Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1868-02-01

to go to the brow of the hill, where l
could overlook the road; when 10 and
behold! as sure as you are sitting iu
that chair, there they was riding along
as clipper as pair of robbins: Isabel
on white horse and decked out like a
lpoppet; and Horatio riding a black
coltish-looking horse. They must have
been stable teams, for I didn't know
either of them ;they want Hamilton's
horses, nor they want Hubbythorne's.
81 want to known" replied Miss
Silence Dummie, who was trimming a
hat for Mrs. Fascett with black velvet
and scarlet pepperpods.
"Yes. And | guess whether or no
there won't be wedding to Squire
Hubbylthorne's come next Thanksgiv-
Iing-time if not before. They will make
great doings, and invite from far and
near, you be sure of that; for Hubbyl-
thorne's folks aren't of the kind that
stop to pinch at sixpence. When
they lay out to do anything they do it
without standing for the cost, now l
tell you"
"Surely," replied Miss Dummie.
But it is to be hoped Mrs. Fascett
did not buy her green gown, so there
was no wedding at Hubbylthorne's after
all.
81 DOM know for why it fell through.
They would have made such hand
some COUPLE" said she, regretfully.
81 wish Isabella could feel to marry
one of my boys!" said Mrs. Hamilton,
with tears in her motherly eyes, to
Mrs. Hubbylthorne, as they met on the
church steps before service.
Mrs. Hubbylthorne joined softly in
the sigh. 81 don't know why it is,
but Isabella doesn't seem to be one of
the marrying kind,' said she apologet-
ically.
Deluded woman! This shows that
even mothers do not know everything.
Horatio went back West, and the
next that was known of him be had
married Cuban lady at San Francisco,
and thus was out of the way and out of
the question.
But behold all this time there was
belonging to the Hamiltons another
brother. ga little one," the youngest,
Frederic. He had been an invalid in
his earlier years-weak lungs or some
thing-and SO was rather counted out !;
but still there he was; and one day
whea Isabel Hubbylthorne was out in
the rock pasture, halfway between her
fathers and Mr.. Hamilton's houses,
picking blackberries, suddenly she look
ed up and he stood before her as though
he had been brier all along, and she
was the princess who turned him into a
man at her touch.
"Why, Frederic Hamilton, I thought
you were in Labrador p said she, with
out so much as winking.
$50 I was," replied Frederic.
elbow we'll you look - said Isabel
next.
"My mother used to think So" an
swered Frederic.
And then the ball began to roll.
Frederic Hamilton was little wiser
in his generation than his elder broth
ers He did not begin his suit so early,
but persisted in it longer. Like Mary's
lamb,
Everywhere that Isabel went
Frederic was sure to CO.
and everytime Isabel happened to look
at Frederic she caught him hastily turn
ing his eyes away from her. So surely
that presently she felt impelled by mag
netism or by curiosity to look again at
him, always finding his eyes just leav-
ing hers, quickly and consciously. So
she could not keep him out of her mind
altogether, though he never seemed to
intrude himself into it. Always meeting
her at every social gathering there was
naturally now and then a time when
Isabel had no especial sattendant. and
on such occasions Frederic walked home
with her in an informal, matter-of-course
way. He also lent her books, and sent
her flowers enough to cover the Babes
in the Woods half mile deep.
So, little by little, as constant drop
ping wears away stone, Isabefs hard
heart had become honeycombed through
and through, when one day, blackberries
being ripe once more, Isabel and Fred
eric met again in the rock pasture.
First, like Maud Muller and the
Judge, they
"Spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,
Of the singing birds and humming bees"
and then of a sudden Frederic's eyes
put on the tender, grave expression
Isabel thought SO becoming to them,
and he said, 81 am glad, Bell, you re-
fused to marry my brothers.. .
"Why p asked Bell, beginning to
pick leaves instead of berries, while
peony sprang into full bloom on each
cheek, and her eyes fell as suddenly as
though they we're nails and Frederic's
were hammers.
"Because l want you myself" re-
piled Frederic, as assured as though one
was enough to make any bargain. For
a minute there was no sound under the
blue sky but crow voice crying "La |!
la! LAP and the measured beating Of a
fail in somebody's barn like the throb-
bing Of great heart, then Isabel with
out looking up, said, making deep
sigh, eff / must marry one of you
Hamiltons, Why suppose must /; and
i would rather it were you than any
other one.s
So, IS true as you are sitting in that
chair there was . wedding at the Hub