Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-01-19
NASBY A NOVELIST.
The Lest Maiden.
Il Legend up Moo York and Chicago.

Il LGIea0 ap Lf0o YORK ana CHtcGgp,
- PART
Twus midnite in Moo York. A wild
storm ragged vilently over that city, Will
| frequently occurs in the fall NV the year
In a neat but unpretendin boardin house
| in scklooded street, sat, in her room III
the second floor, in the rear nv the house
a maiden, DER whose head he'd flowed
thirty-eigh5 summers. Time he'd not
tonched her litely Her cheeks wuz sun
ken, wrinkles yawned hijusly acroos hel
| forehead and luked maliciously jist at the
corners of her mouth her hair wuz scan
| ty and thin; the pale red contrastin on
favorably with the white skin of the skelp
wich showed though pretty ginerally
her neck wuz like the swans not much
and her arms were skinney, and her shoul-
ders scraggy. Tie only handsom pint
about her wuz her teeth, and themwu2
| good. She he'd coed taste in teeth, and
bought the best she Good find. They
cost her forty-two dol'a and half;
onto wich she he'd, at different times, ex-
pendid twelve dollars in repairs; so they
wuz ez good ez pew.a
Mable Montessor wuz high-minded
seamstress; and whoever sed she wuz
handsome lied in his throat Ikea base,
false hearted traiter ez he wuz, and in his
mouth likewise, that being where men gen
orally lie She alluz wuz homely. In her
infancy she wuz sed to hev bin the home
liest child in the village in Moo Gersey
into which she wuz born, and wat country
perdoosis homelier? Exc ansers. In her
girlhood, her vital energies wuz all ex-
pendid in her hands and feet, and in
womanhood, she had crowd thinner and
thinner, when she he'd ought to hev grown
thicker and thicker, and rice cersa, wich
is Latin for totherwiSe. in addishen to
these charms she he'd acquired habit NV
squintin, and wuz afflicted with Il per
petooal cold.
Mahlc WIZ Sewin, wich she cohtiny-
ooally did for livin; and ez she piled
the needle, q bitter tear (wich is to say |
spose it wuz bitter, COZ all the writers
speek Nv EN- ez sich) fell onto the fabric
wich she wuz maxim. Suthin wuz
wrong with her. Some great grief wuz a
preyiu onto her-some untold woe some
desire onatainable- -suthin allied her. The
faster she piled her needle, the faster the
tears flew, cz though she wuz a thin
pump, and her right arm the handle
thereof
At this critikle pint, while her tears
wuz a howin faster than ever, ther wuz
terrible thunder, and ez she started
in terror from her seat, she observed sit
4 hn tot eli a
the table-A MAN! She wood hey
shreeked, but terror tied her tongue! How
did lie get there? No door he'd opened,
and NV his presence she wuz unaware Ontil
he dawned onto her eyesite, Wat wuz
he there for? No human bein wearin
pantloons had ever sought her presence
afore and enable to solve sich stag
gerer, she sunk back onto her seat and
sobbed vilenter than ever,
The mysterious introoder wuz pleas
ant-lookin, middle-aged gentleman dress
ed scroopulusly in black, with patient
leather boots and white vest, and a white
hat with Grape onto it and gold chain
hung over his vest, and cane wich he
carried ruther jauntily than otherwise.
IliS SoulieSiiahSN, W NOpSS a
phrase, wuz fare to middlin. 1t wuz on
deniably handsum, tho his eye glittered
crooelly, suthin like frozen mill pond in
winter. Sich eyes by the way allux in
dicate disagreeable death under EN-, and
his lips, too thin for genyooine good hu-
NOR, kept wreathin themselves into q
smile witch hedn't nothin in it; sich ez, a
rattlesnake might smile ez he charmes a
bird, or tiger indulge in when he's salts
fed he hez a snre thing onto the unsus-
pecting gentle gazelle wich is approach
in his lair. And he'd Mable Montressor
bin behind him, she wood hev observed
that he wuz at great pains to keep curled
up under his coat skirt a genyooine tail
with barb onto it, and that his boots
wuzn't Snapped jist as they ought to be.
maiden p said he in gentle winning
voice, at witch word she started, for that
wuz the secret NV her trouble, madam,
l know what grieves thee.
She spake not, but looked at him fixed
ly.
Il know what greet consumes thee
and he added to himself, "and it haint
gott much more to prey on cept hands
and feet" I know why thou weepest. "