Litchfield enquirer., 1864-01-28


 ble temper, which, for its improvement, requir- ed soothing rather than aggravating treatment, he resented the lang uage of Mr. Thomas-the gentleman who "led' the kitchen at Mr. Firz- Rex's-whose questions were couched in some such terms as; 7" Now then, conwic, where's them boots ?" of Mrs. Molly the cook, who never omitted an opportunity of saying " Git out O my way, rorkis. or I'll haste you as we'll as this ere jint j" and of Miss 'mela, the la dys maid, who deprecated his proximity in the words :: !" Don't come anigh nae, you little mur- derer-don't." In fact. his feelings were at last worked upon to such an extent that he emptied kettle of boiling water upon Mr. Fhomas's calves, in consequence of which the gentleman was confined to his bed with an ad di tional discomfort in the fact that he was forced to lie with his face downwards :. that he anointed Mrs. Molly's rubicund features with tablespoonful ofhot dripping; and that he, in his own parlance, gave Miss 'mela one for herself"-the effect of which was that one of the eyes of the recipient was surroun ded by black halo. It followed that J. J. had to return to the authorities at the work house, who found themselves; in an awkward dilemma between their desire to make J. J $ life an intolerable burden to him and their fear of his violent temper. Now, just at this par ticular juncture, one of those miraculous events took place, upon which, though the worlj knows nothing about it, depends nearly all the evil and the good whereof the checker-work of lfo is formed Mir Nonan, of Noware Hall, fell thinking. It suddenly aawned upon him that you can seldom, enforce your extreme rights against an offender without 10 Some ex- tent damaging the innocent-that you can rarely cut your exact pound of flesh wtheu. shedding some drops of blood. He reflected that old J s was case in point /; it is true he was an lntolerabie poaching old rufian but an infant can't poach, and J.J was an infant when old J. was transported He knew the Hon. and Rev. Mir. Fitz Rex, and had heard frcm him the dreadful story of J. J.'s miscon- duct. He didn't feel that J. J. had any claim 1 on him but stil he pitied J. J. Besides, he was of a quick temper himself, and found him. self half sympathizing with the boys outbursts. He couldn't help -eonfessing to himself that he had had finger in the pie which J. J. had to swallow and he determined to make it lit tie more palatable for him. J. J. was accord ngly admitted to Noware Hall in the capaci- ty of "all sorts," that is, one who helped the groom and the valet, and everybody, indeed who wanted help witch he could give. And i. was astonishing how he improved under " civil' influences There were few ebu!ii- tions even against Mir Noman himself, Wlio was more than necessarily im.erious some times ; but by the time J. J. was twenty (and l he had entered Mir. Nomau' $ service al fifteen 6 mixture of forbearanca, encouragement, ani. restraint on the part of Mir. Nonan and his household had rendered Miss 'melias young murderer" quite a reasonable and docle being. J J., moreover, had been gradually promot ed to the post of confidential attendant upon Mir Noman (who had dismissed his valet for pecu- lation) always rode out with him, always went on his errands, and when he was not required for anything of the kind, usually worked in the garden. It is no: to be supposed that he had lived in world so obligingly communica- tive of unpleasant intelligence os our own with ont receiving full account of his fathers car eer but all the different falsehoods had set in the middle of them like white camelia Tn the middle of bouquet, the one pure truth that his father had been transported for life on the evidence of Mr. Noman and his keepers. He had obtained a copy of newspaper which corroborated this part of the story though as for the rest that was told him, it was so con- tradictorv that he hadly knew what to belleve
 J. J. was-working one day in the garden at that part where the wall was low and looked into the high road, when he became aware of a weather beaten face, shaded by a rotten-look- | ing straw hat from under which peeped locks of glizzled gray hair. The chin that belonged to the face rested on the wrist of one of two hands which had evidently worn few gloves and had been freckled by the rays of many powerful sun and the hands very aptly finish ed off two brawny arms which were folded ur- on the top of the wall. He paused with his right foot upon the right shoulder of the spade share, and looked up at the weather-bea face, and opened his mouth and stared agape. He had never seen the face before, to the best of his re collection, but somehow it seemed to him familiar ; he fancied that the face was his own, only aged-barbarized. The eyes which were in the face twinkled, and the mouth which made a rent in the face widened and said:
 say, young man P
 "Well 2" rejoined the young man.
 ~ You didn't 'appen to know young man name O J. J., did yerf" continued the face !; |" e works ere, I'm told"
 That's me-" said J. J.
 Take paw" rejoined the stranger, and one of the freckled hands was extended. J. J. hesitated moment, but eventually