Southern shield., 1854-01-21
A VISIT TO THE UGLY MAN. BY THE AUTHOR OF SIMON sUGGs.

anQln anOCUeT ulOlIleIlt one OI'lNe SWeeC- est, rosiest faces I ever beheld, looked out at the door. It was Lucy Wallis, the pretty daughter of the Ugly Man. Saluting us modestly, she asked us in and to be seated-and resumed her work. There are few more lovely girls than Lucy. In her moist blue eye, was a blended expression of mirth fulness and something more tender, that went into your heart without ever asking leave. Clad in homespun frock, coarse but tasteful in its colors and adjustment-and, oh. how brill iantly spotless-her fingers tipped with the blue of the indigo tub--her little feet in buckskin moccasns-she pli- ed her task industriously; now with an arch toss shaking into place her rich auburn hair, and now, with a bound foreward, gracefully catching the thread that had slipped from her fingers. Sweet voiced, too, was Lucy Wallis, as she stood at her wheel, spinning two threads. One of cotton on her spindle and the other of gossip, with my excellent and loquacious friend Dick Mccoy.
 Plague take the girl. She has made me forget her ugly father! MT. Wallis and his "woman" were from home when we got there-having been on visit to sick neighbor--but in half an hour they returned.
 "Thar they come!'' said Dick, as he heard voices outside the cabin; "seat yourself, and don't be scared." Then looking at Lucy.
 "You've never seen daddy, squire, have you?" she asked, slightly coloring and pouting.
 "Never have-always had a curi- osity;;" but the wounded expression of the girl stopped me, and in another moment the Ugly Man was before me.
 Truly had Mccoy said, "nothing on the breathing yearth could match him.'' His face generally, had the appearance of recently healed blister spot. His prominent eyes seemed ready to drop from of his face, and were almost guiltless of lids. Red, red, red, was the almost prevailing color of his countenance-even his eyes partook of it. His mouth, ruby red, looked as fit had been very lately kicked by rough shod mule, after having been originally made by goug- ing hole in his face with a nail grab. The Tout ensemble was horribly, un- speakably ugly.
 "So you've come to see the Ugly Man, have you, Squire? I've heard ofyou before. You're the man as took the senses of this country, last. Twas in Georgia then. We'll, you're mighty welcome. Old 'oman, fly round, get somethin' for the Squire and Dick to eat. Lucy, ain't you got no fresh aiggs?''
 Lucy went out at this suggestion, and her father went on: "They call me ugly, Squire, and I am. My fath- CT before me was the ugliest man that ever lived in Hancock county. But I'll give you my ixperience after sup per- It's like you've hearn that Fve been through the ruffs. No? Well, when we get something to eat, I'll tell you more about 1t; old 'oman; for heavens sake do fly round thar!!''
 The old lady did fly around, and Lucy got the "aiggs,'' and between them they got an excellent supper.
 The purity of the table cloth, the excellence of the coffee, and the fresh ness of the eggs, not to mention Lucy's good looks, were more than set off against the ugliness Of Billy; so that Dick and l continued to eat quite heartily, to the evident qualification of our hospitable though ugly entertainer.
 Supper over, old Billy drew out his large soap stone pipe, and filled and lighted it, he placed it in his mouth. After whif or two he began:
 ''It's no use argyfyin' the matter Il am the ugliest man now on top of dirt. Thar's nary nuther like mel I'm crowd by myself. Iallers was ---The fust 1 know'd of it though, was when I was about ten years old I went Gown to the spring branch one mornin' to wash my face, and as I looked in the water seed the shadow of my face.-That's the last time I'ce seen my countenance--I darsn't but shet my eyes when go about water"
 "Don't you use glass when you shave?'' I enquired.
 "Glass. thunder! What glass could stand it-'twould burst it if 1t were an inch thick. Glass-pishr'
 Lucy told her father he was "too bad, and that he knew 1t was no such thing" aud the old man told her she was "sassy wench,'' and to hold her tongue.
 ''Yes," he continued, "it's so; I havn't seen my face iii forty years, but I know how it looks. Well, when I growed up, 1 thort 1t would be hard to find woman that'd be willing to take me, ugly as I was''-
 eOh yOu was not Onconmon hard