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

e Besides, We are on tue way 70 1olh"y De
o tons, and there is nothing in our scar
t that matches well with grand scenery al
: pretty landscapes. We must get dow
: the rugged pathway, with our attenti'
sharply employed upon our footsteps, an
when the feat is well accomplished, we q
/ on the margin of the little rivulet tn
unrolls like silver ribband between II
hills, Stepping daintily upon the planl
that swings and dips till the surface of tt
water steadies it, we reach the worm fenc
of the little meadow, which is crossed by
stile, made rudely enough Of an uppin
block on one side, and stump upon tn
other. The cabin sits fifty yards befor
US, upon a 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 square pen, built o
unhewn logs, about foot in diameter an'
twenty-five feet long; but, as a necessit.
for room increased with rising family
additions of similar log pens were piled ul
at either end until it stood stretched on
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 t.
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 appurtenanses 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
=. .: -r-:rss sishman, and had as much of that
A->.' We -. lN; = "'"- 'na ses's. up twice as
in him as would serve to "se':s VIM ~.
many heirs" as the saying is, ain e1tra'r
agance." He was one of the Bartons of
the North, according to his own account,
"of a dacent family, that lived on their own
land at home, and niver one of the name
was liver known to be Papist." Tommy's
zeal for the true'faith, it was easy enough
to perceive, x1s the old grudge, and only
aaother phase of his pride of caste and
boast of blood. lie was religious Of course,
or he might as we'll have been born any
where else as in the County Antrim. A
dozen years before, he had been membe,
If the society that worshiped at the school
sort Of a member which can
neither be kept in nor out of the church |
,ut by severe measures and the hardest
ighting. Tommy left the Brotherhood but
no choices-either to put him out, or to
low themselves up. Accordingly, they
Expelled him On sundry charges, among
which were hard swearing, occasional in
oxication, snd perpetual contumacy. The
injury of this expulsion was nothing, in
he account that Tommy opened with them
or it mis- pride fed fat upon his injuries
everybody, injured him. In
sct, he had all his consequence in his in-
1ries. Their greatness served to measure
he magnitude of his rights, and were vel
ONE to his magnanimity; but the insu1,
as too much for one of the Barton fami-
I to bear. Tommy was eloquent By birth
ght, but, unhappily, he was never genial
zcept when he was boring some gentle
AN in good broadc!oth, with the proofs
I'd indications, historical and fanciful, of
IS family's gentility. I'll luck and ill '
eatment, i'll conduct and ill conditions ;
Tommy never had any other sort of either, !
i'd curdlcd the wit and humor Inherent {
his blood, ard kept it for ever boiling {
I'd babbling with fretsulness and passion. +
ct, queer, crazy, and absurd as was the S
ixture in this proud, weak, worthless, t
gh-spirited old man, Elizabeth derived, S
seems to me, her steady nobleness from 9
s impulsive aspirations, her fine enthu- t
ISM from his wild fire, and her generos- t
? from his Irish pride. i
The chemistry of matter knows how to v
nvert the elements Of charcoal into dia- t
ond; and the modifying forces of the a
tai laws are equally adequate to all the t
ference between this foolish old father r
d his noble daughter. There was that o
him which, by looking for it, one could Ii
6 might, by better mingling and steadier a
it,. be made to answer tie best uses and v
CHEST ends; but, by an accident, or jog o.
the settling, had produced irstead-an a