Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1856-12-04
From Household Wo
Struggled Relations.

When I was child, remember to have
had my ears boxed for informing lady-visitor
who made morning call ut our house, tina.
certain ornamental object on the table, which
was covered with marbled paper, " wasn't mar
BILE" Years of reflection upon this injury have
fully satisfied me that the honest object in
question never imposed upon anybody further
that my honored parents, though both OF
sanguine temperament, never can have con-
ceived it possible that it might, could should,
W. ~e no doubt that had my ears boxed ".
n;o,st;no a tacit compact in the family and
among the family visitors to blink the stubborn
fact Of the marbled paper, and agree upon q
fiction Of real marble.
Long after this, when my ears had been past
boxing for quarter of a century, knew u
| man with cork leg That he had cork leg
or. Mt all events, that he was ut immense
Mains to take about with him leg which was
not hi, own leg, or a real eg-was so plain and
obviAs q circumstance, that the whole uni
vese might have made affidavit of it, Still it
vas always understood that this cork leg was
tc be regarded us leg of flesh and blood, and
ven that the very subject of cork in the all
stract was to be avoided in the wearer's so
ciety.
have had my share Of going about the
world wherever have been, have found
the marbled paper and the cork leg. have
found them in many forms but, Of oil their
Protean shapes, at once the commonest and
strongest has been--Snuggled Relations.
was on intimate terms for many, many
years, with my late lamented friend, Cogsford,
of the great Greek house Of Cogsford Brothers
and Cogsford was his executor believe
he had nd secrets from me but one--his mother
That the agreeable old lady who kept his
house from him ,cas his mother, must be his
mother, couldn't possibly he anybody but his
mother, was evident not to me alone, but to
everybody who knew him, She was not
refugee, she was not prescribed, she was not in
hiding, there was no price put upon her veneer.
able head she was invariably liked aud re-
spected as a good humorcd sensible, cheerful
old soul Then why d.. Cogsford sniuggle his
mother all the DAYS Of his life = have not
the slightest idea why. cannot SO much as
say whether she had ever contracted a second
marriage. aud her name was really Mrs. Bean
or whether that name was bestowed upon her
as part of the Smuggling transaction:
only know that there she used to sit at one end
Of the hospitable table, the living image in cap
Of Cogsford at the other end, and that Cogs-
ford at the other end, and that Cogsford knew
that knew who she was Yet, If had been
a. Custon,-house officer at Folkestone, and Mrs.
Bean French clock that Cogsford was fur
lively bringing from Paris in q hat-box, he
could not have made her the subject of more
determined aud deliberate pretence: 1t was
prolonged for years upon years 1t survived
the good cid lady herself: One day, received
an agitated note from Cogstord, entertaining ME
to 60 to him immediately went and found
him weeping; and in the greatest affection
my dear friend" said be- pressing my hand.
" l have lost Mrs. Bean She is no more" /
went to the funeral with him.. He was in the
deepest grief. He spoke of Mrs. Bean. on the
way back. as the best Of women. But, even
then he never limited that Mrs. Bean was his
mother and the FIRST and last acknowledgements
Of the fact that ever had from him was in his
last will, wherein he eutreated "his said dear
friend and execntor" to observe that he Re.
quested to be buried beside his mother-who,n
he didn't even name. he was so perfectly conf
dent that had detected Mrs Bean.
was once acquainted with another man
who smuggled brother. This contraband re.
lative made mysterious appearances and disap-
pearances, and knew strange things. He was
called John---sin,plv John have Got into a