Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1857-06-04
LITCHFIEID, THURSDAY, JUNE 4. 1887:

QepeuueuC, lie uid mdHy IOOnSu thluSS AWNING
the rest, he fell in love. A girl was coming
through the church-yard with pail OF water
on her head a beautiful, fair-haired, light
figured girl, the ornament Of the village This
was Tommy's sweetheart.
Good evening, Susan Prodigy he said.
Fatherland how sweet thou lockest give
us kiss, Susan
Out O. my gate, Tommy the triaer,' said
Susan, but stopping at his address, What
would such dying like apparition do WI a
kiss if l gi'ed We one ?
''Twould maybe keep me alive replied
Tommy, for I've such a pain in the chest
Try poultice,' replied the fair physician {;
a little brown paper and tar would be O more
use to ghost than ever kiss O. mine'
'I'feckins,' said Tommy, perhaps you're
right l really wish l could die once for good,
Tor nobody ever thinks can livea year. Hank
ye, Susan Prodigy, like thee so that wish
to make thee rich. If thouPt marry me,
promise to die within the twelve months, and
thee shalt have all my coin.'
That be good and tempting offer, Tom
my replied the girl, with laugh, and I'll
tn nix ont. Clear the road, Or III souse thee
with the water-can' And so saying, she
brushed past the unfortunate wooer, and trip
ping gracefully over the stile, was lost to view.
Dodderaops p said Tommy, if could only
hope to live for a few years--but it's useless
to hope it. I've had tie jsundice and the
smallpox, and the sweating sickness I've
broke all my bones I've had my head cracked :;
I've had my jaws out of joint have
cough as loud as a shepherds dog have fall
ling sickness have complaint in my liver :;
have twist in the spine have ague every
spring and autumn, and scarlet fever every
summer ; l have enlargement of the heart, and
disease of the kidneys, and elongated uvula :;
and lumhago every winter, and sciatica all the
year. Joggles it's a marvel doesn't de-
But the marvel continued, and when twenty
years more were past, Tommy was still
walking catalogue of human woes Every
part OF him seemed to 60 wrong except the
heart. lie was true to his only love, Susan
Prodigy but Susan had left the village for
long time. She had married one Dodger,
miller from Wakefield and had forgotten all
about Tommy the trfer, and his proposal of
marriage ; but Tommy had never forgotten
her. In the midst of all his pairs and dis
eases her image lay enshrned, the only bright
thing that shone upon Tommy's darkened life
He kept himself constantly informed of all her
proceedings When news came Of her to the
village, Tommy listened with more earnestness
and interest than any one else ; and once,
when he was absent for five weeks, it began to
be whispered that he had been making inqui-
ries where Wakefield was, and how the jour-
ney to so distant place might be accom-
pllshed and shortly after that, rumor came
to Susan Proddys mother, that stranger had
stopped the nurse who was carrying Susans
| child and had Eircod tho boby aud ,,l,ooa
round its neck gold chain and ring, with a
beautiful coronet on the seal, SO that the moth
CIR tattered herself the donor was q great lord,
and augured prosperity to her daughter from
so propitious all event. Tommy heard the re-
port with great satisfaction. Odds splutter-
face ? he said as he lay grooming on his bed
with govt and rheumatism, in addition to an
gina pectoris and spasms in his stomach, L be
glad the nobleman's chain and ring out O.
mothers old purse, is so highly valued All,
Susan Prodigy the miller never loved thee as
l dd-and it's very hard that can't expect
to live more than a few months, for l should
like to see what comes O. thy fair chiId--the
nurse called her Susan Proddy, VIII oh gave me
palpitation of the heart. Oh, if l could live
twenty years to learn what fortune befalls the
darling Susan the second-but it amt O. no use
|
But Tommy was again disappointed. Eight
his way to Warwick, where, in St. Mary'S
church, noble marriage was to take place.
Stephen Honeydew was about to become the
happy husband of Susan Proddy's daughter,
the lovely Susan Prodigy Dodger and from a
gallery at the side, our friend the valetudina-
rian was witness to the ceremony Susan
Prodigy, now Mrs, Dodger, had lost some por-
ton OF her youthful beauty, for she was now
rather crooked, and not quite so graceful in
her walk as when We saw her crossing the
churchyard with the WATERFALL on her head.
But in Tommys eyes she was Venus and all
the Graces still. AS the procession went
forth, he staggered down to the porch, and
placed himself so exactly in the middle that
the bride was forced to touch him with her
sleeve as she glided past. The touch of her
arm gave him new life. He ceased to cough
for moment food of warm blood rushed
into his heart. He looked round for the orr
gnal Susan Proddy, but a fat man at her side
pushed him out Of the way
Spludders ! exclaimed the invalid, Il al
ways hated that mer-but what's the use O
hating or liking either l can't have long to
live, only it would be So pleasant to survive to
see if there's ever family from this here we'd
Ding I'll keep my ears open for this Master
Honeydew ; bat they can't keep open long.
Pye got the cholic, and knots on my ANGLES,
and cataract in my eye, and swelling in the
joints, and wen on my neck, and carbhncles
on my, arm. So must get home in time
to de-
Perhaps all these diseases counteracted each
other, and left Tommy in perfect health. He
) found means before he left Warwick to forward
to the bride another ring which he had taken
out of his mothers store plain gold ring.
with the commencement Of the motto Ho-
ni''-perhaps it was the ring Of Richard him.