The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-01-16
MARGARET HAsTINGs-A TALE OF COUy-
TRY LIFE. .-.. .. aFes

TRY LIFE. .e4
Margaret Hastings was genuine Yankee
girl. None of your pining, languishing,
novel-reading daughters of fashion and
idleness, but bright-eyed, rosy checked,
bouncing lass. 1t took full yard of ribbon
to make her Sunday belt-and yet Msrga-
ret was well proportioned. Her feet were
large enough to support her body, and her
shoes were large enough to hold her feet,
so that he's motions were easy and graceful.
If this description of our heroine is not
sufficient, we will add that she had a bright,
clear complexion, none the less pretty that
the pure winds of heaven often breathed
upon it, and the glorious sun, in its earliest
risings, shone upon her milking stool. Mar.
garet had calm blue eye, q serene for
head, surmounted by luxuriant mass of
brown hair, which was always neatly and
tastefully disposed. In fact, she was what
Oh deacon Giles denominated to his son
Robert, by way of commentator, as q
'sgood, wholesome looking gal" .
With this description of the personal
charms of our heroine, gentle reader, you
must be content; and when tell you she was
reared on one of our New England farms,
was the oldest Of ten children, and the sole
nurse of her invalid mother, and the only
female laborer in that large old farmhouse,
YOU have some faint idea Of her situation in
life.
But in order to have any just conceptions
of her usefulness, and the extent of her in
dustrious habits, you should have visited
farmer Hastings, and seen the fruits Of her
toll. The drawers and cupboards filed
with snowy linens nicely polished and fold
ed, and redolent of fragrant herbs; and
then the chests Of flannel, stockings and
mittens, all carefully preserved for the COM
ing winter. Mother Giles said they looked
good enough to eat. May be they did; but
then, there was no need Of eating them, for
Maggy's pantry and dairy were as we'll stor-
ed with eatables rs her chamber was with
wearables. Such golden butter and cheese,
such pots of honey, such pickles and pre-
serves, pies and doughnuts, that mother
Giles-who, it must be confessed, had rath-
er an odd association Of ideas-said it was
a sight for ''sore eyes to look upon.
And Margaret had lover-just such an
one as we should have selected among a
thousand for her. Sam Hardy was, first,
an honest man-and that, you know, has
been said to be the noblest work of God;
and then for industry, common sense, enter
prise and good management, Sam was with
out doors what Margaret was within. The
two had grown up together. At church, at
school, and at all their merry-makings, they
had associated. And now, as they stood in
the village choir on the calm, holy Sabbath,
Margaret poured forth the clearest treble,
and Sam the deepest bass, the sweet melo-
dy of their voices seemed the prelude to the
harmony of their future welded life.
The farms of Mr.. Hardy and Mr.. Hast
ings were contiguous, and when they to-
gether had built the line fence, Margaret's
little brother, waggish boy of thirteen,
suggested the propriety of leaving q little
gap for gate, "else We should become
strangers" SAID Tommy, "with q high wall
between u.s." .....'u- ..-....
Hardy did not notice the roguish twinkle
Of that dark eye, for he was a matter-of-
fact body, and seldom joksd himself-but
he acted on the suggestion and built a gate.
Tommy put on a bright coating of red ocher,
s'that people might not miss it.'' he said;
and the well-trodden path through this same
red gate became the pleasantest walk of the
afianced lovers.
Margaret would have been contented that
this state Of things should exist for years,
so that she could still have ministered to the
wants of her pale, gentle mother, and diff
fused comfort throughout the home Of her
childhood. But Hardy was getting impa-
tient; his new house began to look gloomy,
closed up as it had been for more than i
year, and he fancied that the cows, and
sheep, and oxen, looked lonely when he
turned to leave them, as though they miss.
ed the one being essential to his hap
pines.. The young people, too, Of the
neighborhood, were counting on that we'd
ding which seemed 20 long in coming, we'll
knowing, BY the huskings and pairing bees
they had held at farmer Hastings, that .
wedding there, and especially Margsret's,
must be splendid affair. Q S' 'SfAa
At last farmer, Hastings began to COM,
misserate the would-bs benedict, and COM
uunicate his sympathy to his bstter.half.
81 say, wife" J" he began, as he sat in her
llttA room, taking q incoming, "why don't
you ell Maggy she amt obliged to stay hern
wa,tlneon us all her days2" IS
II cans husband, )" said the feeble wo-
man, IN a1uivering voice; 'tyou must tell
her yourself but it will be sad day for all
OF US when tn dear girl leaves. .''sts'o ~
"on, ldontknsw, 2 ssid be, drawing his
rough hands owe. his ewes. owe shall get
along sonshsw; tire are pleuty Of rirl..3
| 10 be sure it would ske a score Of them 10
Gil Maggy's place, NJ the child has done
her duty by us, and weuust give her nm,
So saying, the good mn l.;d mn. His nina
and hustled out Of the rom. thai ba % mrEuht rb
not see the tears that he, lev his wife rs
shedding.
That evening the kiadr elom.n FOLLOWED
his daughter into the bleah;nv-oro"nd
(whither she had gone to turih.e Ie.t'-sH
Of linen, and in homsly. but enn;ne hs.
cause heart-felt eloquenee, sun6l thensd IL
heart Of the little weight that optessel 4.
He then hurried q roll Of bills into ser h.nd.
and walked quickly away to look a ~
pigs and poultry, q through 'thcy IA snt