The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-09-16

nlin 10 part Win tnat STafeSlOhc. dAo
it, Skinner said he, stake it, and may
you never know what it is to have your
soul racked with disappointment, as mine
has been !''-and he burst into food of
tears. His spirit was indeed utterly
crushed.
had the following epitaph engraved
upon the gravestone
TO the memory of
TABITHA,
Wife of Nose Skinner, Esq the gentleman
ly editor of the Trombone.
A kind mother and exemplary wife.
Terms. So a year, invariably in advance.
Office over Hanson's grocery up two
flights.
Knock hard.
eve shall miss thee, mother;
We shall miss thee, mother"
Job Printing solicited.
Thus did my lacerated spirit cry out in
its agony, even as Rachel weeping for
her children. But one ray of light Pene-
trated the despair of my soul. The un-
dertaker took his pay in job printing and
the sexton owed me a little account l
shouldn't have got in any other way.
Why should we repine at the mysteri-
GUS ways of Providence and vicinity ?
{Not conundrum-)
here pause to drop silent tear to the
memory of Tabitha Ripley as was She
was an eminently pious woman, and could
fry the best piece of tripe ever slung un-
der my vest Her picked-up dinners were
q perfect success, and she always dotted
on Foreign Missions.
I did not, however, allow myself to
pine away to any great extent In the
person of Matilda Baxter, gushing CO.
quette of AZ autumns, did l perceive
salye for my iacerated heart-strings. As
soon, therefore, as / could smother my
anguish and change my underclothing, to
Matilda BIS did l HE myself away, on
the sweet wings of love. Never shall l
forget our betrothal.
1t was a calm, still night in June, and
all nature had been hushed into repose by
a iudicious use of Mrs. Winslow's sooth-
ing syrup. Matilda and l were walking
pensively among the garden sass back of
the house, and was repeating these touch
ing lines by John Bunyan
"Two beets with bat single head
Two cabbages with one."
= Around us the frolicsome June bug
gaily waltzed, and the cheerful hum of the
mosquito added pathos to the scene, wEile
in the adjacent mill pond the guileless
bull-frog performed a select anthem to the
parting day. Afar off in the western hor-
izon the sun was setting, which he did in
his usual hunky style, without bursting
'ary button off his trousers. Nothing dis
turbed the solemn stiffness but the gentle
heaving of her bosom and the gentle heav-
ing of a small boy who had been smoking
a sheroot in the woodshed. l was trying
to imagine, with the pure affection of
youth, how many stamps she had laid
away, and she was engaged in heaving
an elegant assortment of sighs, varying
from a small to a large size.
The ecstatic rapture which stepped my
soul in bliss DER came nae, and, seiEing
Matilda by the waterfall, imprinted the
pure kiss of betrothal behind her left ear.
She gazed at me in silent rapture, and,
while the lovelight cleaned with dewy
softness from those liquid orbs upraised to
mine, she said:
''Skinner, have you taken bath late-
ly?" She continued: sFYou are an old
fool. If you amt got spunk enough to
bring this bile to head, l have. Come,
set the day, my ETHEREAL bloat, my festive,
bald-headed minikin."
Thus, with honied words of love, did
we beguiie the time
We were married in church, nay child-
ren as chief mourners occupying front
seats. There were no cards, except a
game of euchre to see who should sleep in
the front side of the bed. We took a
short bridal tour she went to bingham
to see her Aunt Abigail, and l came to
Boston to buy new set of type for the
Trombone. 1t was about the time that
all was 80 quiet on the Potomac, but that
day Boston was in fever of excitement,
because it was limited in official circles
that the commanding general would move
as soon as his rent became due, though
he hated to leave Mason and Dixon's
line, it was SO handy to hang the clothes
on, on washing days.
My second venture In the sea of matri-
mony has not been success. Meta