The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1848-11-25
The FAIRIES Of the Inn.
BY ]. G.. WHITTIER.


-There be no beggars in this country
but there be witches, too many-boltle- bellied
witches.''
More than half century has elapsed
since the events, which we are about to
relate, occurred in the small, but some
what famous town of S, in N. Hamp-
shire. The story indeed comes TO us
with the twilight, haze of tradition lin
gerlng about it-but we have no doubt
Of its correctness, having received It
from he LIS Of those who had an init
mate concern with 1t
Nehemiah - was the keeper OF
small tavern on the road leading from
Boston to Londonderry, N II "a place
famous in the olden time for its annual
fair; its horseraces, and its huge Irish
men He was fat, indolent fellow; and
in h 5 matrimonial partnership, was, to
use a common but expressive phrase,
hmPccked. Too cowardly to rebel against
his Jezebel, h" was compelled to smoth.
er his wrath entirely, or vent it upon the
heads OF his customers. These convent.
ent appendayrs Of a Tavern, consequently
dropped away from him one by one, I'M
willing to encounter the splene!ic rail-
ing OF "mlne host for the sake of en-
joyng his b"ggarly accommodations
con listing as they did of le4ky house,
not remarkable tor ito cleanliness, where
the flea aud the bug We're the constant
bed fellows OF the traveller; an old and
wind shaken stable, from which the
travellers horse always came out half
starved, with his ribs showing as plainly
as the bars of the naked rack to which
he had been fastened.
In proportion as his guest diminished
did Nehemiah wax choleric and spite.
full. If he furnished, by rare chance,
mug Of flip to some thirsty teamster,
he muttered of hard times, miserable
customers, and withal seasoned his MUIR
mers with such oaths, and Wore such
fierce scowl upon his hard, ugly coun-
tenancc, that his guest incontinently
shrunk from him, as he received the
foaming beverage, as if he feared that the
red hot flip iron would be plunged down
his opening gullet. If, as was not I'M
frequently the case, the harsh manner OF
Nehemiah provoked the customer to re-
taliation, the landlady, large plump
visagrd Irish woman, uniformly took
the part Of her husband. Like the rival
factions IN the besieged city of the Jews
the hopeful pair could quarrel with each
other until the approach of common
enemy compelled them to unite for mu-
tual defence.
The house at last became a priv1te in
stead Of public one. The loaded dou-
Bile s!eighs Of the up country farmers,
conveying pork and grain to the Bay
State, passed on without stopping for
moment, even to breathe their faded
horses. The pedestrian with his throat
Parching for the lack Of liquor, hurried
onward, as If he feared the evil spirit of
DiScord within its walls would be dog
ging at his heels. Board after boa I'd and
single after single tell from the deIap-
,ldated stable, and pane after pane of win
dow glass in the wretched manson gave
place to rags dish cloths and discarded
pettcoats Thus thngs went on from
worse to worse, till an artful device en-
tered the head of the cunning dame. She
caused some :nischievous roisterersfrom
Derry Fair,
"Their hearts soft with whiskey. their heads
soft with blows"
to circulate the story that the house was
the home Of fairies and that they had
held converse with them.
BY some strange disposition of matters
"the lame and the lazy are always pro
vided for" One Sunday evening a
crowd of venerable gossops were seen,
after church, entering the inhospitahle
inn Of s.. 1t was noted that their
countcnances betokened something of
great moment, for the significant wink
the intelligent nod, and the low,
hoarse whisper, gave evidence of bust
ness of no triAing import.-T'hey return
ed, after an hours stay, with faces won
derfully elongated, and proce eded to the
house of the minister of the parish to
whom, as IN duty bound, they impaired
the secret of their expedition: and, after
charging one another for the fiftieth time
to "say nothing about it," they separa
ted IN different directions to spread
their marvellous intelligence. impartng
it to each individual as very particular
secret. Before ten o'clock that evening
the whole matter was dlvulged to every
man, woman and child in the neighbor
hood
And what think you, reader, was his
secret? Alas. for these degenerate days,
when everything mus, be proved to ma'he
NAUTICAL exac,ness-when nothing is taken
upon irust-when the Examinations rever-
bera,ed from the sounding boards of every
pulpit in Chris'endom. cannot urn one Of
our self-wiIIed obstinate generation against
his own established evidence of matters