Madison Whig advocate. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1839-1841, 1839-10-26

matter Of prudence, If not Of necessity.
At the inquiry of every cIaiment for let
tiers g to be left till called for.r il was
Lu0y, therefore, who always unlocked
the little rude deal-box-about the size
and much in the shape of salt boy
which, ciumsily nailed against the wood
en- pane with slit in the shop window,
formed the whole material of the post
Office branch of the establishment.
| Many officers of the preventive-ser-
vice, although they had abundance Of
unemployed men to go to Mrs. Hawkins
shop in their stead, would call in every
morning TO ask for their letters and at
different hours of their idle day to re-
turn to purchase quarter of an ounce of
Scotch snuff, or something else Of which
they could have less use, such as row Of
pins, yard of tape, or reel of thread
In fact, it became evident that three OF
them were rivals for the smiles of Lucy
Hawkins.
Two of the three soon ensured to them
selves however any thing but her smiles.
For offences separately received at their
hands, she invariably left the shop when
ever they entered it and as Lucy's
conduct was not a mere show of female
anger, they absented themselves, and
gave up their unmanIy pursuit. The
third, whose visits were sill received,
was more seriously in love with Lucy
than either of his friends but, whether
from nicer sense of honor, or that the
fate of the others had taught him les
son, Lieutenant Stone did not lightly or
hastily tell her so. Much younger than
his rivals, perhaps he was more roman
tic, and, particularly since Lucy's late
specimen of self-assertion, would not in
dulge his admiration with a view TO any
mean indulgence of it. And, in fact,
when, after sitting in the shop upon the
| fiour-chest, or in the old chair, day after
day for more than six months, he at last
whispered his sentiments TO Lucy, the
declaration sounded seriously and re-
spectfully to her ear, and, she concluded,
could be made only in one hope-that
of obtaining her hand, with the due con-
sent of father and mother.
| The scene must now be very abruptly
changed to the reader, with breach of
the three unities of time, place, and ac-
ton.
Twelve years after Lucy Hawkins ac-
cepted the suit of her chosen lover, we
tenIGT u StfldIt WOOOcn HOuSc, lDutcu d
very poor shed, in another little sea-
coast hamlet, many miles distant from
her native one. The walls of its only
sitting-room, kitchen, are bare the
floor is tiled and the few articles of in
Idispensable furniture are old, common,
and crazy and yet the poor apartment
looks clean, or, to use an humble but
expressive and very English word, tidy.
A woman, as ill-clad as her house is i'll
appointed, but like it, tidy too, sits on
stool teaching a sturdy sun-burnt boy of
seven years to read out of Reading
Made Easy She seems about forty, but
may be much younger than she looks,
for her composed features would suggest
long acquaintance with misfortune-the
often successful anticipator of times ut
most efforts to destroy. A half-hnished
female dress, of materials too costly, and
of shape too fashionable to be destined
to the use of the lowly occupant of the
lowly abode, lies, together with the i'm
plements OF woman's industry, upon a
table at her side, limiting the mode of
pursuit by which she earns scanty bread
for her young pupil and herself.
| The task is over, and Billy is kissed
and called a good boy and while his
mother combs his yellow hair in smooth
and equal portions towards either temple
-ss There my king" she says g and
now, where is brother 10 take you out TO
play p
The naughty great boys were guar
rclling with Charley on the beach, moth
err, when he sent Billy home to his task
to be rid of them"
:. And what game did they quarrel
| over, Billy ?''
No ga-om, mother but Dick Saun-
ders called Charley bad name"
Tell mother the bad name, my man.
Billy caunt-he DOESN'T know it
now, mother"
Their conversation was interrupted by
the quick entrance of Charley himself.
| The moment his mother saw him, she
uttered an alarmed cry. His clenched
hands were thurst into his trousers
pockets he frowned, for the first time IN
| his life his mother had seen him do so !;
his lips quivered ;tears glazed his eyes;
his face. nay, his torches d and ears fam
| ed scarlet. and blood tricklcd down his
cheeks. Obviously. he had been fight
| ing hard battle, but, as obviously was
| The victor. The boy was about twelve.
q Let Billy 90 play at the door, and
ri tel! YOU nother,r he said, after she
had addressed many anxious inquiries
to him.
She led the little fellow out, and shut
the door upon herself and Charley He
dropt in chair, flung his arms over the
table, laid his face upon them, and burst
into furious fit Of tears
Naughty Dick Saunders has hurt
you, Charley, mothers darling = she
cried approaching him.
No-not as we'll as | have hurt him
the storyteller the puppy y sobbed
Charles, Mother, Dick Saunders spoke
ill Of me, and you-'
9 What did he say, Charley ~
g can't repeat it after him--I won't
| But, mother be old enough to ask you
what Pm going to ask-Was Master
Turner, who died last year, Billy's ia
| Their p,