The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1852-08-27

aSafC6sllc people are won't 70 say tliat p0-
elsdwtll ID garfels, and simple people be-
iieye it. And Others, neither sarcastic nor |
simple, send them aloft, among the ubbish,
stberQuse they do not know what to do |
Niththem down stairs, aud among folks,
SO they class them under The head Of rubbish, |
and consign them to the grand receptacle Of
Hilapidatea has beens, and despised used
to-beas, the old garret.
3 The garret is to the other apartments of
the old homestead what he adyerb is to the
= pedagogue In parsing everything they do
the list of adyerbs. And it is for this pre-.
else reason that we love garrets; because they
docontain therelics Of the old and Che past
souvenirs Of other and happier and SIM
pier times.
They have come to build houses now-a-
days without garrets. lmpious innovation
You man of bronze and bearded like the
pard, who would make people believe, il
You could, that you never were q toddlin
wee thing; that you never wore a rifle dress
or jingled nttle-box with infinite delight
that you never had mother, and that she
never became an cid woman, and wore caps
and spectacles, and may y-be, took snuff go
home once more, after oil these years of abb
sence, all booted and whiskered, and six feet
highas you are, and let us 20 up the stairs
together; in that old-fashioned spacious gar
ret, that extends from gable TO gable, with its
narrow old windows, with spider-web of
sash, through which steals a dim religious
light upon museum of things unnamable,
that once figured below stairs, but were long
since crowded out by the Vandal hand Of
these modern times. t,
The loose boards Of the floor rattle some
what as they used 10 do-don't they 2-when
beneath your little pattering feet they clat-
tered aforetime, when Of a rainy day moth
er,, wearied with many-tongued importuni-
tysganted the Let us go up garret and
play.a% And play2 Precious little of'play'
have you had since, we'll warrant, with your
looks Of dignity and your dreamings OF am
Z ebiiion. go
Here we are now in the midst of the gar.
ret. The old barrel-shall we rummage it :
- -Old files of newspapers s-dusty, yellow,
little tattered! IT'S the Columbian Star.
How.familiar with the Letters or papers fol
father? And these same Stars, just damp
from the press, were carriedone by one from
The, firesids, and perused and preserved as
they ought to be. Stars? Damp9 All
many star has set since then, and many {
new-tuetedsheap grown dewy and damp will
rain thatfell not from the clouds,
Dive deeper into the barrel. There A
bnndle--up it comes, in a cloud ofdust.--
Old Almanacs, by all that is memorable =
Almanacs, thin-leaved ledgers Of time, going
back to--let us see how far; l84-, l83-; 1872;
before our time--l60-, when our moth
q srs were children. And the day-book--how
Il blotted and blurred with many records and
y many tears
There! you have hit'your head against that
beam. Time was when you ran to and fro
beneath it, but you are nearer to it now, by
more than the attitude of copine.' That
beam is grown with forgotten papers of fseeds
for next years sowing; distaf, with some
few shreds of fax reniaing, is thrust in Q
q. creyice of the rafters overhead and tucked
away close under the caves is the little
wheel that used 10 stand by the fire in
! times long gone. Its sweet, low song has
I ceased: and perhaps--perhaps she drew
those iaxen threads--but hever mind-you
I remember the line don't you?
sHerwheel at rest hematron charms nomore.
Well, let that pass. Do you see that lit
tie craft careened in that. dark corner i
was red once it was the only casket within
The house once, and contained mother
Jewels. The old red CRADLE, for all thu
world And you occupied it once ah, grea
as you are, it was youi world once, and owe
it, the only horizon you beheld, bent the
heaven Of "a mothers eyes, as you rocked ir
that little barque of love on the hither shore
Of time-moored fast by mothers love to ,
mothers heart.
And there, attached to two rafters, are tn
fragments Of an untwisted rope. Do you re
member it, and what it was for, and VIII
fastened it there? Twas 'the children
swing You are here, indeed, but wher
are NELLY and CHARLEY? There hangs hi
little cap by the window, and there the lii
lie red frock she used 20 wear. A crown
resting on his cherub brow, and her robes al
spotless in the better land"
b e.