Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-09-05
THE MOCK MARRIAGE.
ny MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS.


"Scold, scold, thump, thump-scold scold away I!
There's no comfort in the house upon washing
day"
NONSENSE! only wish the writer Of those
lines had been at our cottage by the old bridge
OIL washing-day; it would have made him sing
other words to the same lively air, or am very
sadly mistaken.
M'ashng.day! why, it was the happiest
twelve hours in the week to Gus Children" We
could scarcely sleep all the night before from
the fervent anticipations OF the frolic which it
brought 1t WAS astonishing how our intellects
were sharpened, and oar ingenuity brought in
force to devise ways and means for cscapinS
school Oh that partic ular morning.
4 nice, tidy old creature was our wasilerwo-
man; one that ali artist would have sketcaed
in spite of himself, had he seen her vending
along the shady path, in the cool morning, with
Il handkerchief of brilliant cotton passed neatly
over her cap and tied beneath the chin.
But there was som. times another object
which almost every young man OF taste, even
thonrh not an artist, would have iancied for
Ii,la was possessed of a beauty so soft and
,cljcate. that it seemed natural to the green
woods, almost as the flowers that spring to l.te
and perish there. Lida--sweet, pretty Lida--
as we always called her, was Il girl Of ten
wears old, when could remember-.ior she
was Inst the creature to i;lsten herself on the
mind of a child whose instinct it was to love
the beautiful, and be grateful for kindness. Ida
came with her mother every week for many
wear; and it was to her that our washing day
owed all its checrlulness. The old woman
brought her girl to take care Of the children,
she said, and the way she took to make us hap.
py was never so successfully exerted BY mortal
being before or since.
A change fell upon our washing days. The
old woman came rs usual but alas! Ida, dear
Ida, no longer Helped US gather sticks from
the drift heaps, or allowed her ringing ladgh TO
set the birds a chirping, from sympathy, in the
pine woods. Ida was an apprentice n"'v,
learning tie milliners trade at Fall Hill.
But sometimes the young girl would start early,
and come with her mother for a few moments
Monday mornings, but she seemed more
thoughtful than formerly, and there was some
thing peculiarly sweet in her smile, which was
more beautiful even than her pure, bird.
laugh. Her complexion settled into that clear,
pearly white, which carries the idea OF mental
purity with it, while it indicates perfect health
quite as truly as the richest bloom. Her eyes
were changeable, and shaded by the longest
and most iotty lashes you ever saw; while her
little mouth was bright and red as ripe straw
berry. When she smiled much, dlmple set
tied on her cheek and round her mouth, like the
shadow of honey-bee when lowering round
Il lily; and when Ida was seventeen, and had
begun her apprenticeship, it was pleasant to
observe how lively the child had become as
she approached the threshold OF womanhood.
The milliner's shop where Ida worked, was
on the second story Of a dry.goods store near
the Episcopal church. There were two rooms
in the front separated by narrow entry, and
as Miss Smith, the milliner, always took re-
markabe fancy for fresh air whenever lawyer
Gilbert was in the opposite room, insisted that
the door should be left open, Ida was hours
together so that she could not lift her eyes with
out knowing that young man rather hand
some, and with singularly fine eyes, sat within
the adjoining room thoug she never looked
directly at him, or could sec the least indica-
ton that he took any advantage of Miss Smiths
liberality regarding the door.
Miss Smith was town bred, dashing mli-
ucr, rather social, and ready to impart intorma-