The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-08 00:00:00

OUR SECOND SWEETHEART,

BE ELIZA COOL

(Front Eliza Cook's Journal).
Do not think, gentle reader, that we intend to indite a
book of revelations, touching all the wooers we have
had in our train : certainly not ? We shall betray no serious
feeling, and trespass upon no delicate ground. No
breach of faith shall be made in any way ; but as the
harmless truth of the portraiture of poor Ben Hewitt,
our" first sweetheart," appeared to give general satis-
faction, we are induced to believe that a few words re-
lative to Tom Ashton, our second devoted admirer, may
prove welcome to those who can smile over " simple
annals."

At the time of this " tender attachment," we were
living in the suburbs of London, and had just arrived at
what should be, and what really was with us, the gawky
rollicking age f twelve. We are perfectly aware that in
this fast age, young ladies of such a matured span begin to
have definite notions of bridal dresses, and learn to "con-
duct themselves with propriety ;" but we were brought up
in a different atmosphere. We had a mother who cared
much more for our principles and constitution, than for
our politeness and conventionalism, and we had the
constant fellowship of brothers, with whom we played,
quarrelled, 'and fought, on the broadest system of
"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," to say nothing of
our natural predilection for anything save " worsted
work," or "sitting up like a lady.' It must be admitted
that we were about as rude a specimen of primitive
Tomboyism as ever horrified a finishing governess. We
were " dreadfully uninformed," often tore our frocks and
trousers, and scorned a parasol ; but our spine was
perfectly straight, our disposition as frank as daylight,
and our mind untouched by the sentiment of French
novels. We were quite as innocent as when Ben Hewitt
lifted us up and kissed us, just as a life guardsman might
Tom Thumb ; and we had certainly lost nothing of the
audacity which had prompted us to empty Dame
Hewitt's jug of camomile tea and fill it with her best
October brewing instead. The four years which had
passed over our head had done little for it but deepen
the shade of its curls. Would to Heaven the darkening
shadows had always kept outside ! We had acquired
no accomplishments beyond a most crude notion of ex-
ercising our toes in Paine's First Set, and our fingers in
the Battle of Prague, and a pretty mess we often made
of both,—in short, we were as wild and wilful as any
scion of civilised humanity could be, and have often won-
dered since how we grew up into such a quiet reserved
adults as we proved.
At this time our brothers made acquaintance with
Tom Ashton—a small-limbed, dark-skinned, black-
' headed boy of about thirteen. He was the only child of
a corn-factor in the neighbourhood, had never known his
mother, and had been brought up between a very severe
aunt and a very indulgent- father. Tom held that ex-
treme degree of contempt for anything in petticoats
which we often see entertained by boys of that age, and
when he excluded us from "Catch-ball," refused to turn
the skipping-rope for us, and said we were not wanted
at "Hide and Seek," our amazement and indignation
were not slight. He impressed our brothers, too, and
they were becoming despotic in their adoption of the
Salic law. Tom evidently despised us. We bore his
abominable conduct as well and as long as we could, but
at last the crisis came. We were working in a strip of
ground, honoured by the name of garden, and with a
tool in our hand, known as "a dibber," were planting
scarlet beans. In came the boys, with Tom Ashton,
and of course we must "get out of the way" directly,
and let them finish the beans.
"There, be off," said Tom, " and give me that dibber."
" I shan't," was our emphatic and laconic reply.
"Yes you shall," said he, "for I want it directly,"
and he forthwith attempted to take it by force. We
resisted vigorously. At length he gave us, not exactly
"a blow," but something between a hard gripe and a
desperate "shove," which sent the blood of all the
Howards into our right arm ; and we have to record the
disgraceful fact of positively knocking him down with
the dibber, and that our brothers' cheered us lustily for
the feat. Tom got up, looking very crest fallen, tried to
cough, and said it was " only his fun ;" while we stood
over our yard and a half of beans with a face like a
crimson "passion flower," if there be such a thing, and
quite ready and willing to "fight it out," if necessary;
but Tom's masculine tyranny was crushed for ever;
whether it arose from admiration or fear of our courage,
we never questioned ; but certain it is, that he was in-
spired with a different feeling toward us from that
moment. He allowed us to bathe his temple, only beg-
ging that none of us would tell a word about the affray.
He wanted to shake hands and make it up ; and on the
instant we offered him the disputed dibber, the rest of
the beans, and a lot of sweet peas into the bargain.
Tom's nerves were rather too much astonished to allow
him to accept our generosity just then, but he came the
next morning, black eye and all, and while he set the
beans, we covered them with earth. Adam and Eve
could not have agreed better in Eden. He even insisted
on carrying the heavy watering-pot for us--an attention
which we soon after returned in the shape of a beautiful
new marble-bag. Torn never turned us out of any game
we could play at, after this incident ; and if we hap-
pened to be reading a fairy tale while the boys were at
leap-frog, he would suddenly leave them, and asked ii
we would read it "out loud" to him. Then Tom began
to give us ounces of "hardbake," wholesale portions of
peppermint, and as for parched peas, the amount de-
voured between us was unknown.
Within a short period, the annual vacation ball was
given at Tom's school, and we were among the invited.
During the preceding fortnight, Tom betrayed a strange
anxiety to learn a few steps, and actually asked his father
to let him join the dancing class, applying himself so suc-
cessfully that a quadrille ceased to be a mystery, and a
bow a disgraceful impossibility. We shall never forget
his asking us to be his partner in the first set, nor how he
stooped to tie our sandal, nor how he took a large slice
of cake with extra citron upon it apparently for himself,
and slily insisted on exchanging it for our sweetmeatless
piece, nor how he squeezed our hand at breaking up;
but then Tom had had a number of glasses of negus.
One day we admired a pair of primrose gloves on a
young gentleman, and when Tom next appeared he
sported a new pair of pale yellow kids, which har-
monised beautifully with a very school-boyish jacket and
trowsers, all grease and grub, and considerably whitened
at the wrists and knees. Then we fancied some white
mice, and Tom brought us a "darling" pair in a round-
about cage ; but as the perfume from these little ani-
mals affords no trace of rose or jasmine, an ejectment
of summary character was served on them by our
paternal guardian, to Tom's great vexation, and so
severely did he threaten the peace and well-being of the
ejector, that we trembled lest he should commit a per-
sonal and murderous assault on the head of the family ;
however, the mice were ensconced in Mr. Ashton's
corn-loft, and Tom was never so happy as when he
could persuade us to go there three times a day just to
see how they were getting on. We went on in this
fashion for two years, when matters become so serious on
Tom's part that he worried his father for a tailed coat,
and had the temerity to send us a valentine. It came
very early in the morning, and put a temporary stop to
the rapid consumption of a huge slice of bread and but-
ter. It consisted of a sheet of highly-glazed post, em-
bossed with pink, blue, and silver flowers of some
"genus" unknown, saving that they are generally seen
to grow in " fools' paradise." In the centre was a re-
markably plump Cupid, in ballet costume, flinging a
remarkably plump heart at a young lady with scarlet
roses and yellow shoes, and the perspective afforded a
miniature likeness of St. George's' Hanover-square, and
a sort of sage-green gooseberry bush with a couple of
doves perched thereon. Beneath the imposing emblems,
the following original lines were printed:—
Loved of my soul, this heart of mine
I give to thee—Oh give me thine;
But if thou wilt not deign to take it,
Thy cruel words I feel will break it;

and in an autograph P.S. was added, " your most de
voted admirer, T.A." We remember that many remarks
were made on the subject, which we could not fully under-
stand. We distinctly heard our parents declare that valen-
tines in general were very silly things, and that Tom's one
in particular was the silliest of the silly; and Mary in the
kitchen, to whom we confidentially showed it, said some-
thing about "Master Ashton being rich when he `groomed
up,' and being able to keep us a carriage if we'd like to
marry him by-and-by,"—both observations being swept
from our consideration by the announcement of "Punch
and Judy" being before the door. At this period, Tom
was placed out in the world at a merchant's office, and
we were taken into the rural shades of extreme Surrey,
where we grew and flourished along with the other weeds
and wild flowers. Tom had given us a " love of a work-
box" before we parted, and we had presented him with
a tiny silver snuff-box, of no earthly use to either ; but
people generally do make presents of what the recipients
least need. Tom had uttered many words of folly on the
strength of the valentine, and wanted us to promise
eternal love and fidelity ; our parents were too wise to
interfere in the matter, or possibly we might have
deemed our case a very important one, and obstinately
have fallen in love with Tom ; as it was, we only thought
it " a bit of fun." During the summer months, Tom
kept asking for undue holidays and got them (what a
premium his father must have paid), and catne down to
our cottage on the pretence of fishing. As autumn
came on he merged into a considerable dandy, began to
talkiin to
agrnelaitmh thedeal,
wild cherry-tree and whistley
whistled operatree fo
airs
us.
swhenAwt
lastaskede
Ehe
essuffi_icnifeenrtmlyatwieonmwabnileyb,
abnegdadnidton hintt
think
h enougha t
we
we could not quite fathom the meaning of, but which
nevertheless excited an inclination to box his ears. Then
w of eoruers not
e lv
he mentioned the charms of Miss Louisa Newton, his
master's niece, and implied that she was a very superior
young lady to what we were. She had such lovely black
hair in Grecian bands (ours was only eommon brown,
and strongly emulative of limp corkscrews), her skin was
eky it
was him
we d own
had
-
not vowed eternal fidelity ! How
like the spring snowdrop (ours was the tint of autumn
wheat), her eyes were a sparkling black (ours were sober
grey), she danced like a fairy, she sang like a syren
desto h
she talked like an angel, and*in short it was becomin,g'
th at Nis
isb N
b er. v
Hown
adlu knocked
quitewit h another evident
sortlucky that we become
perfectly indifferent about his attentions !
Little Dick Morley, the wheelwiight's so
ready to help us catch the pony, or go :l'was
always
blackberrying
with
us, and what did we want morel Tom was boasting one
day of how many times he had danced with
above-
named lady at the Polish ball, and how
she
the
ie had compli-
mented him on his white teeth, until
so upstairs we went and brought down we lost all patience ;
"Here, Tom," said we, "take backthitlie huge workbox :
s rubbishing thing,
again, for nobody wants you ;" and
Tomothering down here
for it's no use to us, and don't
come b
again, but was the devoted swain never did come
of Miss Newton for a
whole year. We met him four
years afterwards at a Chis
-
wick fete, with a very fair-haired young lady. A friend
told us that Tom was a ficklemontahss quicksilver,a and had a
fresh affection every few
heard withinanother year thathe months,
eg sured
taenosPugh wesh
girl ; however, he broke that off,, andngaavgeewourkboxaenisto
another daughter of Eve, and this is the way Tom wen