Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1850-09-11

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with the deepes, folds of Grape, wore O
binding veil, and cried as if her heart would
break. She went to Probate, administered
herself on the estate, lived III her own draw
| ing rooms, kept her servants, but complain
ed bitterly of loneliness. She was always
at church meetings, always wept, or held
up her handkerchief, when the good man
prayed that "afflictions might be scanifed,'
and in short the widow Tompkins with her
fortune Of two hundred thousand, and no
"chick or chIld' to share it, was quite a
prominent character in the mouths of GER
tain wIdowers and fororn bachelors. For
two full months she wore the veil down.--
Ii was said she was observed to draw it a
side very slightly then lille further, till
finally she threw it over the crown of her
bonnet, just as parson Bonset repeated the
text, 'Sfor our light afllctions which are bu,
for moment" sc.
That night Deacon Sears called. But
how excusable was his visit! His wife
died suddenly, "but full of hope )" and how
natural lha, his sympa,hes should be drawn
toward the widow, fill Of hope likewise
/ Mrs. Tompkins was always at the prayer
meetings, and Deacon Sears always exhort-
| ed and how natural it was he should see
the widow home and when he got to the
door, how natural he should step i; ; and
when fairly in, how natural to stay, dislik-
! ing to leave good company. Depend on i,
! then matters were talked over by some sly
members, and some differences were drawn;
! bu, then, curious enough, the Deacon had
promised Mrs. Sears, in the event of her
death he would never marry again. This
promise was extorled before sundry wit
nesses, and they were all living, aud ready y
/ to testify to the fact. The Deacon was a
lru.hy man, and the parish generally thought
him TO be relied on. One person went so
far as to say to the widow Tompkins, aside
from this promise, she did believe he had
serious intentions; whereupon the widow
tainted, and was revived only by sal volatile
Here were two pledges made to dead peo-
pie; could they violate them? Grave ques-
lions were moo!ed in the public meetings.
whether certain promises were obligatory
whether the dead took cognizance of the
acts of the living: and whether the spirits
of our departed friends were lowering over
US morlals.
These topics led to much metaphy steal
discussion; bu, the Deacon always opposed
the doctrine Of personal recognition here
after TTe shall oil be blessed in The mass,
was bis lavorile theory. Slill 1t wore upon
him The widow grew more and more at
,raclIve. Jus, SO far as repelIing forces di-
verged from one centre, the power Of gravi-
tation increased, and Mr.. Bonset requested
10 deliver lecture upon moral obligations.
1t was searching one-the divine took the
ground that all promises made in good
faith were strictly binding; that deah rather
sealed than annuIled them; that the accus-
ing spirit might so tormen. a man who will
sully broke such an engagement as to be
his perpetual misery in future state, beside
the disquiel incident to existence here. This
was poser; matters grew worse and worse;
and finally, taking umbrage under tha! old
maxim, lha, "a bad promise is better broken
than kept" Deacon Sears and the widow
Tompkns took advantage of our new law
and were married.
"And failh," says Biddy the cl,ambermsid
"wha, is all this diskver in the chimney:
4 horse shoe 10 keep off the witches Ant
whose slippers may be these, so strangely
torn a. the side And why is my mistress
SO worrysome like :"
Alas, the Deacon's foot was too big for
Mr.. Tompkin's slippers; the Deacon's back
was too broad for Mr.. Tonpkn's coat, anG
they burst. Some things, superslitious peo-
pie will have it, give presen,iment of 9th.
els. The church always looked rather sus-
piciously upon their officer after ward and
! it was limited that the Deacon's new wife
was ust what she ought to be, Mrs. Tomp'
kin's nervous state returned upon her
strange fances seized her and the broken
promise always haunted her She tried every
! expedient that money could devise to be
happy. Change of place, change of society
change of diet; but all to no eflect-,he
trouble lay deeper, she ought to have chang
ed herself.
The Deacon prayed and wept, and
mourned for his first wife he had proved
treacherous, and his children forsook him
his vast estate did him no good, and they
lived monumen! to others Of the little efll'
cacy of money to reach the disquietude
which reigns in ones own breast.
They paid the debt of nature, some week:
ago, and their property was divided sngu'
larly enough. Mrs Sears gave the most ol
hers to a stranger in England and the Dea-
con remembered quiet old widow lady in
the wilds Of Vermont, who never divulged
what she heard his frs. wife say, affirming
she was the first aooman who ever kept a
secret and this was her reward - Yankee
Blade.
Nobody likes to be nobody, bu. every
body is pleased to think himself somebody;
though the worst of The matter is, when