Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1851-12-31

he Besides, We are on the way to Tommy b
to toms, and there is nothing in our scar
1t that matches well with grand scenery a
h. pretty landscapes. We must get do,
y the rugged pathway, with our attenti
a, sharply employed upon our footsteps, an
f. when the feat is well accomplished, we a
It on the margin of the little rivulet tn
i unroils like silver ribband between Il
hills Stepping daintily upon the plan
! that swings and dips till the surface of Il
J, water steadies it, we reach the worm fen'
c of the little meadow, which is crossed by
5 stile, made rudely enough Of an uppin
block on one side, and stump upon tn
other. The cabin sits fifty yards befor
us, upon natural terrace; rocky blu
rises rapidly behind it, like a giant stall
, way, to climb the mountain, which swell
away into the mid-heaven, go steep an
barren, that it seems built there to dyk
out the northern storm-waves. This cabil
is rude, unshapely piece of architecture
Originally it was a square pen, built o
unhewn logs, about foot in diameter ant
twenty-five feet long; but, as a necessit,
for room increased with rising family
additions Of similar log pens were piled W
at either end until it stood stretched ou
in line, three houses made one, by cutting
out the end walls of the first and throwing
all the rooms into one great hall, which,
without partitions, blinds, or curtains te
divide them, served for kitchen, dining.
room, and bed-chamber for the old folks,
and cubbies for half dozen of the young
ones, besides room for a hand-!oom and
its appurtensnees in the corner farthest
from the kitchen end of the building A
half-story above this long range Of rooms,
accessible by ladder instead Of stairway,
with a clapboard roof for ceiling, divided
into rooms by drop curtains Of homemade
canvass, afforded the girls dormitory at one
end and the older boys like accommodation
at the other The family, all told, reached
the round number of fourteen children, of
whom Elizabeth, the elder, was about twenty
two and the youngest child four years old
at the date of our story.
The mother was one Of those indistinct
nobodies who usually figure at the head of
such a regiment of children. The father
was an i.ishman, and had as much of that
IN him as would serve to "se. -, twice as
many heirs" as the saying is, Gin extra.-
agance." He was one of the Bartons of
the North, according to his own account,
sofa dacent family, that lived on their own
land at home, and niver ore of the name
was liver known to be a Papist." Tommy's
zeal for the true'faith, it was easy enough
10 perceive, vas the old grudge, and only
saother phase of his pride of caste and
ooast Of blood. lie was religious Of course,
'r he might as we'll have been born any
where else as in the County Antrim. A
lozen years before, he had been a member
# the society that worshiped at the school
,ouse-that sort Of a member which can
.either be kept in nor out of the church
mt by severe measures and the hardest
ghting. Tommy left the brotherhood but
no choices-either to put him out, or to
low themselves up. Accordingly, they
xpellsd him On sundry charges, among
7hich were hard swearing, occasional in
oxication, snd perpetual contumacy. The (
yury of this expulsion Has nothing, in I
he account that Tommy opened with them '
Or it; MS pride fed fat upon his injuries
everybody, injured him. In
act, he had all his consequence in his in-
lries. Their greatness served to measure '
he magnitude of his rights, and were vel {
ONE to his magnanimity; but the insua l
as too much for one of the Barton fami-
I to bear. Tommy was eloquent By birth /
ght, but, unhappily, be was never genial 8
zcept when he was boring some gentle ]
.an in good broadcloth, with the proofs l
nd indications, historical and tanciful, of |
is family's gentility. I'll luck and ill '
eatment, i'll conduct and i'll conditions a
Tommy never had any other sort Of either, ]
ad curdlcd the wit and humor inherent c
/ his blood, ard kept 1t for ever boiling c
ad babbling with fretfulness and passion. f
ct, queer, crazy, and absurd as was the S
fixture in this proud, weak, worthless, t
igh-spirited old man, Elizabeth derived, S
seems to me, her steady nobleness from Q
is impulsive aspirations, her fine enthu- t
asm from his wild fire, and her generos- t
y from his Irish pride. i
The chemistry of matter knows how to '
,nvert the elements Of charcoal into dia- t
ond; and the modifying forces Of the a
tal laws are equally adequate to all the t
ference between this foolish old father r
i'd his noble daughter. There was that o
him which, by looking for it, one could L
% might, by better mingling and steadier a
.;fS no n.do "a snsver TIE hest ,,sea and =