The Kanzas news., 1857-10-24


and IRE. and clothing went, but no recrea-
ton. No public amusements ever visited
Piainiield, sparse and quiet village far off
the track of any railroad the farmers could
not spend time to drive round the country
with their wives, or to GO visiting, except
now and then on Sunday nights to neigh
bor's; sometimes to a pairing or husking
/ bee, the very essence of which was work !;
once year donation party at the minister's;
and rare attendance upon the sewing cir
Gle, distasteful to Josh, who must get and
eat his supper alone in that case-these were
all the amusements Miss Eunice knew
Books she had none, except her Bible, Bos-
tons fouFfold State, a dictionary and an
arithmetic, relies of her school; and, if ever
she wished for more, she repressed the wish,
because those ought to be enough: she did
not know, CT dared not be conscious, that
! humanity needs something for its lesser and
trivial Ffe-that by all these things men
liye,' as well as by the word and by bread.
So she drudged on uncomplainingly, and
after ten years of patience and labor took to
her bed. and was pronounced by the Plain
field doctor to have successfully "a spine in
the back a rising of the lungs and a
| 'gitteral complaint of the lights twas it
catarrhal?) Duly was she blistered, plas-
tered and fomenled dosed with Brandreth's s
pills, mullen root and cider, tansy, burdock,
bitter-sweet, catnip and boneset teas SOW
bugs, tickled into ball and swallowed alive;
dried rattlesnake's flesh; and the powder of
red squirrel, shut into red-hot oven liv-
ing, baked till powderable, and then put
through that process in mortar, and ad
ministered fasting.
| Dearly beloved, / am not improvising.-
| All these, and sundry other and filthier me-
dicaments, which refrain from mentioning,
did once, perhaps do still, abound in the
islands of this Yankeedom, and slay their
thousands yearly, as with the jawbone of
an ass.
| Of course Miss Eunice pined and Ian
! guished, not merely from the 'simples' that
she swallowed, but because the very fang
that bad set itself in the breast of Josh's
gentle mother gnawed and rioted in hers.
At length some idea of this kind occurred
to Uncle Josh's mind. He tackled up Bo-
ker, the old horse, and set out for Sanbury,
where there lived doctor of some eminence,
and returned in triumph with DR.. Sawyer
following in his own gig.
Miss Eunice was carefully examined by
the physician, pompous but kindly man,
who saw at once there was no hope and no
help for his futtered and painting patient.
| When the millennium comes, let us hope
it will bring physicians of sufficient forti-
tuie to forbear dosing in hopeless cases. 1t
is vain to look for such in the present con-
dition of things, and DR.. Sawyer was no
better than his kind. He hemmed, hawed
screwed up one eye, felt Miss Eunice's pulse
again, and uttered, oracularly:
4 think portion of some sodorific febri-
fuge would probably allay Mrs. Cranes
hectic
We'll, expect it would confidently as
serted Josh; can get it to the store, doctor?'
No sir; it should be compounded in the
family, Mr.. Crane
Dew tell !! responded Josh, rather crest
fallen, but Frightening up as the doctor went
on to describe, in all the polysyllables he
could muster, the desirable fluid. At the
end Josh burst out joyfully with
Il sw-swan faint nothing but lemon
ade with gumarabac in't!'
| DR.. Sawyer gave him a look of contempt,
and took his leave-Josh laboring under the
profound and happy conviction that nothing
allied Miss Eunice if lemonade was all that
she needed while the doctor called, on his
| way home, to see Parson Pitcher, and to
him confded the mournfui fact that Miss
Eunice was getting ready for heaven fast
could scarcely live another week by any
mortal help. Parson Pitcher grieved truly,
for he loved and respected Eunice, and held
her as the sweetest example of unobtrusive
religion In all his church moreover he
knew how Josh would feel, and he dreaded
the task of conveying TO him this painful in
telligence, resolving, nevertheless, to visit
them next day with that intent, as it was
now too near night to make it convenient.
But more merciful and able shepherd
than he preceded him, and spared Josh the
lingering agony of an expectation that could
do him no good, Miss Eunice had rest
less night after DIR. Sawyer's visit, for, with
the preternatural keenness of her disease,
| she read the truth in his eye and tone, and,
though she had long looked on to this end,
and was ready to enter into rest, the near
ness of that untried cure agitated her. and
forbade her sleep; but faith. unfailing in
bitter need, Gained her at length, and, with
peace written upon her face, she slept till
dawn. A sudden pang evoke her, and her
start reused Josh. He lifted her on the pill
low, where the red morning light showed
her gasping and gray with death. He
turned all cold.
Good bye, Josh = said her tender voice,
fainting as it spoke. and with one upward,
rapturous look of the soft brown eyes, they
closed forever, and her head fell back on
Josh's shoulder, dead.
There the neighbor who did chores for
her of late found the two when she came in.
Josh had changed since his mother died, for
the moment Mrs. Casey lifted his wife from
his arm. and laid her patient. peaceful face
back on its pillow, Josh flung himself down
beside her, and cried aloud with the passion
and carelessness of child. Nobody could
rouse him, nobody could move him, tih Par
! son Pitcher came IN, and. taking his hand.