Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1828-08-18

whole One is forced to ask if it be boy or
girl: for these hardy country rogues are all a.
like, open eyed, and ~eather-stsined. and noun
inp fearing. There is no more mark OF sex III
the countenance Than in the dress.
In the next stage, dirt encrusted enough u
pass for the chrysalis if it were not so very un-
Quiet, the gender remains equally uncertain
1t is fine, stout, curly pated creature oil 'nree
or four, playing and rolling about, amongst
grass or mud all day long; shouting, jumping
screeching-the happiest compound OF NOISE
and idleness, rags and rebellion, that ever 'rou
the earth.
Then comes a sun-burnt gipsey OF SIX, De-
ginning to grow tall and Thin, and 10 lind me
cares of the world gathering about her; win
pitcher in one hand, mop in the other, an o'o
Straw bonnet of ambiguous shape, hall hiolns
her tangled hair; tal,ered stuff pettcoal, once
green. hanging below an equally 'attered COZ
ton frock, once purple, her longing eyes hxed
on eame Of baseball at the corner OF the green,
ill she reaches the cottage door, filings down
the mop and pitcher, and darts off to her cons
nanions. quite regardless OF the storm OF scoid-
inp with which the mother follows her runaway
steps.
So the world wags ill ten; then the little
damsel gets admission 20 the charity schoo's
and trips mincingy !hither every morning,
dressed in the old-fasnioned blue gown, and
white cap, and ,ippe', and bib and apron OF
that primitive institution, looking as demure
as Nun, and as tidy; her thoughts hxed on
button holes, and spelling books-those enslgns
of promotion; despising dirl and baseball, and
all their joys.
Then at twelve the little lass comes home a
gain, uncapped, untippeted, unschooled, brow"
as berry, wild as a colt, busy as bee-work>
ing in the fields, digging in the garden, frying
rashers, boiling potatoes, shelling beans aarn>
ing stockings, nursing children, eeding pigs;
all these employments varied by occasional MS
OF romping and filming, and idle play, accord
ing as the nascent coquelry, or the lurking
love Of sport, happens 10 preponcerate; merry
and pretty, and good with all her little iaults,
I, would be well if a country girl could stand
at thirteen. Then she is charming. But the
clock will move forward; and a, fourteen she
gets service in a neighboring town; and her
mex, appearance is in the perfection OF the but
,erily state, fluttering, gliuering, incons'ant,
vain; the gayes, and gaudlesl insect that ever
skinned over village green. And this is the
true progress OF ruslIc beauty, the average
lot Of our country girls; so they spring up,
! flourish, change aud disappear. Some indeed
Their set Of changes, rather more gradual, per-
haps, but quite as sure, till gray hairs, wrin-
! kIes, and liDsey -woolsey, wind up the picture.
| All this is beside the purpose II woman be
a muiable crea ure, man is not. The wearers
of ,mock frocks, ia spite o. the sameness OF
! the uniform, are almost as easily distinguish I'd
bv IN interested eye, as flock of sheep BY the
shcpherd, or a pack Of hounds by the hunts
man; or to come to les, affronting SMILES, the
msmbrs Of 'ss House Ga so%sms sey BY ths
change in them from early boyhood. "rhe
child is father the man" in more senses than
one. There is constancy about the m; they
keep The same faces however ug'y; the same
HABITS however strange; the same fashions how
ever uDfashionabe; they ore in nothing new
tangled. Tom Copper, for instance, man and
| boy, is and has beer addicted 10 posies, from
the first polyanlhus to the last China rose, he
has always a nosegay in his button hole; George
Simmons may be known mile off. by an eter
nal red waistLoat; Jcm Tanner, summer and
winter, by the smartest Of all smart straw hats;
and Joel Brent, from The day that he left off
peuicoats, has always. in every dress and every
situation looked like study for paintcr-no
mistaking him. Yes! know every man and
boy Of no.C in the parish, with one exception
starlles and waylays" me at every turn. do
not know, and l begin to fear that never shall
know Jack Hatch.
The first ,ime had OCCASION to hear Of this
worthy was ON most melancholy occurrence.
We have lost--I do not like to talk about it,
bu, cannot tell my story without--we have
lost a cricket match, Been beaten, and soundly
too, by the men Of Brech~hIll, neighboring
n3rish How this accident Hammered I canno,
very well tell; the melancholy lac, is sufficient.
The men Of Beech-hll, famous players, in
whose families cricket is an hereditary &C
CONG lishment. challenged and beat us. After
our defeat, we began 10 comfort ourselves by
endeayoring 10 discover how this misfortune
could possibly have befalen. Every one that
has ever had cold, must have experienced the
great consolation thar is derived from puzzling
out the particular act of imprudence from
which it sprang, and we, on the same principle,
found our affliction somewhat milIgated by the
endeavor to trace il to its source. One laid the
CATASTROPHE to the wind-s very common scape
-. a. II 4 4. 4