Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1836-08-12

little prehx TO The hundreds, and the OIL
being payed at the bankers without exam.
ming the words Of it,. The forgery was
dlscovered-brought home TO Rowland -
and though the greatest interest was used
to obtain a remission of the penalty, poor
Stephen Rowland was hanged Every
body pitied him; and nobody could tell why
he did it. He was no, poor; he was not
a gambler; he was not a Spectator; but
phrenology settled it. The organ Of &C.
quisitiveness was discovered in his head, af-
ter his execution, as large as a pigeons
egg. He could not help it.
1t would be injustice 10 the ten 10 say,
that even wine, friendship. aud a merry
season, could dispel the gloom which per
vaded this dinner. II was agreed before.
hand that they should not allude to the dis
tressing and melancholy theme and hav-
ing interdicted the only thing which really
occupied all their thoughts, the natural
consequence was, that silent contemplation
took the dismal discourse; and they sep.
arated long before midnight.
x X II Some fifteen years
had now glided away since the fate of poor
Rowland, and the ten remained but the
stealing hand Of Time had written sundry
changes in most leglble characters. Raven
locks had become grizzled-lwo or three
heads had not as many locks altogether as
may be reckoned in a walk of half q mile
along the Regents Canal-one was actual
ly covered with q brown wig-the crows
feet were visible in the corner of the eve
good old port and warm madeira carried it
against hook, cla.et, and burgundy, and
champaigne-stews, hashes, and ragouts.
grew into favour-crusts were rarely called
for to relish the cheese after dlnner-con
versa,ion was less boisterous. and it turned
chiefly upon politics and the state of the
funds, or landed property--apoIogies were
made for coming in thick shoes and warm
stockings the doors and windows were
more carefully provided with list and sand
bags--lhe fire more in request and q quiet
game of whist filled up the hours that were
wont to be devoted to drinking, singing.
and %riotous merriment. The rubbers, a
cup OF coffee, and at home by eleven o'clock,
was the usual cry, when the NTH or sixth
glass had gone round after the removal Of
the cloth. At parting, too, there was now
a long ceremony in the hall, buttoning up
great conts, tying on woollen comforters.
fixing silk handkerchiefs over the mouth
and up to the ears, and grasping sturdy
wa liking canes, to support unsteady feet.
Their fftieth anniversary came, and
death had indeed been busy. One had been
killed by the %overlurning Of the mail, in
which he had taken his place in order to
be present at the dinner, having purchased
an estate in Monmoulhshire, and retired
'hit her with his family. Another had I'M
dergone the terrific operation Of the stone,
and expired beneath ike knife-the third
had yielded up a broken spirit two years
after the loss of an only surviving and be
loved daughter--a fourth was carried off
N a few days by The cholera morbus-a
fifth had breathed his last the very morning
he obtained a judgement in his favor by the
Lord Chancellor, which had cost him his
last shilling nearly to get, and which after
a litigation OF eighteen years, declared him
The rightful possessor Of ten thousand a
year-ten minutes afterwards he was no
more. A sixth had persisted BY the hand
OF a midnight assassin, who broke into his
house for plumber, and sacrificed the owner
of it as he grasped convulsively a bundle
of E%xcheqner bills, which the robber was
drawing from beneath his pillow where he
knew they were every night placed for
better security.
iouI VI olu tbcu, vi "IlICItu dppeuT
ance and decrepid walk, with cracked vol
ces, and dim, rayless eyes, sat down, by the
mercy OF Heaven, las they themselves trem
ulousIy dcclared) to celebrate for the fitch
time the frs, day Of the year; to observe
the frolIc compact. which half a century
before they had entered into at the Star and
Garter at Richmond! Eight were in their
graves! Yet they chirped %cheerily over
their glass, though they could scarcely
carry il 10 their lips, it more than half full;
and cracked their jokes, though they arti-
culated their words with difficulty. and
heard each other with still greater Difficult
ty. They mumbled, they chartered, they
laughed,- ii a sort Of strange Wheeling
might be called a laugh and when the
wines sen, their icy blood in warmer pulse
through their veins they talked OF their
past as it were but a yesterday that had
slipped by them-and their future as if it
were a busy century that lay before them.
They were just the number for a quiet
rubber of whist and for three successive
years they sat down to one. The fourth
came and their rubber was played with an
open dummy a fifth, and whist was no
longer practicable tUo could play only at
cribbage, and crlbbage was the game. But
It was little more than the mockery of play.
Their palsied hands could hardly hold. or
their fading sight distinguish the cards,
while their torpid faculties made them doze
between each deal.
At length came the LAST dinner ; and
the survivor of the twelve upon whose head
four score and ten winters had showered
their snow ate his solitary meal. 1t so
CHANGED that it was in his house and at his
table they had celebrated the first. In his
cellar, too, had remained for eight and fifty
years.; the bottle they had uncorked, re.
corked and which he was then to uncork
again. II stood beside him. With a feeble
and reluctant, grasp hs took the 'frail me-
mortal of a youthful vow and for a moment
memory was faithful to her Office. She
threw open the long vista of buried years.
and his heart travelled through them ALL
Their lusly and blIthesome spring-lheir
bright and fervld summer, their ripe and
temperate autumn--their chill, but not too
frozen winter. He saw as in a mirror,
how one by ono, the laughing companions