The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-01-30
ny FRANCIS LEE.

s,ast and faithful to death. II. on the
n.ner hand, il had been possible for Mrs.
1r;ll,;ah Bordick to have come into exls-
moo in any other body than that OF wo-
nan she would undoubtedly have been
.n."rored with the feathers of a brown spar
.ow sprightly brisk and tiny. There could
10 IN fact no two human beings in the same
ohore of life more unlike or more unlike
~ n coalesce, and yet there was never
= married pair more tremendously and
snpropriately united since the time when
Adam took that nap of his which proved
tho gulf between the bachelor and the
honedict, This reminds me to say II ne
could only have bequeathed to coming
generations the lost art of falling to sleep
sinrle and awaking married, 1t would, nu-
manly speaking, have been far more use
mi and comfortable inheritance than Tie
legacy Of wrong-minded curiosity, ana a
nerverse desire Of meddling, which falis 10
the heirs mentioned, to their perpe.uaI
wounding and hurt, in Great-grahu-iasnei
Adams last will and testament.
III all hindering preliminarjes couiu pe
thus smootheu away from the Pa,h "a Wy
timid and cowartily, there wouid oe Vastly
fewer lonely unappropriateu men anu W.
men, and let Us trust corresponding III
crease Of the solitary happily SCI ~ ia,nl-
let me now and here tell no" mere came W
be Mrs. Hilkiah Boruick.
The great honest watch dog OF man
answering TO the nameof Itliklah Bcruick,
was u blacksmith. brown ana braWny.
hammpring al his anvil all day long ana
far into the night; socty ana grimY, Dut
rpady a. the hammer, true as the Steei ana
warn, at heart as the very forge itself
Not n stones throw from the smithy door.
CO near in fact that one huge buitonwood
shadowed both. stood the low red house
where his mother, good old dame Bordick,
made and mended, and boiled her pot of
ton in peace and harmony with herself and
all human kind. The mother and son had
always lived thus, alone together that is.
always in memory OF woman. There had
been A time, ages and ages before, when
the wide, old-iashioned chimney made a
tireside for a whole family of sturdy boys
and girls. hat Hilkiah's father had been
under the wild roses in the burial ground
behind the church so long that the widow
had quite worn out her weeds and forgot
ten her loneliness: so long that the slate
headstone marking his place was messy
and gray. and his name had almost died
out from the lips oil the living. The little
ones also had been gathered one by one to
his side in frightening low oItiny graves,
pathetic sight even 10 a stranger. Bat
the DAYS and months and years had passed
with their narrow duties aud little inter
ests. till this great blank had gradually be-
come filled and they were no longer missed
ass vital loss, and at last it seemed almost as
though they had never been, and that
dame Bordick and Hilkiah had always
lived alone in the low red house, she with
her little schemes of drying apples and
braiding rag mats, and he with his cease
less hammering, forging aud filing. Only
on SUNDAYS, Thanksgiving and Fast days
was the door of the smithy closed and
no smoke pouring fromits blackened chin
ney.
Then. fettered with his best suit of home
made blue, he sat uneasilv and constrained
in the straight backed chair which was his
fathers. and which did not come over il
the MayflOwer. Not all day, of course, fol
there was church to which he went twice
with grave and reverent face, his mother
leaning on his arm, dressed in well-pre
served gown of black satin which she wore
1t her own wedding 1t was sky blue then
and ut every grand occasion since, wed
ding, christening or burial. 1t had grown
in the lapse Of a year trif1e rusty as wei
as somewhat scanty in breadth and length
but what of that? 1t was, as any. one
like a battle field, had history, and Ior
cannot buy with gold the old associations
Besides all that, nobody thought OF stop
ping to criticize the age and fashion o
her garments, after once catching sign
of her face, full of all kindness ant
motherly sympathy. In summer she al
ways carried, hung on her arm BY
green ribbon, turkeys feather fan
large enough for respectable sail to Ton
Thumbs pleasure boat, if he has one; ant
in their season she also carried great rec
rose and a huge bunch of caraway which
she was ready to bestow with generous
hand OH the sleepy. far and near.
When the Sabbath sun vanished behint
Bigelow's mountain, Hilkiah dropped int
<3o1 nd vAon Mt n fQpN n
and milk the cow with as much relief a
David felt when he put off Saul's armor.-
Was anybody sick or in sorrow, anythln,
which needed strong arm or warn
heart, ready action and few words. Hilkial
Bordlck was the first man thought of; bu
when it came to the glitter and polish AM
graces of life he was the very last. ii
shone by a sick bed, but would have beeI
in absolute eclipse at picnic; the braves
in time of deadly peril and the most COW
ardly at a party; dumb at a public meet
ing but full OF the highest eloquence at
fire or freshet. Thus they were and SO the.
lived, they two. content and happy.
'Hilkiah is good son, and he will max
somebody a good husband said the sag
mothers.
He is good match for anybody, Boz
dick is. He is steady, hard working mar
and he will always get good living. n
is likely, too, corroborated the sagacIou
and prudential fathers.
But the daughters, who after all were th
interested ones that had this matter to DC
eide, averred they should sooner fall i
love with an elephant, and would not maj
ry him if he were the last man of til
race. Whether this was girlish exaggers
ton or the literal truth there was no mean
of knowing.
Hilkiah Bordick, on his part, thought n
more than the Alps of marrying. But bt
cause he was not to remain forever ha
shear, the providence which waits on hea,
en-made matches and ''shapes our end
rough hew them how we may helped
do what he would assuredly have neye
done alone. Providence, as we know, a
ways works by means, and in this cas-
worked by means what more likely of
little, plump. black-eyed woman name
Nancy BLY,. The world was not made in
day, neither was the Hoosac tunnel, an
thus it was work of time for the blossoI
o burst out on this century plant, prov
dence shaping slowly.
First all, dame Bordick leaned heavie
upon Hilkiah's arm in their accmstome
walks to church, then she gave up goin
except in bright, warm weather, and fina
ly the distance grew too long for her, an
she dropped off entirely, sitting instead i