The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1859-02-19

| 1atner-Or lHFSclf nau any fec0llectlon
of my mother, or knowledge of her be-
You'd what we gathered from others. |
believe she was good woman, and | am
sure that my father loved her dearly
Her health had great and disastrous
effect upon him. Always a careless
man and rather free liver, he rode har-
der aud drank deeper, kept open house
for very proniscuous guests, squandc. ed
his money, and in short, let things go to
rack and ruin lie might have got mar
ried again-pcrhaps it would have been
better for us ii he had-for he was still
young and handsome but, believe, his
affection for his dead wife restrained him
from giving US step-mothcr. Mean
while we ran wild about t he house, and
were brought-up anyhow.
have remarked in life that men who
have never known mothers care are
harder natured than their happier fell
lows; deficient in tenderness, pity, fore
bcarancc. Perhaps it is not unnatural
that they should be so. Jack and |, in
our boy-days, promised to be no excep-
ton to this rule--if | may so call it,
We were, l fancy, as hot tempered,
wrong-headcd, ill-disciplined, and to use
Il word which ought not to have become
Anticipated, as masterful a couple of lads
as any in Yorkshire. Which is pretty
bold assertion, too. We often quarrcllcd,
and sometimes fought savagely. Our
father never interfcred with US, and no.
body else dared to do so.
Stop though. I am wrong there
Our uncle did. He never came to the
house mot that he came often since his
sisters. death, or, indeed, before with
out saying something harsh to one of us
something that set our boys breasts
ranking against him. We were no cow
ards, and often gave him as good as he
brought. Our father would laugh at such
alterations. | fancy | see him now, with
his handsome flushed face, red coat, and
top boots. as he came one day, all splash
cd from hunting and found Jack shaking
ing with passion at Il speech fmy uncle s.
Ny brother had just been fshcd out of
the mlll-stream, and my uncle had APP
piled an cquivocal provcrb in his favor.
Let the lads bide. Miles, he said,
laughing cor they'll be too much for &c
some day. Do thou look after thy own
little wcnch at home
That reminds me that I have not vet
spoken Of her. My uncle had got mar
rled very ncypecledly, about two years
after his sisters death, to a hln!son.
widow, with one child, little girl. His
choice surprised every body, for she was
Il gay = leasure-Iovine woman, without
fortune, ard had lived in York and Lon
don. believe she came OF Irish lineage.
Anything more contrary to his suilcn.
sclf-wIl!ed, local Yorkshire nature could
scarcely be imagined. They did not
live happily together, and she would
have quilted him if his passionate tenn
per had not beaten down all orro5iion
My aunt was rather Il tnvorite with us,
being good-humorcd though frivolous
woman. Her little girl WAS one Of the
most beautiful creatures in this world, /
do believe.
We were shy of her; conscious, when
IN her presence, Of a boyish awkwardncss
and want Of breeding which never trou-
b!ed us elsewhere. She knew this we'll
enough, for, baby-co1uctte as she was,
all her mothers nature promised to re-
appear in her. | have looked coyerily
into her eyes, wondering at their exceed
ing beauty and fascination, being dimly
and uneasily cognizant, at the same time
that it would be unsafe to trust them,
and apprehcnsive that she might look
up and at once divine my thoughts, as
she always could. Jack cared more
about her than [ at that time, and
she knew it and treated him worse.
don't think he was jcalo us Of nc in those
days.
My father liked to have her at the Hall,
and would have kept her permanently,
it my uncle had permitted. lie used to
call her his little sweetheart, humorcd
all her whims, and did his best to spoil
her. as he did us and all Children
When the cholera came into our part of
the country tit ravaged all England that
Year, and she and her mother were at
tucked by it, lie rode over to town every
day to inquire about them. Katy, that
| ""o hSi h"il'S, iSCoNciCu, Dut MY aunt
died. Her daughter had not then at
tanned her twelfth birthday,
Just q year afterwards, almost to a
day, my father got bad fall while hunt
ing, his spine sustaining So severe injury
that he only lived long enough to APP
point my uncle our guardian, and to take
his leave of us, with many words of af-
lection and regret that he had not proved
a more prudent-he could not have been
kinder-parent. His affairs were so
embarrassed that another six months
must nave produced bankruptcy. He
had mortgaged the estate-in itself
much deteloratcd in value-to the
fullest extent and in short, when all
his debts were paid, nothing remained to
us but our mothers legacy, of which
we should come into possession at the
ages Of one and-twenty, | was then ten
Jack thirteen. We went home with
our uncle to the great, grim, cold hous c
IN the dull country town.
CONCLUSION NEXT WEEK)
II