The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-08-16

Years old vile OF SIN weeks.
4 In the mean time these good people
took their ease in the erroneous i'm
Ipression that Cumberland S soldiers
had marched through the town, and
over the hills and far away, before
Leg my-lea's arrival. Engrossed by
their own matter, they had not heard
of Captain Bernard and his forty
men cody ensconced in the town
house.
1t was q low-roofed, white pannell.
ed room in which the family commo-
ton prevailed, full of the mingled
simplicity and mystery which our
ancestors loved. Unsophisticated as
the room looked, it was choke full OF
secrets. The box bed opened like Il
cupboard. The cupboard itself was
entered by a movable panel Try to
open it in the legitimate way, and a
man would require an axe TO split the
wood assunder; but press panel in
one direction, and il slid away IN
trice, leaving TO view an innocent
enough thing, in its uselessness-a 4
carved buffet, whitfield into curves
and scallops, not worth the man9uvre
of getting at it, unless that it bore
poor Mause's blue and gold starred
china, one cup of which was broken
already. (And Mause could have
sat down and cried when the fracture
took place, ere she knew what she
was about, had not Legs. my-lea been
still at her elbow to kiss her first big
bright drop away; and had she not
promised herself never again to trust
the eggshell cups in clumsy irres-
ponsible fingers, but to wash them
night and morning, like good
housewife. with her own dainty
hands, and dry them with her satin
damask napkins.) The very window
to the garden was not window, but
a door--half glass, half pannelled
wood-which opened with so low a
step to the flower border, that, lift
the patch. and wreaths of green and
white periwinkle, purple and green
clematis, and single red, red roses
leap straight in and wove shifting,
fading, exquisite summer carpet on
the coarse homcspun floor cloth.
In this room the somewhat omin-
ous gathering of the couples families
and friends sat, like bench Of judg
les, masquerading in damash gowns,
pinners, topknots, and mumbled and
moved and skirled their sentences on
the improper behavior Of the inexpe-
rienced heads of the house of Legs
my-lea; took Mause to task sharply,
and spoke out their minds indirectly
to the chained at laird.
What for did you don your best
silk gown, my dochter?' insinuated
old Lady Legs-my-lea, in a cracked
voice, 'that suld have been kept for
the kings coronation or for the but
ter-saps at least
And you have torn your negligee
that cost me ever so many punds
Scots, you wastrife baikn,' old Lady
Watergates, thrown so far off her
guard as to confes to q price, fouted
the youthful matron in another quay
ering pipe.
'All the town was there to see,'
plead Mause, in sensitive vanity;
was Legs-my -lea's wife to appear
like a common woman or like no wife
at all, but an unspeered lass?'
sYou are 4 bauld wife of two months
no out, that strange man suld
mint to address you, madam, her
sister in-law, Mistress Littlejohn,
whose husband only clerk, and who
was In his own person lank, and with
high check bones, warned Mause aus
terely.
'And what CARED ye answer the
man, you Guilty? He'll think you a
light woman; but you were aye for
ward lass, or you would not be where
you are;' cried Peggy, the brides
unmarried eldest sister, who had red
hair and many freckles, and who toss
ed her uncovered maiden head scorn-
fully. and gulped down an indignant
sigh.
Il couldn't help it, urged .Mause
irrelevantly;;' my heart just came in
to my mouth
Legs s-my-lea lay there like lion
that has been hit, with its yellow hair
so tumbled free fom its powder and
pom atum that it was flying loose as
a name, and brushing Mause's soft
check, 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 courting
to Watergates), wooed by the caress-
ing touch, and uniting, as amber
draws straws, with Mausc's dark
curls, not yet taking the sit of the
church, 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 { An.
glice, contradict) Mause but him, and
Mause was to do what she liked, and
Mause's pleasure was his pleasure,
and he would like 10 hear who would
fyte on Mause after he said that; but
'let them fyte;' and 'Mause, my joe,
never mind the fules' flytin.'
Legs -my-lea 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 defense. He had burst
the bandage on his wound, and it
was bleeding afresh, and that was
what the cruel people had made by
their work.
At that very moment friendly
scout rushed in with an awful COM
plication of evil tidings. The Eng
lish were lying billetcd in the town;
the English captain had word Legs
my-lea had come to be cured of his
hurt by the hands of his young wife
under his own roof-tree; aud the
registering blade of captain having
swallowed his dinner and swilled a
bottle of .claret under his belt, was
tramping along the streets. breathing
fire and smoke, and bringing a mag
lstrates warrant and a dozen of his
men at his heels to apprehend the de-
fenceless man, sGuatted like q hare
by his own hearthstone.
The report raised frenzied rout,
and above all sounded the shrill ac-
cents of Magnus' mother. You see
what you have done, Mause; you
havn slain your ain guide man and my