Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-07-29

! he could not love anything SO much better than
his ease as to suffer, Josey he was safe lie
thought, or said, he loved me but he Was
mistaken"
Safe, indeed ! he ought to have been shot!'
Hush, dear !"
There was long pause. 1t was as when
you lift wreck from the tranquil sea and let
it fall again to the Depths useless to wave OF
shore the black and ghastly hulk is covered
it is seen no more but the water palpitates
with circng rings, trembIes above the grave,
daShes quick and apprehensVe bilows upon
the sand and is long in regaining its quiet sur
face.
g I wonder if there ever was a perfect man, -
said JO at length, drawing a deep sigh
You an American girl, 10, and don't think
at once of Washington 2"
My dear, | am bored to death with Wash
ington al Amerjcqia A man how dare you
call him man don't you know he is myth,
an abstraction, plaster-of-ParS cast Did
you ever hear any human trait of his noticed :?
Weren't you brought up to regard him as
species of special seraph, sublime and stain
less figure, inseparable from a grand manner
and scroll ? DID you ever dare suppose he
ate. or drank, or kissed his wife ? You start
ed then at the idea saw you !"
" You are absurd, Jo 1t is true that he is
exactly, among US, what demigods were to the
Greeks, only less human than they But
when | once get my neck ont of the school
yoke | do not start at such suggestions as
yours | believe he did comport himself as a
man OF like passions with Others, and was as
far from being hero to his raict-de otqmJre
as anybody"
By this time we were at home, and 10 flung
her parasol on the bench in the porch, and sat
down beside it with gesture of WEAKNESS aud
disgust mingled
"Why will you, of all people, Sarah, quote
that tinkling superficial trash Of proverb, so
palpabIy French, when the true reason why a
man is not hero to his lackey is only because
he is seen with lackey'S eyes,-the sight of a
low, conventonridden, narrow, uneducated
mind, unable to take broad enough view to
see that a man is hero because he is a mau,
because he oyerleaps the level of his life, and
is greater than his race being one OF them
If he were of the heroic race, what virtue in
being heroic it is the assertion of his trivial
life that makes his speciality evident, the
shadow that throws out the baS-relcf We
chatter endeSsiy about the immense good of
Washington's example believe its good
would be more than doubled, could we be made
nationally. to see him as "a human natures
daily food having mortal and natural wants,
tastes, and ufrmities but building with and
over ali, by the hep of God and a good will
the noble and lofty ediice of a patriot man
hood, pure life Of duty and devotion, sublime
for its very strength and s!mpleneSS, heroic be-
cause manly and human"
The day had waned, and the sunset lit Jose
phine's excited eyes with fire she was not
beautiful, but now, if ever beauty visited her
met my eyes fixed on her
"What is it, Sally What do look Iike?"
Very pretty just now, 10 your eyes are
bright and your cheek flushed the sunshine
suits you | admire you tonight"
=" / am glad" said she, naiveIy. "I often
wish to be pretty"
" A waste wish 10 l-and yet l have en-
tertained it myself"
" It's not so much matter for you Sarah /;
for people love YOU And besides, you have Il
certain kind Of beauty your eyes are beau
tiful, ul,-rather too sad, perhaps, but fine in shape
and tint !; and you have a good head and a
delicately outlined face Moreover, you are
picturesque people look at you, and then look
again-aud any way, love yOu don't they ?"
People are very good to me, Jo"
Oh, yes ! we all know that people as a
mass, are kindly ,conSderate, and unsellish, that
they are given to loving and admring disagree
able and ugly people ; in short that the mil
enium has come. Sally, my dear you are "A
small hypocrite-or else-Bnt think we won't
establish a mu' ual admiration society tonight,
as there is only two of Us besides | am hun
CRY let us have tea
The next day, Josephine left me. As we
walked together toward the landing of the
steamboat, Lefty Al!iS emerged from green
lane to say good bye, and down it's vista | dis
cerned the handsome, lazy person Of Henry
Maiden, but did not inform Lefty of my dis
coverv.
A year passed away, to me with the old mo-
nOtonouS routine full of work not wanting in
Solace barren, indeed of household enjoymentS
and viciSsitudeS solitary, sometimes deSolate
yet peaceful even in monotony. But this new
spring had not come with such serene neglect
to the other two of us three. Against advice,
remOnstranceS, aud entreaty from her good
friends, Lefty His had married Henry Maiden
aud in attire more tasteful, but quite as faI
from Quakerism as Josephine had predicted
beamed npon the inhabitants of SIepingtou
from the bow-window, or open door, of a cot
tage very Ornee indeed ; while the odor of a
toerable cigar served as Mr.. MaIden's expo
nent, wherever he abode And to Josephine
had come loss no annual resurrection should
repair her mother was dead, she too wa:
orphaned she bad never known her faith
er her only sister was married far away; ant
| kept an Old promise in going to her for {
years stay at least.
Aunt BoyleS property had consisted chiefly
in large cotton mills owned by herself and hel
twin brother, who dying before her left her al
bis own share in them These mills were on
noisy little river in the western part of MIasSa
chusetts,--in a valley, narrow, but picturesque
and so far above the level of the sea that u.