Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1862-01-15


liked 10 speak Of. The sounds from the fu /.
riOus, splitting and sHaFling cats they never
forgot l=.t
Her dis60ured and mutilated remains
were decently Inferred, and when the spring.
time carried away the snow, they leVeled the
house with the ground. But though they
buried her out of their sight and pulled
down the rotten cottage she had Inhabited
for so many weary years, the fearful mem
ory Of her evil name and dreadful end re-
mained, and nearly all the village came to
regard her as, in very truth, q witch,
Only Mrs. Marjoram took from the cot
tage with pious love an ancient and much
thumbed book, on whose Ay-leaf was writ
ten Jason Fletcher, his Bible" Then, hav-
ing no longer any reason to conceal the
early history Of the deceased, she related to
the village gossips-as q warning against
trusting too fully TO evil appearances-the
following
STORY OF POOR HANNAH LEE.
A long time ago-before the middle of the
last century, in fact--there dwelt in one of
the most flourishing towns in Westera Mas
sachusetts o family of Puritan extraction
named Fletcher. Straightest among the
strict John Cotton Fletcher and his wife
Mehitabel held all lightness Of conduct or
gamesomeness Of speech as sin most de-
voutly to be prayed and striven against
and not only "kept' the ten commandments
with pious zeal, but for the better serving
of the Lord, invented On eleventh, which
read "Laugh not at ALL" Holy days they
knew, in number during the year ffty-four,
namely the ffty-two "Sabbaths" and the
| Governors Fast and Thanksgiving Days;
| holidGys they held in utter adherence, deem
ing Christmas, especially, an invention Of
the devil. On "work-dsys" they worked
on "Sabbath-days" they attended the preach
ing of the word; otherwise, on the Lords
day, doing nothing save to eat and drink
what was absolutely necessary to keep them
from fainting. They lived to praise the
Lord, and they must eat to live. But no
cooking or other labor was done on that day,
and if the old horse was saddled to carry
them to meeting it was because that was q
work of necessity. On Fast and Thanks
giving days-becsuse they were peculiarly
of Puritan origin-there was an especial ef-
fort at godliness, and woe, then, to any pro-
flaming youngster who dared to shout or play
within sound or sight of Deacon Fletcher's
premises. Every Saturday night, at sun
set, all tools for men and playthings fol-
| cnllu1en were put away 10 pe ulSIuroeu III
more till sunset on Sunday. All papers
books, knitting-work, sewing, were disposed
of tout of the way" 1t was necessary tC
milk the cows, feed the pigs, and saddle the
horse, but that was all the work that was
allowed. AS to any jest on any holy day
that was, beyond all other things, abhoren
to their ideas of Christian duty. Life will
them was a continued strife against sin
cheered only by the hope of casting off al
earthly trammels at last, to enter upon on,
long, never-ending Sabbath. And thei
Sabbath of idleness was more weary thai
their "week-day" of work.
Yet they are an humble, honest, and up
right pair, walking purely before God &C
cording to the light they had, and so highl!
respected and honored in the community
that the fat of the minister himself-and il
those days the minister's word was claw ant
gospel in the smaller New England vii
lages-was hardly more potent than that o
Deacon Fletcher.
TO BE CONTINUED.