The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-07-08
The Travelled whisper.

al do not like to say anything about II,
whispered Mrs Sawyer to her next door neigh
Dor, Mrs. Ashton, ''but they do say that Miss
Bates, new music teacher, is no better than
she should be. l don't think that shall send
Anna Maria or Sarah Jane. True, she comes
highly recommended, but Mrs. Goodenough,
whose daughter went to school last year within
twenty miles of Miss Bates fathers tells me
that her daughter heard from one Of her school
mates slight whisper TO Miss Bates disadvan-
tage: and people are best known at home you
know"
Mrs. Ashton held up both her gloved hands
in wonder and approval of this sentiment, and
then hastened sway on her round Of morning
calls, all the wiser for her visit to Mrs. S.
Her next stopping place was at Mrs. Willis.
She found that lady over her sewing in the sit
ting room, and quite alone.
81 am delighted to see you," cried Mrs. Ash
ton half breathless from fast walking. GLOW
are you and your charming daughters Melissa,
Ann and Julia The latter are at school dare
say. BE- the way Mrs. Willis, I have been grea-
tly shocked this morning. I never should have
dreamed of such thing as Mrs. Sawyer has
just been whispering to me. 1 hardly be
lieve it now. But must beg you not to cay E
word about it to any soul !iring l en- shocked
| TO think such q thing could have happened =
Pray, don't mention it from me on any conside-
ration, but they do say that Miss Bates, the
new music teacher, has a pery bad character at
home Mrs. Sawyer has it on unquestionabIe
authority, and has declined the idea of sending
her daughters on that account But she is
young and pretty poor thing! and [ am very
sorry for her, and wouldn't injure her for the
world ~
| Mrs Willis laid down her work with conster-
nation pictured in her face; and the two ladies
| whispered and nodded significantly for the next
two hours at the enc o. that time Mrs. E.iE5-
remembered that she had host of calls to make
and tying on her bonnet the two ladies went out
together.
Before night, the whisper that Mrs. Sawyer
! had thoughtlessly echoed from the tongue of a
schoo! c,i-l, had travelled all through the village
and ten miles into the country, and there was q
prospect of it's travelling on on, as far IS the a
cademy of B-was known, and blghting in
every family where it was carried, the fair fame
of pale faced, sweet young creature, Who bent
with patient assiduity over her task, unconscious
that a breath, more fatal than the cimocn Of the
desert, had passed over her character. Ifthert
is not deliberate cruelty in thus numbering The
reputation and destroying the influence Of an
other and that other 4 stranger, timid and sen
sitive as the Mimosa which shrinks from the
slightest touch, tell me in what cruelty consists
And yet it was all the work Of achtsper;
thoughtless and unmeaning whisper. Mis-
Bates reputation re-established when she
learned, after weeks of suffering, the exaggera
ted reports everywhere in circulation in regarC
to her, and brought testimonials of her innocence
from her native town and from the first persons
in other communities with whom she chanced tt
be before acquainted !; it was re-established wher
She had stayed long in the Academy at B
and Zirea do1gn the aspersions so cruelty cas-
upon her.
But her case is not an insulated one. Man,
a reputation has been wrecked by busy bodies
who have little to DO at home and go abroad fo1
employment-who love to gossip over thei
neighbors' affairs, and help on, with railroad
speed, THE TRAVELLING WHISPER.