Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1840-02-13

| done to-day, the married mans eye would be
seen IN every house. 1t is SO common q
thing, that it is never noticed. 1t is looked
upon as part of the marriage ceremony, Oh
rather as having been engrafted upon man.
in consequence of the ceremony
yes, shall now be for ever watching the
married mans eye; but just for fun's sake, il
you are not too tired, let US 90 down into this
oyster-cellar, and see what kind of eye old
Cato has. hear the pan going; his wife is
frying oysters
'His eye will work, too, depend upon it,
said my uncle, with smile-'he will quell
her-he will quell hertz
But no such thing. To our amazement,
his eye never shot an angry glance at the
poor, heated, tired, woman, doing her best, rs
nine wives out of ten always do. My dear
uncle was quite put out about it, for he was
loath to admit that the rule did not hold good
with all men. We staid full half an hour,
seated on n clean bench, near the doorway,
chatting with the old man and woman, who,
in the time, dispensed two pans full of oys-
tiers, nicely dressed, to their customers.
My uncle, as thought, made several eff
forts to provoke shot from the eye of old
Cato butt made no impression. 1 told him
that suspected he was playing false; but he
denied it, though he said if the glance could
be obtained, it would not signify whether it
was provoked, or whether it came naturally.
1t was the proneness to make use of the eye
the authority of the married mans eye-that
he rebelled against.
But no unlucky word or deed from old Di-
nah had any effect upon her husbands dim,
bleared eyes. My uncle now set in to talk,
first to Cato and then to Dinah, who was now
preparing a third pan ofoysters. Il will show
you Cato'sey eye yeti! said my uncle. 'Idoubt
it, replied.
'How many children have You, Cato1 /
used to see four or five playing about you,
year or two ago, and now l only see the little
girl who carried out the OYSTERS
1--WE have nine, massa Andover, and all
doing pretty WE'LL ceptin' Clarissy, who lost
her good husband, poor thing! So told my
Dinah to let her and de tree children come
home. Dat little girl is her Oldest child
This comes very hard upon you, Cato. /
must tell my sister to look into it,
'Tanky, massa, tanky; but it is not for me
to complain-only Dinah my poor woman, /
tell her she will fry her eyes out. have no.
thin to do but sit still half de time and open
oysters !; but tank God we have a great run,
massa and Dinah, nobody can please de Gus
toners so well as she, massa. Den, when
have taken out de shells, does nothin' but
GO about and muse myself in de garden, or
lean over de wagons, and get tings cheap.
But it comes very hard upon my poor woman
dere; > and Cato cast tender, humane glance
at his wife, having Just finished iicr oysters,
was turning them in plate.
My uncle looked at me from the corner of
his eye, to see i'll had observed the old mans.
Il saw it, said /; sit was glance worth a
guinea
In moment Dinah stood before us, with
tray, on which were two plates, each contain
ftI Il
saw. A little table was placed between us,
on which was a snow white cloth, bread, pic
lsles, mustard, pepper and salt.
She turned aside to look at Cato; and oh,
what delighted eye the affectionate husband
cast on her He fairly rubbed his hands
with Joy, at this mark of attention to us.
Oats it, Dinah, OATS it; now why didn't
/ tink of dis, too? But she is always before
hand wild me, massa bachelor Andover. l
tink women are always cutter dan men in such
things; but when it comes to open oysters, den
we beat 'eml Yah! yah y
ooh never mind it. Dnah, woman said he,
when the poor soul, in her haste to hand my
uncle glass of water, knocked over the mus
tard-cup, the contents of which ran on his
boots; never mind it, old woman; massa
don't care, for can soon polish him up again,
and I'll buy you another rnustard-cup.'
Here is dollar toward it, said my uncle;
'and here are two,' said j. for not casting an
angry look at your wife, when she knocked
the cup over.
He look mad at me! y said honest Dinah !;
Lacky why, young massa, Cato never look
ed mad at me once in his life, as | can re-
member
well, who would have thought it 2 said
my crest-fallen uncle, as we left the cellar.
y must own that tried hard. at the first go
ing off to provoke his eye to do its accustom-
ed duty.
The lessons of this story are of the best de-
scription; and its truth to nature cannot be
dnuhfed-N Y SIR