Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-05-17
VOLUME XVI.

min, is that all you're good for? 7" "Ther
was more lost at Flodden min." And
was true Sandy would have worked NOR,
wonderful sampler, and proved a meekel
and more gracious woman than Jess, fo
whom, with spice of chivalry, all Mr.
Stewards outward favor was reserved.
AS for Jess Stewart, she would have re
sponded splendidly to her fathers wishes
but for the trifing accident of having beel
born a girl, coupled with the Apostle Paul.
prohibition to a woman. She would have
made fine minister, frank, straight-for
ward, imperative, with passionate tongue
when she was reused having a real rel
ish for the solid study of history and ge
ography, in opposition to the practice o.
the spinnet and the execution of satin
pieces in the Miss Allardyces' course Of in
struction
But there was nothing unwomanly or re-
pulsive in Jess on the contrary, as she
outgrew the boisterousness of her child
hood, when she distressed her mother by
playing more uniformly at boys games
(Sandy in his tender years took up with an
old-fashioned, hard-featured doll, Jess's re-
iected property, and destroying three
times as many clothes as Sandy there was
the prospect of her growing up woman Of
noble proportions. There was a charm in
Jess's fresh, candid, intelligent face-her
short, thick black curls in crop about her
brow and neck her tall, broad-shouldered
firm, erect fgure--at least equal to that OF
Sandy's bright blue eyes, sanguire com,
plexion, and slight, but active, long ele-
giant limbs.
Jess was the young queen Of the parish,
and the position lent her an ease, a power,
an air of born authority and command
which became the girl, and which did not
! leave her when she passed from the yeo-
mems houses to those of the gentry, where
she could claim no precedence of birth and
breeding, and where, on the other hand,
her best cloth mantle and white muslin
| frock were homely and out of date. Young
Adam Spottiswoode, of Birkholm, his own
master, who opened the balls at Woodend,
would rather dance reel with the minis
ter's than a minuet with the members
daughter Jess could dance minuets, too
little French dancing-master, a poor emf
gre had imported the true Mlnuets de la
| Cour at the service of the public of Wood
end, but Jess's reels were something inspir-
| ing.
men and women, who were t on the box "
| (that is, parish paupers), with BARNS, with
her mothers endless train of calves, chick
ems, dogs, cats, pigeons, laverocks, linties,
was also beyond compare" Jess, carry
ing a stray lamb in her arms, or broken
winged bird in her bosom, showed unmis-
takably whether she was womanly-th
is, motherly-or no.
Clovenford kirk and manse, with moss,
lichen, and weather-stain, doing some
thing to redeem the barn and bothy order
of architecture, lay in a nest of wooded and
bare hills The parish did not have the
grander and more peculiar features of
Scottish landscape,-neither the height nor
the breadth of savage mountains and
moors where the eagle rears her bloody
beaked young, and "the whaup cries drea-
ry" But it had the Fir Tap and the Beld
Law, the Hare Water and the Den of
blackthorn and whtethorn crabs and geans,
ending in the feathery birks and stiff, dark
green boxes and hollies round the old white
house of Birkholm The fields were all
heights and hollows sunshine and shade,
like dimpled faces. There were hedges
tedded with dogroses and honeysuckles !;
water-courses yellow with kingcups; teal
dykes nodding with harebells, and twitter-
ing with the swallows nesting beneath
their caves At Clovenford manse the SER
want lasses still span and sang ballants
every afternoon, on the blink by the kitch-
entire in winter, and at the back-door in
summer. andre Cornfoot, the minister's
man, lived with his deaf wife and his cat
echeesed laddie, the minister's herd, in the
IL, IL ol 90
to the house every evening and was pres
ent with the family at ''the worship" when
the minister commended in house, people,
kirk, county, and the world to the care OF
the Great Creator. andre came again at
sunrise to waken the las, es, and to speak
in at the minister's window and tell him
what the weather was like, never thinking
to avert his light gray-green fishy eyes
from the nightcap, broad-boarded, and with
large bow right over the forehead, which
bore the picturesque Kimarnock cowl low
ing company on the pillow.
The cloud, the size of a mans hand, in
the ClOvenford sky began with the expense
of Sandy's college term Notwithstanding
they were met without finching, bravely
borne, and every member of the family
took part in defraying them.
The minister trudged many a long and
weary mile to do duty atneighboring kinks
and canonical meetings, in place Of hiring
a gig from the Crown in Wooden. Mrs
Stewart gave up much of her visiting, for
the reason that she was delicate and un-
able to accompany the minister in his long
walks Jess could walk with the best, and
thought nothing of crossing the parish, six
miles from one end to the other, and dane
ing half the night afterwards; but Jess
was called on to resign all the little advan-
| tages and enjoyments such as even the far
mers' daughters could enjoy. These were
her going to Edinburg and lodging with
her Aunt Peggy, the writer to the signet's
widow, in the High Street, and there learn
ing to bake pastry and cut out patterns for
her gowns and her attending the dancing
and singing classes for grown-up ladies
and gentlemen, opened every winter in
Woodend. The very table at the manse
was rendered palmer and more frugal on
Sandy's account The box which travelled
every fortnight with the carrier to Edin-
burg seemed to carry away all the dainties.
Mrs. Stewart relinqushed her little cup of
tea in the morning, protesting she found it
| bad for her nerves and made a fashion of