The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1855-10-25
A BLESSING In DISGUISE.

N fAA~'N 1NN'"' "N"'N'
4 No, no, Lydia, Business is my very
life. | must make little more money
before / give it up
tWill you toll me, my husband, how
\ much you would have now, if you we're
to settle your business all up?'
!. 'Oh, perhaps two hundred thousand
dollars
\ 'And think, Lauson, only think how
easy, how sumptuously, we could live up
on the interest of that, and have much,
too, to bestow upon those who need our
charity. Come, tell me. that you will leave
], your business at once. l can see what
j. you cannot see. You are undermining
! your constitution, and your health is fast
leaving YOU
! 'Pshaw, Lydia, you croak like a raven.
g, should lose my health were to leave
my business Don't say any more now,
u for you sec am busy
l AS the husband spoke, he turned to the
little ebony escritoire which he kept in his
parlor, and commenced overhauling and
studying the various papers that lay there.
Lauson Watkins had seen his thirteenth
! year, and young as howas, he had become
what the world calls rich. Atanearly age
\ he had entered the mercantile business,
4 and fortune had smiled upoh him. He
| had already amassed IN abundant compe-
i tcncy; but while he had been doing this,
il he had been losing his health. His organ
I ization was one of those which will not
l bear great mental excitement. His brain
was large and active, his excitabilty in
tense, and his mind easily worried aud
tortured, and on the other hand, his ply
sical constitution was slight, and Of ahigh-
! ly nervous temperament. For years he
had applied himself to business without
taking any respite, and the faster money
/, came in upon him, the more anxious and
nervous did he become in his abors.--
Night and daF he laborcd over his ship
llen,s and invoices, and gradually, but
surely the joy Of health WIS departing
from him,
Poor Lydia Watkins saw all this. She
saw the fearful disoaso-marks that were
! growing upon her husband countenance,
but she could not persuade him to feel as
she felt lie laughed at hor for her fears,
/ and yet, while he laughed he felt the dis
] ease gnawing at his vitals. AS the mer-
4 chant sat there at his work, his anxious
y wife watched him with painful interest
His face was pale in the extreme, and the
blue veins stood startlingly out upon his
! high whito brow and temples. His eyes
J were large and brilliant, but their brillian-
4 cy was not natunl-it was a false, nervous
\ light that cleaned there. AS he poured
over a complicated invoice, reducing to
nS his own currency large amounts of foreign
"a money, his long, white fingers worked
'' nervous though his wife heard him breathe
'o hard. 0, she know that he could not live
long So
When, at late hour, Watkins arose
from his task, he complained of "a head
ache, but he had cleared ten thousand
cu dollars by the cargo he had been disPos-
lining of, and he was pleased. Those ton
irtthousand dollars did not help to give him
Is content--it only served to spur him on to
d renewed cxortions.
a, aSt Lydia, said Mr.. Watkins, after he had
leyc CLOSED his escritoire, have you seen youl
uncle Langrayo to-day?'
NO
=, ~ Il am afraid he is going rather deeply
= into dangerous speculations. For week
past have been endorsing paper for him
8 |, to considerable amount. He helped me
g without stint when commenced business,
and | suppose must help him now; bu'
| hope he will be careful
adam Lanprave is careful man. re-
turned Lydia, and am sure he would
!. not do that which would cause you to sui
fer.
20 no, | don't think ho would, said
Watkins and here the conversation drop
:, : pod, for the young mans mind became
again buried in his business.
a "a Adam Langrave was not an old man, ant
. had becn the foser-ather of Lydia. Th'
H. girl had been left an orphan at an earl.
m age, and her husband had commenced hi
career as Langravo's clerk, and thus hat
b. he become acquainted with the fair, vlr
( tuoous girl whom ho had made his wife
Iancrayo had lately entertained a grea
N project for making money, and it was il
q, nursuancc of this thai he called on Wat
yc kins for assistance
Fd On the day following tho sccne descrih
ed above, Mr.. Langrave callodat Watkins
!s- store, aud opened to the young morchan