't never forgot it, nor the things you
said. I shall never forget it."
"Zilly, you don't mean that you cared
that much about mo all this while 1 Yon
don't mean that you'd be willing to marry
me now?"
"Yes," reddening to her eyelids again,
reddening even under the twist of her thin,
straw-colored hair, "yes, Luther, I mean
it."
"There's Grandma Nelson to bo took
care of. She's got nobody but me to look
to," lie said, with hesitation.
"There's plenty of room here," eaid
Zilpah. "I'm all alone, and sometimes I'm
1011esonme,
Luther Boggs wiped his oyes with his
cotton handkerchief.
"',illy," he said, a little foolishly, "you
won't mind my letting on how—how much
I think of you." He put Isle arms armed
her, and kissed her, and then wined his
oyes again. "It seems too good to lie true,"
he said, touching the crumbling leaves of
the httokleberry bushes as they ]ay between
the pages of rho open book.
durions Aooident at a Japanese Temple.
FAMOUS OLIPPER SKIPS.
uvrlfleet Patentees on ete10111,
A number' of interesting partioul urs have
been given regarding the clipper ships,
which were better known years ago than
they are now, It is to the China trade that
we must look for the 11011105 of many of the
most famous tailing P.111pe the world has eve'
seen. The tea clippers, partcularly be-
tween the yoara 1860 and 1870, just before
they were eepplant0d by 'Motu, were e.fleet
01 which tine ntaritbne natlun justly had
reason to be proud, Seldom rising to a
Mardian of above one thousand taus, they
wore the most beautiful and synunotrioal
models that ever floated—keen as a knife
below aha water'lino, yet welling- graceful-
ly into proportions good for stability ; rig.
god to a loftiness that would stunt by com-
parison the four.masted loviotbans of the
present day, and offering such a picture as
they burst through the surges under the
;oaring heights of their flying kites as one
might now scour the oceans in vain search
for.
The first ship to boat the record between
Poo -:boo -foo and the Thames was the Loin
of rho Iolea, an Aberdeen clipper, command-
ed by Captain Maxton. She took part in
the celebrated race home of 1856, and al-
though two of the most notorious American
ehlpa of the period were running against
her, both of nearly double her tonnage, she
arrived in the Thames severed days before
either of them, and discharged her cargo in
an almost spotless oondittou. Tide was
reckoned a greet feat et the time, for the
American ships, which worn always more
lightly built than our own, and of soft
wood fur the moat part, frequently leaked
owing to the working of their frames caused
by heavy "cracking on," and often came in
with tons upon tons of tea ruined by salt
water.
Iu 1863 there was launched from the yard
of Messrs. Steele, otGreenock, a little vessel
of 886 tuns register, which proved to be the
fastest ship that down to this 1im0 had ever
sailed the seas. She was named the Sir
Lancelot, and so remarkable were her
nohievements that a description of some
little fulness may prove interesting. Her
length was a trifle above 10711, her breadth
33ft lin, and the depth of her hold 27f1.
She was what is called a composite -built
ship; that is to say, her framework was of
iron, and her sheathing of wood. The one
idea in the construction of this vessel was
speed—everything likely to result in the
attainment of tars was aimed at. Before
the copper was put 011 to her bottom, her
planks from the waterline cdmvewards wore
planed off and the hard teak rendered 00
smooth as a ball -room floor. Lr order to
give the stability, and enable her to carry
her immensely long masts, newly 100 ton
of iron pigs or "kentledge" was fitted into
the opon spaces along rho keelson between
her frames. That she needed some such
deadweight as this to keop her steady may
well be supposed when it is stated that, in
racing trim and under all sail, the Sir Lance-
lot spread upwards of 40,600 squaro feet of
canvas—perhaps the greatest area which
WAS ever shown by any full rigged ship. To
her belongs the honor of having accomplish.
ed the swiftest passage on record of any
sailing vessel between China, and England.
There are no finer clipper ships afloat at
the present day than those running in the
wool trade between Australia and Great
Britain. Here, as in the China traffic, where
they first won their fame, the Aberdeen
clippers still maintain their reputation as
tho swiftest sailing vessels on this passage.
The waters of Sydney Bay or Melbourne
Harbour have never, indoors, reflected forms
of more perfect grace and symmetry than
those of the green -hulled craft, with their
arching ant -waters, moulded elliptical sterns,
and white painted masts, yards, and bow-
sprits, whioh ply under the familiar house
flag of the original " White Star" line. The
Patriarch in 1866 accomplished the quick-
est passage that has ever been made between
Sydney and London, namely, 68 days from
the Heads to the West India Docks.
Ono of the swiftest, though not by any
means one of the largest, of the modern
school of iron clippers is the four -masted
barque Looh Torridon, built on the Clyde fn
1880. Lour -masted ehlps were then compara-
tively few and far between, and anything
above 2000 tons register was looked upon as
quite exceptional for a sailing vessel. This
is exactly the tonnage of the Loch Torridon.
She is perhaps one of the most graceful and
elegant models ever launched from the
Glasgow yards. The smartest passage of
the year 1890, from Liverpool to Caloutta,
was accomplished by the Simla, on that
ship's maiden voyage. Site was towed out
of the Mersey on the 11th of April, but
owing to the state of the weather she d td not.
get a fair store under canvas until the 14th.
Go tho two following days strong 'tender-
ing breezes, rising at times to a moderato
gale, were experienced, and on theRith the
ship ran 223 knots. She crossed the Line
on the 411 of May, 25 days out. Tkis, so
far, was very gond sailing. The greatest
day's work 1150 ,nada upon the 28th of the
same month, when, with the wind abaft the
beam and three topgallant sails and the
spanker set, she ran 202 nentical miles in 24
hours. On the filth ofJuly theSandheads were
sighted, and the Simla entered theHooghly
nee a passage of 88 days from Livorpoo 1.
Thorn is a great deal said from time to
time about tine deolino of the sailing ship,
and the near prospect of her total disap-
pearance on the sena But in point of fact
thorn never were such a large number of
fine sailing vessels, both afloat and building
as tate British merchant aervioe boats to-
day, As the colonies thrive and increase
—for with them our chief ocean intercourse
lies—so roust the demand for shipping nec-
essarily become greater, and there will
always exist many branches of commerce
in which sailing ships may be far more
profitably employed than steamers, New
Zealand annually gives work to every large
fleet of clippers, outside the regular liners
in carrying aha frozen carcases of sheep to
the European markets ; the wheat trade of
California employs every season many
thousand tots of shipping ; rho wool exports
from Australia, the jute tral0o of India,
unci the slowly expanding industries of the
South American seaboards, aro all trades
which still give aero work to sail titan to
0toanl. The sailing ship will never again
carry postmen, but so long as coal at ea
omega of .111 per too remains a condition
of the employment of the steamer, so long
Is the clipper ship likely to go on flourioh-
ng.
News from Japan makes mention of an
extraordinary accident which occurred at
ono of the neat popular temples in the vicin-
ity of Kobe, in which five people lost their
lives and many others wore seriously injer'
err, Tho scone of the accident was M aij&san,
or the. Moon Temple, situated at tate top of
a high hill The temple itself le approach-
ed by a magnificent flight of 250 stone
steps, and is much frequented at certain
portions of tho year, the celebrations, as the
title implies, baking place at night. At a
rodent ceremonial, whon the erowd of pil-
g�rime was more than ordinarily largo, a
devotee runner the influence of rice wino lost
Ins footing at the top of the flight, and fell
headlong to the bottom, Owing to the en.
even and '010111 condition of the sten mothers
losb their footing, and a oompaot 111058 of
thirty people rolloel down in the train of the
drunken man, Of those, five wore found t0
bo dead. Two had fallen over the preeipiee
at the side of the steps, and the romainder
had broken arms and legs. Among the
hills and far from all assistanoc,thoir suffer
ings throughout the night were toted bio,
A ludo girl in Buokloy, Washington,
aged fourteen, committed suicide ruttier
hnu 011011cl l , stool.
An unroflooting Bostonian advertises
"1lum&n hair ab lose thou nn,tnulaoturor's
prices."
s,6„,0,4u,0113ay...,16,.. ,iLUMWMP,
PEARLS OF TBUTII.
Write it on your heart that every day is
the beet day in the year. No man has learn.
c"1 anything rightly until ha knows that
every day is doontaday,—(Ernereon.
Clmtversalion is the daughter of reasoning,
the inotho' of knowledge, the breath of the
soul, the commerce of boons, the bond of
friendship and l he nourishment of content;
Nothing to to be compared for value with
goodness; rlclue+, lemur, power, pleasure,
horning, the whale world and all in 1t, are
not won tit having in comparison with being
good.
When the hour of dealt comes—that
cones to high and low alike—then it's ins
what we hoe dune for ourselves, but what
we Into dune for others, that we think on
moist pleasantly: --[Sir Walter Scott.
A. man who can give up dreaming and go
to his tinily realities, who can smother
down his heart, its love or woe, and lake to
the work of his hand and defy fate and, if
be roust die, dies fighting to the host—that
man is life's best hero.
We ought to have room for enthusiasts,
even if they violate every rule of grammor.
A grand, blundering, hammering, thunder-
ing, whole -hearted 13oanerges is worth a:
regiment of very prim, reverend gentlemen,
meek as milk•and-water, and soft as boiled
pa'omps.
Our boys and girls should be educated ria
the history of our country, political science,
doctrines of good government, and the doe -
trine and spirit of the Constitution of the
United States. Then when they reach man-
hood and womanhood they may meet those
principles in exalted oitizenahip.-[Rev. Dr.
Lorimer.
Constant laughter is not cheerfulness ; it
is more likely to be the expression of folly.
Send us hence a thousand miles from n face
always parading itself in smiles and giggling.
Anybody can laugh ; bu1 to look bright,
with all the muscles at rest, betokens a glad
acceptance of life and all its dotes—a habit
of taking things at their beet and making
tine hest of them.
None can have thought much without
aotieing how soon we reach the limit of our
knowledge of each other ; the true history
of no human being is cleoipholablo to his
neighbor • even love, which is intuition, can
not penetrate the strange reserve in which
we each walk wrapped. Is there not here
an argument for greater calmness, less
haste, less certainty in condemning one an-
other?
Sorrow is not an accident, occurring now
end then, says Robertson. It is the woof
which is woven into tho warp of life, and
he who has not discerned the divine sacred—
'mos of sorrow, and the profound meaning'
which is concealed in pain, has yet to learn
what life is. The cross, manifested as the
necessity of the highest life, alone inter-
prets it.
PIR 30TES DEOAPI 1'AT N II .
Justice Overtakes the Murderers Who
Petsv Dell ,t Veldt Cn thew .
.News has been received by the China
steamer of the execution at Manila of the
Rodrigue brothers, the pirates who seized
the Tahiti King's yacht, and then poisoned
thesevnn members of the native crew and.
fed their bodies to the sharks. Miss L. J.
Wyckoff, a medical missionary of Singes
pore, brings the details.
The brothers left only Moloi, the native
cook, alive on the yacht. They had him put
strychnine in the crew's food, and then tell-
ing him he would be hanged if he be-
trayed them, they promised him a share of
the 520,000 whioh the yacht was worth. Alt
Manila the brothers went on a debauch,
but they refused money to llnloi, so in re-
venge he told ifs story to the Captain of a
Spanish gunboat in the harbor.
All three were tried and convicted, Moloi
sealing his own fate, by his desperate ef-
forts to secure theconviution of the pirates..
The three condemned men were taken•
to the execution grounds, near Manila, and1
their heads were chopped off by the sword.
The native cook begged for mercy until the,
executioner grew angry and bit him in the•
face, but the two brothers betrayed no eon -
cern and made a full confession during the -
trial, and added some new details to the re-
markable story.
The Rodrigue brothers escaped from the•.
New Caledonia penal colony several years
ago, worked in the Kimberley diamond
mines, and then went t0 Tahiti. It was
there that they planned and carried out the
theft of the King'syaeht. The cook assert-
ed that he was forced by the fear of death
1 o put strychnine in the food which he had
prepared for the crew. When he had dosed
the crew with poison tine two brothers shot
the white Captain and supercargo. Then
they went on dock, and amused themselves
watching tho dying agonies of the poison-
ed men. When one victim in fearful suffer'
ing would torn over on his Moe the pirates
would turn nein back with their feet, so
that they should not miss the agony in his
face. Then the gook was forced to help the
brothers throw the bodies to the sharks
that followed the vessel, as if they knew
by instinct that ninrder had beton done, and
they wonldgeb a feast. One of the natives
was still writhing in convulsions when his
body was tossed to the sharks, and the two
brothers laughed loudly over the ghastly
spectacle of the sharks closing in and de-
vouring their wretched viotim,
The men were both well educated, and
spoke many South Sea dialects. An effort
was made by the Tahitian King to recover
his yaoht, but thus far it lona been fruitless,
Part of Hie Apparel.
An American landing at Liverpool was
asked by a Customs inspector if bo had any
tot ecao, spirits, or °thee dutiable artiols iu
his trunk.
Ho assured the officer loo had nothing ex-
cept his own wearing apparel, bat search
disclosed a dozen pint betties of brandy.
Tho officer min 1 "1 thonght you had
only wearing apparel—what do yon call
theso 1 ”
"Those ?" said the traveller t "those aro
any nightcap'."
Deratnr, 7Xioh„ 1100 six peppermint die-
billorios,
Eyesight of Birds,
When telegraph wires were first put up
lumbers of btrde were found lying dead be-
neath then, and were eupposed by those
who did not understand eleotrmamty to have
mean struck dead by an eleetrio current
which passed through their bodies while
they were peddling on the wires, The fact
'0 they were killed by striking the wires
and not by electricity, which could not pees
through the body of a perolttug bird.
It is worth uottoing that at the present
clay birds aro hardly ever killed by similar
accidents, they having learned to look owe
for posts and wires as well as foe -home and
bratohos. .In ordar, therefore, to permit a
bird to espy dangerous objects in time to
avoid them, its eyes must bo"long•sighted."
In point of fact, ninny birds which need to
detect small objects at a distance leave eyes
whioh are equal to good telescopes. Sash,
for example, aro those of the vultures, who,
w11011 soarohing for food, ascend to such a
height in tho air that they ore stormily dis-
tingnishable..bion this immense elevation
they 1011 auevey a vast range of country, an
if an animal should bo dead, or oven dyingg,.
it is sure to be doteatedby antihero, which
instantly swoops down upon it.
Berlin has an "Association of Married
Women for the Control of .13uabends,"
A Stradivarius violin, recently sold hi
Stuttgart, aomtnauded an'unprecedented
price -42,00O3