East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1860-04-12

rest and quiet, eh, my dear?" he said
elevating his voice, and addressing the
lady.
90, yes, certainly, a little rest and
quiet" she reptile | with nod of the head
and fell to work ON some crochet again
as il for dear life
"Her health is hardly what it ought tc
be" resumed Mrs. Oldwink, in low i'm
pressive tone
"But we must get you to drive us out,
Jobson, for an honr or two every day;
and try the effect Of this pare country
air. j trust that your sherry will bear
investigation"
/ went down stairs deeply impressed
with the afiabilty of Mr. Oldwink, and
fetched up bottle out Of private bin,
which was never touched except upon
special occasions. After dinner, Mr..
Oldwink drank his wine, and read the
daily paper; and we heard no more either
of him or his lady till the following morn.
ing.
The same evening another stranger ar
rived at the Red Lion, who walked di
rect into the commercial room, and or
dered tea and a bed We somehow took
him for commercial gentleman; but he
had no luggage with him, except very
small carpet bag.
He Just walked in, ordered his tea, and
asked what company there was in the
house; then, saying he had the toothache
very bad, tied red silk handkerchief
round his head, and getting into warm
corner, never stirred out Of it till he
went to bed.
Next morning came a letter directed
to Mr.. Purliss, which he claimed, so of
course his name was Purkiss. That was
g.! we ,earneri, about iim. As s5r liz
appearance, it was neither gentlemanly
nor vulgar, but mid way between the
two. He was dressed in suit of brown
clothes; and was altogether a quiet, COM
mon-place sort of fellow He still COM
planned Of the toothache, and kept the
red handkerchief tied round his face; he
said he should not stir out that day, but
try what little nursing Of himshlf would
do towards taking away the pain.
Half an hour after that, when / set off
to drive Mr. and Mrs. Odwink round the
town, looking through the window saw
Mr.. Purkiss walking up and down, with
his head tied up, and his hand pressed
against his check. He frightened up for
a moment as we passed, and came to the
window to see us off
| drove Mr.. and Mrs. Oldwink through
Tunstone and round Turstone, and
pointed out all the interesting places /
could think of. Mr. Oldwink seemed to
be gentleman of much information, and
made learned remarks on everything we
examined. Mrs. Uldwinll had not much
to say, but appeared to be so greatly graf
fled with the airing, that Mr.. Oldwink
arranged another for the following day.
When | reached home [ was greatly
surprised at finding Mr.. Purkiss seated
comfortably in the snuggcry with my
wife. This was favor seldom granted
TO any but very old friends, and | hardly
knew what to think at seeing stranger
there. / suppose my wife's soft heart
had been first drawed toward him by the
report of his toothache; and as he took
all the remedies recommended by her,
she hardly knew how to praise him
enough, and said he was the incest gen.
tleman she had seen for long time.
/ drove out Mr.. and Mrs. Oldwink
every forenoon. We visited every place
Of interest for miles round TunstOne; and
Mr.. Oldwink made me tell him everything
| knew about each place we visited and
always added to what said few moral
remarks of his own, so that | became
more certain than ever that he was Il
clergyman away from home on holiday;
and when l Just limited the matter to him
(for / confess was curious about it,) he
only smiled, and said | might have been
further out in my guess.
AS for Mr.. Purkiss, l give You my
word that he grew more of a puzzle to
me every day. Neither Jim nor / knew
what to make of him; and when Jim
didn't know what to make of man, that
gimblct eye of his always did double duty
in the way of keeping watch. lie and |
laid our heads together about it, you may
be sure; but the more we thought about
it, the more in the dark we seemed to be;
and though Mr. Purxiss was quiet, in
offensive, civil-spoken man enough, yet as
I've always found, the less we know of
people the more inclined we are to Judge
hardly Of them. If he had any business
to do in Tunstone, he seemed in no hurry
to do it for he seldom went out, and
never for more than half an hour at
timc-and that of itself was very sus-
picious-but was generally moving up
and down the house from one room to
another, as people having the toothache
often will do; and Jim found it hard
work dodging about after him so as not
to let him know he was watched.
We'll, Christmas Eve arrived and all
our guests departed except Mr.. and Mrs.
Oldwink and Mr.. Purkiss, and they in.
formed me that they intended staying
over Christmas Day. Now, during all
the years was in the public line, made
a point of asking any company we might
have in the house to dine with me at my
own table on Christmas Day; and / don't
think that any of them could ever say
that / gave them shabby dinner or
poor bottle of wine at such times. /
kept up the custom in the present in
stance, and was pleased that my invita-
ton was not refused. NV old friend