The weekly Columbian., 1857-03-07
The Tuscaloosa Girl.

The Tuscaloosa Girl.
"Oh, amt they, though? aims they
good loolsingl should rather think they
are," said Tom. " l tell you what it is :.
| can just show you as pretty girls in the
South and West as you can find anywhere
ON the dry land. One met at ball in
Tuscaloosa was good enough for anybody,
and if any white man said she warn't,
jus. let him say it loud enough for me to
hear him."
"Tell us all about her, Tom," sugges-
ted |.
Well, gentlemen, she was about FIVE
feet high, and eighteen years old, black
hair and eyes, and dressed as tasty as
any woman in the States. Awful good
on dancing, :oo | kind of froze to her
right off, and got no better very FAST after
having an introduce. Tell you what it
!, was-she was mighty stunning piece
waltzed with her nigh half an hour, and
then we sauntered out on the piazza to
get cool. Got to talking of the moon and
the stars, and all that sort of thing, (queer
how fond of astronomy young folks are.)
told her that [ knew one star bright
particular star '--Shakespeare,-(you
know that would just take down all the
rest of them put toge;her.) She asked
what star twas hemmed and hawed.
and did little bit of the difficult with
such girls as her-fnally hinted, in a
mild way, that she was the star, and
squeezed her hand gently at the same
time. Lord o'mercy, what pretty hand
she did have just as white as a jolly
little white rose leaf and no bigger than
three of my fingers. Well, when l took
and squeezed it she gave little bit of q
pressure back again, that ran tingling all
the way up my bronchial artery, and
turned the blood to pure nectar then
she rolled up her eyes SO that the moon
shone on them, and could look away
down into them about quarter of a mile.
That made me feel kind of queer, you
know, and somehow, without exactly
knowing much about it, found my arm
around her taper waist, and could feel
her blessed little heart jumping, like ..
rat in steel-trap. Directly she laid her
head on my shoulder, so that her warm.
sweet breath swept over my cheek, and
kind of rustled up the end of my mus
tache, at the same time letting the full
flood of tenderness pour up from her
eyes into mine.
Don't laugh, boys, if do get a little
highfalutin'-you don't know how you'd
have felt, if you'd been in my boots just
then. 1t took my breath away; but l
mustered up all my courage, and turned
around little, put my left hand under
the back of her head, raised it up, ('fraid
l mnssed her hair slightly; it was done
up mighty nice, / tell you,) and bending
down, gave her ringing kiss right Oh
her mouth.
Now, boys, by jingo! tell you whs;
it is; I've tasted sweet things afore now
talk about honey and sugar-talk about
your Charlotte Russes- or your meril
CUES la creme-they're nowhere
felt as if had died in candy shop, a
had gone to the forty-ninth heaven, VIII,
/ was eating sweetened ambrosia, with
whole crowd Of she angels playing OF.
golden harps, all inside of my head. |
swow if my heart didn't swell up as big
as two -bushel basket; and it hammered
away, thump, thump, thump, SO you might
have heard it mile off. She didn't say
anything when l done it; and l was just
going to do some more, when Jim Saw
yer came along with his girl, and inter-
rupted US. | hate Jim Sawyer! !"
Too bad, by half" said Joe, who had
been very quiet during Toms narration.
"Did you follow it up?"
No. was only travelling through
there; left next day, and never saw her
again, nor any other girl equal to her. I
tell you what, I'd rather have lost the
best paying patient | ever had, than to
have lost sight of that girl But let's go
and have something-I'm as thirsty as a
craven image"