The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1867-08-15
BY sCHOFF. VINEGAR s. 90.

1
self never again to trust the eggshell cuI
in clumsy irresponsible fingers, but to was
them night and morning like a good hous
wife, with her own dainty hands, and dr.
them with her satin damask napkins) Th
very window to the garden was not a wiz
dow, but a door-half glass, half panele
wood-which opened with so low step t
the flower border, that, lift the latch, am
wreaths of green white periwinkle, purpI
and green clematis, and single ''red, red
roses leapt straight in and wove shifting
fading, exquisite summer carpet on th
coarse homespun hoorcloth.
In this room the somewhat ominou
gathering of the couples family and friend
sat, like bench of judges, masquerade!
in damask gowns, Primers, top knots, an
mumbled and moved and skred their sen
fences on the improper behavior of the in
experienced heads of the house of Legs-my
lea; took MaUse to task sharply, and spok
out their minds indirectly to the chained a
home laird.
"Whst for did you do your best sill
gown, my dochter?" insinuated old Lad,
Legs.my lea, i'll cracked voice, that sul(
have been kept for the kings coronation, o
for the butter saps at least"
"And you have torn your negligee tina
cost me ever so many pounds Scots, you
wastrife bairn;" old Lady Watergates
thrown so far off her guard as to confess t.
price, fouted the youthful matron in an
other quavering pipe.
''All the town was there to see," pleaded
Mause, in sensitive vanity; ''was Leg-my
leafs wife to appear like common woman
or like no wife at all, bat an unpeered lass?'
t'You are bauld wife of two months
no out, that a strange man suld mint to ad
dress you, madam her sister-in-law, Mis-
tress Littleiohn, whooe husband was only {
clerk, and who was in her own person Iank
with high cheek bones, warned Mause aus
terely
'And what CARED ye answer the man
you cutty3 He'll think you light woman
but you were aye forward lass, or yor
would not be where you are; cried Peggy
the brides unmarried eldest sister, who had
red hair and many freckles, and who tossed
her uncovered maidenhead scornfully, and
gulped dowd an indignant sigh.
II coudna help it." urged Mause irrele
vanity; ''my heart just came. into my
mouth" 4 l
Legs-my-Iea lay there like lion that has
been hit, with his yellow hair so tuInble1,
free from its powder and pomatum that it
was flying loose as a NAME and brushing
Mause's soft cheek, when he pulled her down
to him (much as it had done when she had
sat at her wheel during the long nights OF
the past stirring winter, and Legs-my-lea
had gone counting to Watergates), wooed
by the caressing touch, and uniting, as am
Der draws straws, with Mauses dark curls,
not yet taking the sit out of the curch, still
clustering in rich rings to the light tie of the
snood. At this point Legs-my-lea started
up against his own flesh and blood, and
Mause's like tyrant of the first water, and
swore nobody should counter" (A0gIice,
contradict) Mause but him, and Mause was
to do what she liked, and Mause's pleasure
was his pleasure, and he would like to hear
who would fyte on Mause after he said that
but 'let them fyte"; and ''Mause, my joe,
never mind the fules' fytin."
Legs-mylea fell back exhausted the
family storm died away In sacred silence,
till Mause, who had listened to her own
Condemnation with dry eyes, and an erect
little head, fairly sobbed at his defence He
had burst the baudage on his wound, and
it was bleeding afresh, and that was what
the cruel people had made by their work
At that very moment a friendly scout
rushed in with an awful complication of evil
tidings. The English were lying bilIeted
in the town: the English Captain had word
Legs-my-lea had come to be cured by the
hands of his young wife under his own roof
tree; and the registering blade of captain
having swallowed his dinner and swilled a
bottle Of claret under his belt was tramp
ing along the streets, breathing fire and
smoke, and bringing magistrates warrant
and dozen Of his men at his heels to APP
prehend the defenseless man, squatted like a
hare by his own hearthstone.
The report raised frenzied rout, and
above all sounded the shrilI accents of Mag
nus's mother ''You see what you have
done, Mause you have slain your ain guide
man and my dear BARN by your glaiket
pride fule's passion"
And Mauses despairing protest, Moth
er, would dee for him; will dee for him. D
And Magnus' tender reassurance-''Nev
er heed my mother, Mause; never heed man
or woman of them; and you, mother, be ST.
lent, | command you. l tell you, my sweet
heart, you have never harmed hair of my
head"
No time was to be lost After short
consultation, Magnus was hurried against
the grain, through the glass door to try for
an escape by the garden; while young
Mause, as his wife and representative, stay
ed behind, stiff with horror, yet strsining
all her powers of body and mind to meet the
dreaded visitor
Mause was one of those girls ever put
forward by nature and fortune. The young.
est of her family, she was courted first. She
was the head Of Legs -my-lea's household, =
over mother and maids and ALL She was
the woman who was chal-
lenged by, and who answered the chal
lenge of Cumberland's wild officer. She wa
the wife left to keep the house, vindicate tn,
honor, and cover the escape of her husband
When the quaking old mothers and willing
sisters shrank in their love into corners GU
of sight, this girl of seventeen came forward
She had not yet attained her full growth
her endurance was only for time; her con
stancy failed after struggle; but of he
temper, tried and matured heroines ar
made.
Mause stood in her brave attire in th,
middle Of the low-roofed, white-walled room
with its secrets, her eyes wandering in ag
ony to the glass door as Captain Bernard
firm step sounded on the threshold.
The soldier come in with his hat cooke
under his arm, bowed SO low that he shoe
the powder from his hair, fixed OF Maus
his falcon blue eyes, as if he had never be-
held her before, and said, with covered IRONY
''your worshipful master.
Mause responded with throbbing hear
as if she had never in her life set eyes o
Cumberland's officer in bis high collar, hi
stiff cravat, with his keen eyes and curtin.
lips. "What is your pleasure sir?" sh
asked courtsying, not to De beat in polit
Ihypocrisy--so deep a courtsy that she cor
ceaIed for whole three seconds the buckle
in her high-heeled shoon, keeping her UT
trained eyes on the foorcloth, that she migt
mot b tempted to look again at that dresC