The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1868-12-11
SELECT STORY.
RUDDERLESS.

RUDDERLEss.
Nan and Eve lived together at Ap
pledecombe. This is not a very rs
spectful way to speak of them, be
cause, while Nan was but q girl
Eve was a married woman and he
mother, but then she Was SO young
J so absurdly young, to be the mothe
of q grown-up daughter like Nan, tina
it seems more natural to call her so
than by her pretty, and rather 70
mantle appellatiOn Of Mrs. Ashley
And should it be objected that MAJ
is too obviously put into the NOR,
honorable position, l can only pleat
that Nan was by far the more impor
tant. Why, look at their lives.
Eve had married while still but /.
child--a very pretty half grown-uE
child; she had then had Nan, and hel
husband hsd died after which, as tc
all change, all excitement in her ex
istence, there was written up against
it the one word FInis. She was very
sweet, very gracious, and the country
all around loved and cherished her,
as something Of a gem; but it had
come to be an understood thing that
the glory of her life had been told,
and she was now only living for Nan.
But a woman can be quite as lovable,
and very often great deal more
useful, when the story of her life has
been told, and she has leisure to de-
vote herself to others, and Eve was,
with many, to the full as popular a.
her little daughter. Truth to say,
she was utterly unselfsh, sympathet-
ic by nature, and very fair to look
upon. 1t was so delightful to talk
to Eve, said the girls, while Civ
ing her q minute account Of their last
fancy fair, because she knew all
about it; who had walked from the
schoolroOm to the church, and had
entered into woman's estate without
ever having once shared in their
pleasures. And, the men, all young
men from the village, poured into her
ears full accounts of their latest love
affairs and gathered from her SYM
pathy that she well understood them
from experience; Eve, the course of
whose love had run smoothly, up to
the last sad ending, and who was in
nocent as q very child of the endless
little channels through which it may
flow.
Much more SO indeed, than her own
child, who was gaining very fair
knowledge Of the troubles and pleas
ures OF that passion, upon the axis
of which it is said the world that We
live in turns round. For though Nan
was guarded like a hot-house flower,
and held sacred az link between the
living and the dead, Eve could not
entirely shield her from a great many
evils she brought on herself. BY no
rule that applied to other girls could
you read Nan. She would say one
thing, mean another, and expect that
her thoughts should be OWNED
She would sit and sparkle at her
mother all her little quaint sayings
an evening through; then an organ
in the street, touching, in some
dreary old tune, one of Mans most
delicate chords, she would burst out
crying where she sat, and when her
mother, alarmed, astonished, panied,
would take her in her arms to com.
fort and console, the room would be
ringing with laughter, before the
girls tears we're dry On her cheeks.
"Can't help il mamma she would
say, 81 60 up and down as if all my
inside were made of elastic. One
moment l am down in the depths,
and next, some absurd spring inside
me goes up, and it seems so ridicu
lous for me to be sitting bowling on
the floor about nothing, and you look
ing at me with such long face, thai
/ am obliged to laugh"
Which, tor one of Mans state
ments, was unusually correct. L
there had only prizes been given fol
laughter and tears, how many of bOtf
Nan would have gained In year.
Only it will be seen that she was II
some sort an anxiety to her mother
even while Eve believed there was
not, among girls her equal In th'
world. Her whole heart was wrap
ped up in her child, except such pOr
tions of it as was buried in the waterI
with her husband, and the one grea
triumph of her life was Mans frs
ball.
On that eventful night it was diff
cult to say whether she or he
daughter was tie most excited. Sh'
would let no one but herself put th'
finishing touches to Mans fresl
toilette, and old-fashiOned jewels tha
had belonged to a bride, now spark
led and shone on the girls fair neck
r But what would any of Mans subse
SEQ uent admirers (putting out OF th
question those who might possibl.
be artists have thought Of tn
piousnt little belle Of an evenini
could they but have seen the pictur
before she started for the ball. 4
bedroom fitted up like a boudoil
. and hung round with glass. A gin
standing up straight from among
feathsry mass Of whiteness, lon
= glistening lines of drapery fallin
from, and lying bright beside her o
the ground, and figure scarcely les
pretty, kneeling in a hslfdresse
condition, and iastsning on her ski
hot house flowers.
1 Nan, herself, Hooks not unlike
Il flower, with her blue eyes, and hs
lips and cheeks stained into color
but she still requires to be looked I
n artistically, else you might see th'
the blue eyes are flashing light, an
- the red cheeks blazing with imp
itienee.
but see, dear now look yoursel
Nan. 1t is exactly Six inches wide
# you couldn't have one broader tha
: that
+ "Whst does it matter if it's six {