The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-08-13
THE VISION OR TRUTH STRAIN
GER THAN FL CTION."

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u THE VISION; OR "TRUTH STRAIN
II GER THAN FL lotion"
During the early part of the reign 0
George III, there lived in an obscur
village of Ireland family in the mid
die walks of life, named Cunning. The,
were not richly endowed with his world ,
goods, but possessed sufficient for all tn,
comforts, if not the luxuries of life. Mat
thew Cunning was farmer by profes
sion, Gf so it may be called,) and had
he possessed that spirit of frugality
which seems almost unknown to the
Irish nation, he night have been a veal
thy man /; as it was, he generally follow
ed the principle of i" letting tomorrow
take care of itself" His wife had been
the village belle, and still retained traces
of that extraordinary beauty which had
excited the admiration of all who be-
held 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 age, the chill
dren were constantly together; end the
sprightly Lizzie and the fairy Louisa
were spoiled by both young and old in
the village of e.. One summer af-
ternoon, fatigued with their sports, the
infant sisters threw themselves upon
the grass beneath willow which en-
shadowed their parents cottage, and with
the fair round cheek of Louisa pillowed
upon the sunny itresses of Lizzie, and
their din pied limbs and snowy robes
thrown :ato 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 g-wheel in the deep
embrasure of the window, watched them
as they slept, and unconsciously her
thoughts wandered into the future; and,
with a mothers fond anxiety, specula
ted upon their future career. AS she
mused she, too, fell into gentle slum-
Der, and the visions of her musings as
sumed, as it were, tangible shape, "a
local habitation and name," and like
a phantasmagoria passed before her
She fauoied herself in London, that
great city of which she had heard so
much, and she seemed an invisible spec
tator of scene that far surpassed her
proudest hopes; she saw her lovely
appearing in the perfected
beauty of womanhood, as actors on the
busy area of the aristocratic world.
Peers and peeresses, prelates and states
men, even royalty itself seemed to
do homage to their unrivaled charms.
Throngs of admirers worshiped at the
shrine of their beauty; and one, distin-
guished from the rest by his naughty
bearing and the glittering star upon his
breast, knelt at the feet of her young
est born, her bright haired Lizzie and
she thought upon that regal brow an
airy cornet, formed of the ducal straw
berry leaves, rested as if it had found a
ft abiding place. Delighted she awoke,
and with the glittering vision still fill
ing her imagination, she started. to find
herself in her own humble cottage, and
ler children still sleeping beneath the
tree.
She mentioned her dream to none,
put the memory of it fingered for years,
md with mothers fond partiality she
"why should not such things
be ?''
Time sped on, and our heroines in {
creased in beauty and years; they re-
.eived the best education the place {
could afford and the worthy cure, see 1
ng that their minds scared far above
nediocrity as we'll as their persons, G
ormed their ductile powers to such de- I
rec that they were soon fit to grace any t
ircle +
When Louisa was about seventeen
heir mother died and on her death-bed t
xacted solemn promise from her Lus n
and, that before the expiration of six p
,onths he should take them to London; g
hen, for the first time, relating her h
ream, she begged him to remain there a "
ear at least, aud at the end of that time. b
they had not attracted notice, he might o.
eturn with them to his native village. n
lad it been anywhere but at the dying Of
ed of his wife, Matthew Cunning D
light have smiled at the ascendeney
hich the Imagination had been allowed W
} gain over the judgement; but, al is
rough he desired no higher destiny for IL
IS children than to see them the wives te
respectable men in their own sphere 2
life, still he would not refuse her
st request, and Rmade the required ot
.omise Could he have foreseen the ps