The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1864-11-11
Dron strincs. and Lstarad a.. her. !.l

ed ana TOOK Eleu1.
'.They1rs beautiful" she said. .tFH put
them in water;" and she went out and
brought in clean, polished beer-glass
halffull Of water and set them IN it; and
having something to do With her hands
and eyes grew less bashful And we talk
ed about flowers and seed and gardening
for a good. while --.-. -......-.-s5
/ When the moon was up WeWeut cut on
the porch and sat there. And she told
me about her city school, and teacler
who was very kind =to-ber, and of her joy
that she could beussful to her father, and
that he was 50 fond Of her.
"For you see" J." she said, ,"rd been away
so leng I knew nothing abgut home, and
not much even about pa" t.-
"Fm sure" said l. "the loss was his,
and if you " re my daughter I'd not send
you to school away from me one day. =
And then Twas so conscious that I'd made
a silly speech that said goodnight" in
quite a short way, aud wished the earth
would open and swallow me-
That was my first visit to Hetty, but
not the last Pretty soon went up to
see her every Sunday night, and waited
on her to singing-seheol; aad had got so
that could talk in my natural voice
the,frst night it was only queer husky
growl-and could express my oWn7ideas,
such as they were, in something like CON-
/ prehensible language.
Hetty had read more than l had
ever heard of. She was well educa-
ted for a girl in those days, and she
made me wonder at her smartness
when she was not afraid of talking.
| She wrote a pretty hand, too, and
could sing the sweetest ballad. My
only fear was that I was too homely,
and rough, and countrifed to suit her.
Father knew where I went Sunday
nights, and laughed about my going
/ sparkling; but mother was anxious
She thought that Hetty was not just
theegirl for farmers wife, 1 Ifancy,
and she had made mp her mind that
I should mar y my far-away cousin,
Ann Dolting. But I took my own
way, and grew fonder of dear little
Hetty every day. hoped, too that
she liked me better. At last there
had been an apple-pairing at neigh
Dor Welcomes; dancing and games
had kept us up all night, so that it
was almost dawn when I saw Hetty
home.9i How peaceful the green fields
were in the gray twilight, with the
| pale moon and stars, Just fading out
Of sight, and the dew, like diamonds,
on every spear of long. grass! I had
offered Hetty my arm, and the dear
little hand lay like snowflake on
the black cloth. Something-not my
self, I'm sure, for Pd-not have dared
to-made me suddenly stoop my head
and kiss the pretty fingers, and the
next minute we were standing face
to face quite still, with both her
hands inmine.
"Oh, Hetty!'' I said, "please don't
be angry; but 1 love you so-you are
so very dear to me. Ever since that
first evening I've felt that if you
should say l might not have that lit
tie hand to keep l should wantto die.
don't know what there is in me to
like; but, Hetty, for Heavens sake try
to like me enough to be my wife. The
best and haudsomest fellow in the
world couldn't be fonder of you. than
I am"
She wouldn't speak. 1 tried to
see her face, and it was all wet with
tears. But when 1 putmy arm about
her she did not seem angry, and 1
drew her to my heart and held her
there long enough to kiss her twenty
times; and then we walked on oves the
fields, and 1 thanked God for giving
me so great a treasure. Old Wilber
Trabb was not opposed to the match;
but when 1 talked to him about it as
Hetty bade me, he said:
eff the girl has set her heart on it
she may marry you, but I can't spare
her yet, and you are both young enough
to wait couple of years; so it was
settled that we should be married two
years from that time on my Hetty'
nineteenth birthday. "All the bet,
ter" said the old folks and Hetty was
content; but I felt.anxious to have her
all my own. She was so lovely that
I fancied every man in the world
must envy me.
AS for my doing as I did I'd have
staked my soul, and that's a pretty
heavy stake, that I never could have
done it. I was bewitched, think,
or Satan took possession of me. But
this is how it happened. We had
been engaged a year-Hetty and II
think, when a pretty Southern girl
came to Butler to live. Butler was
the next village. She had an oPpor-
tunity of making a show, for her IA
ther owned plenty of darkeys, and
gave her all the money she wanted.
She dressed elegantly, and gave her
self airs, and wondered how any wo-
man could do housework. A great
black woman with slipshod shoes came
with her towait on her, and she mover
poured out the water to wash her own
hands. She put silly notions into
many a girls head, but Hetty only
laughed at her. Why 1 never knew,
but she took a notion to me--She
glanced and smiled-she wasn't
troubled by bashfulness; and after
while found myself talking to her
1 great deal, and thinking very often
how pretty she was Once or twice
Hetty was silent and little pale af-
ter the parties and husking>frolics
where we met Miss Prlncely; but I
never thought of her being jealous,
for 1 loved her better than any living
thing, and it seemed to me she must
know it., .r.".- ... 81.
( One day, or evening rather, 1 had
been dancing with this Southern girl,
Z l. Il Il,