The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1856-11-06
THE VIsION,
a, "TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION"

lage Of Ireland, a family in the middle
walks Of life named Cunning. They were
not richly endowed With this worlds goods,
but possessed sufficient for all the comforts,
IL not the luxuries of life. Matthew Gun
ming was farmer by profession Gf SO it
may be called,) and had he professed that
spirit of frugality, which seems almost un-
known to the Irish nation, he might have
been wealthy man, as it was, he gener-
ally followed the principle of ''letting to.
morrow take care of ITSELF" His wife had
been the village belle, and still retained ira.
ces of that extraordinary beauty which had
excited the admiration of all who beheld
her. Two girls were the sole fruit Of their
union, who promised, even in infancy, to
equal if not surpass their mother in personal
charms; and that mothers whole soul was
bound up in them. Being near of an uge,
the children were constantly together; and
the sprighty Lizzie and the fair Louisa
were spoiled by both young and old in the
village of E. One summer after
noon, fatigued with their sports, the infant
sisters threw themselves upon the grass
beneath willow that enshadowed their
parents cottage, and with the fair round
cheek of Louisa pillowed upon the sunny
tresses of Lizzie, and their dmpled limbs
and snowy robes thrown into strong relief
by the rich wavy sward, they presented a
picture which Lawrence would have longed
to transfer to canvas. The mother, as she
sat with her spinning.wheel in the deep
embrasure Of the window, watched them
as they slept, and unconsciously her thoughts
wandered into The future; and with moth
er's fond anxiety, speculating upon their
future career.
AS she unused, she too, fell into gontle
slumber, and the visions of her musings as.
sumed, as it were tangible shape, ga local
habitation and name," and like a phantas-
magoria passed before her. She fancied
she was in London, that great city of which
she had heard SO much, and she seemed an
invisible spectator Of scene that far sur
passed her proudest hopes; she saw her
daughter appearing in the perfected beauty
Of womanhood, as actors in the busy area of
the aristocratic world. Peers and peeress-
es, prelates and statesmen, even royalty it.
self seemed to do homage to their unrvalled
charms. Throngs of admirers worshipped
at the shrine, of their beauty; and one, dis
tinguished from the rest by his naughty bear
ing aud the gfittering star upon his breast,
knelt at the feet Of her youngest Born, her
bright haired Lizzie; and she thought upon
that regal brow an airy coronet, formed OF
the ducal strawberry leaves, rested as if il
had found fit abiding place. Delighted,
she awoke, and with the glittering vision
still filling her imagination. she was startled
to find herself in her own humble cottage,
and her children still sleeping beneath the
tree. b.. ..-,.
She mentioned her dream to none, but
the memory Of it fingered for years, and with
mothers fond partiality she whispered
"why should not such things be?' .
Time sped on, and.our heroines increas-
ed in beauty and years; they received the
best education the place could afford; and
the worthy curate, seeing that their minds
scared far above mediocrity as we'll as their
persons, formed their ductile powers to such
degree that they were soon fit to grace any
circle. ..,y,r4a o,ar rst -...... .r.....,...,..
! When Louisa was about seventeen, their
mother died; end on her, death-bed exacted
q solemn promise from her husband, that
before the expiration of six months he should
take them to London: then, for the first
time, relating her dream, she begged him to
rcmain there year at least, and at the end
Of that time, if they had not attracted notice
he might return with them to his native vii
lage. Had it been anywhere but at the dy.
ing bed of his wife, Matthew Cunning might
have smiled at the pascendency which the
Imagination had been allowed. 10 gain over
the Judgment; but although he desired no
higher destinyafor his children than to see
them the wives of respectable men in their
own speere of life, still he woold not refuse
her last request, and made the required prom.
\ ise. Could he have forseen the future, what
would have been his feelings! 49,.
AS soon as the daughters could become
reconciled to the thoughts Of leaving the
grave Of their beloved mother. and the many
endeariag associations Of their childhood
for the vast city, where they would be sun
knowing and 2ankno@h,' they started for
the great metropolis They arrived there
in June, that month whose delights the .ty-
rant Fashion has compelled the sristocracy
Of Britain's isles to forge, and obliged them
to remain in the city when they would fain
be reposing beneath the shade OF those ,gi.
gatic trees that wave proudly over the, an.
cestral homes of England's haghty nor
bility. (, =, ,...f.,., SOFT s. e.....,r ....,
Matthew Cunning ;, willing to lnlfl his
wife's wishes as much as possible, took lodg-
ings in q fashionable hotel, and ere many
weeks has elapsed London was in an
uproar. Who were those angels that had
suddenly appeared as from Paradiser The
.Jorrofs' hs Horace aWaliole calls IT, was
unparalleled The young mobiles, whose tastes