Smyrna times., 1858-07-09
: ELII &C Il e D ALE.I
OLD B Err IA H.

lay black on the ground, and the savage wind
WIS whlsting furously round the house, my
friend and sat by the fire of the only private
room of the miserable howell ycleped inn or ho-
IN the village of Pool-beach, waiting for the
rival Of the Northern Diver, the long-ex-
,..:i" steamer for the south.
Miserable we were l assure you. Declared
"a gong to bed by the pleasing assurance
nat even our great Importance (Which we had
men good care to have thoroughly impressed
On the Plastic mind of the sole and most unfor-
tunate waiter of the Dolphin y would not pre-
vent our being left behind by the steamer, we
sat shivering by that smoky fire. in that cold
stone hoored room, and listened to the clock as
it struck all the hours from eleven to cue. We
were beginning too, to get very sleepy. but
with a fortItude worthy Of Agamemnon him.
self, after long and protracted debate we final
" came to the conclusion that it would be safer
to resist The advances Of the drowsy god-
Ned my boy said my friend : | pity you
q was by far the younger of the two both in
years and in travelling experience)
Thank you,' | replied but what good will
il do me! Will it make me a bit the more
comfortable or reconcied to this abominable
place!
There now, you see, with your characteris-
tic Impotence, you never wait till finish my
sentence, but
Because you speak so slowly
And you are such fast man. But look
here, if we can get some more Goals for the
fire, and two other bottles Of wine, I'll tell you
story, which will at last
Act a soporfc you mean. Very well, |
agree
As sooa as we had bulied the waiter into
submission (Which occupied an hour by the
clock, people are so slow hcre,) my friend be- |
gan his tale in the following manner:
when was last in this part of the world
ali Puolbeach in a state Of great excite |
ment from an occurrence which involved one
OF the principal and most unpopular landed pro-
prietors OF the place. This was Beriah Beeston |
= old Berah,' or rich old Berry, as he was
called-a farmer, of whom it was commonly /
asserted that he had the DEVILS own book. He
lived up in the whtewashed tumble-down old
/
cliffs Bot he was miser, my boy he was
miser Ned; ShyIock of man, whose heart
was as iron bound as his noney-chest and one
too, who hadn't sould in the world for whom
to provide except himself and his old house
keeper, ard | don't believe he gave her any
wages. If he was ugly, she was monsrous-
She had small cunning, gray bloodshot eyes,
peering out from deeply hanging eyebrows, her
nose was serried like notified soap, and her lips
were dry and pinched. and severe her long
hair white as the driven snow, constantly mat
ted itself over her eyes, rendering her all the
more hideous and he called this old bag his
housekeeper But housekeeping was the light
est of her duties; she was his friend his conf
dant, his counsellor and.attcndant imp. What
his black dog was to Agrippa, Madge Nugget
was to Beriah-his Egera torsooth!
There is great fair held on the meadow on
the top of the cliff here once year. 1t is mar
ket and fair in one, and people come from all
the ad jacent shires to be present at PoOlbeach
Tuesday Fair, as it is called. According to his
custom Beriah brought his cattle to the fair,
and according to his custom, made good {
thing fit as he said, meaaing that he squeezed
every possible fraction out of his victims
Il WONDER said modestly and medtatively,
at this luncture, if such men feel any pleasure
in such dOingsr
Yes said my FRIEND believe they do. In
this world people are all selfish. There is no
such thing as duty. | don't believe man
would stick to any calling all his life did he not
like it,
Il deny that said l, warming up to argumen-
tative pitch, 81 deny that in toto. remember
for example, old Mansfield the grocer, man
who stood behind his counter every day OF his
life. | don't believe he would have done it, as
he hated it, unless for the sake of his family,
because he thought it TO be his duty to repeat
a dozen times in the hour, Il Fine day, but
blOwy,' aud pocket the half pence
MY dear fellow, doubt it. am very scep-
teal on that head. But pray, allow me to con-
tnue my story
To this fair, he continued, there regularly
came a poor half wtted man named from his
calling, more majOrum, Peter the Pedlar lie
was a favorite with everybody Poor Peter
lie had ribbons for the girls, buttons for the
danes, the last newspaper for the gossiPs, and
the latest from the seat of war for the village
politicians. Now this Autolycus. like others Of
his fraternity had his annual rounds nor did he
ever appear in Poolbeach more than twice in
the year, of which the great Tuesday Fair was
one and Christmas the other. His visits, there.
fore, being 30 few and far between, were hailed !
as angelic, the consequence of which was that
before the end of the day, his wallet was we'll
nigh empted and his pockets we'll nigh filled,
and the heart of the halfwtted creature bea