The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-04-08
#istellauy.
a eRIcKET'S STORY.
By rAMAR ANNE KERMoRE.

+. = v
By lamar ANNE KERM0RE.
From Godey's Lady Book.
CHAPTER !.
lam q cricket-a busy, brown, noisy
little cricket, and assure you Pye seen
good deal of life Ia my day; of its
bright, and of its dark side, too. i
will tell my story In straitforward,
natural manner, for Pm q conscien-
tious cricket, and can boast with some
degree of truth that / have q naturai
antipathy to the by-ways, shams, and
blind alleys of life that is really (for
little creature like mel quite remarka-
BILE.
am one of large family of crick-
cts, and, although / am at present on
the American side of the water, / was
born and raised on the English side, In
a very comfortable mansion, and many
and many time / have trilled my
cheerful notes as sat in a cosey corner
warming my little body by a rich Eng
lish merchants parlor fire. His letters
| were addressed: "Wm. Harrison, Esq"
VIM. Harrison was his name, and a
fine, portly-looking gentleman he was
Just the kind of man to 60 smoothly
along, with full sails, fair wind, and
plenty of sea room.
was attached to this wealthy mer-
chant, for you know, there is an old
adage to the effect that, if you love
person, YOU must necessarily love
| everything that belongs to that person,
and / loved the old gentle.Aan's daugh-
ter most truly, most sincerely. Some
body else loved her, too; French gen.
tleman, who called himself, count
something or other q never could mas
ter those French names well), and i
was very jealous of him. Now l know
it was exceedingly foolish for crlcket
to be Jealous of a French nobleman,
but, still, | couldn't help it, and when
his patent-leather boots glided over the
carpet, and his soft, silky voice said !:
"How is my dear Miss Lucy?" posi-
lively hated him, and always made it a
rule not to sing a single note while he
was in the house.
Sometimes had her all to myself.
All, those were pleasant evenings.
She would sit with some little trifie of
fancy work i'm her hands, working qui-
etly h ,ur after hour, with such look
of content in her sweet blue eyes, and
her beautiful brown hair falling in
curls about her face and neck, bright
ening here and there into strands OF
gold as the freight played upon 1t,
that quite dotted upon her. My hap
piness ON these occasions was wonder
full, and | exerted myself to sing for
her to that extent that was hoarse for
days after. Sometimes the merchant
would come in and disturb her happy
thoughts II know they were happy,
and she would turn her face towards
him, and kiss him, and give him such
a smile of welcome that l almost en-
We'd him. Twas smagnanimous enough
however, only to sing the louder, and
then she would say:
"My dear father, just listen to the
cricket. Surely, you're going to make
very lucky speculation" Thi5 is an
old English superstition, and not to be
relied upon9 .8
Her father would say: "Yes, my
dear, but don't care anything about
crickets. I don't believe in them; in
deed, I'd rather not hear them.n
40 father,n she would say, 81 love
them dearly, and this little singer par
ticularIy, for he seems to be ever sing
ing of happy future. You know how
happy we are at present; l should like
to think that our happiness will last"
remember well the evening when
she said these words. The old main
sighed. and dark shadow came over
his face, q darker shadow than L had
ever seen there before. Then the SER
want brought i'm the tea, and the room
was brilliantly lighted, and Lucy sat
at the table, and chatted gayly, and
attended to her fathers wants; but he
was strangely silent, and soon after tea
he went to his room.
>Then that odious Frenchman came,
and brought with him his odious gui-
tar. and Lucy listened to his soft strains
and whispered speeches with such
light in her eyes, and such glow upon
her cheeks, that longed to bite him.
She was an only child, and as her mo-
ther had died many years before, when
Lucy was little child, and her father
had remained widower from that
time, she had long reigned the sole
mistress of the fine old English man.
sion-its loving, merry, cheerful, light
hearted mistress.
But a change was coming. / noticed
it coming little by little, bit by bit, ev-
er since the night that the shadow came
upon the masters face and seemed to
stay there. Poor, innocent Lucy! she
never dreamed what that shadow
meant. She didn't see it grow longer
and darker as front my quiet corner
| did, and one night she qC-e startled me
by saying to her father: "What cd,,
be the matter with my cricket? j
haven't heard his voice for u week.
And her father said: 81 cannot tell,
my dear" and then he looked sadly at
the fire, and muttered something about
the wheel of fortune, some going up
and some coming down. tE
Lucy looked Surprised and anxious,
and said: "My dear father, is there
anything the matter? You look pale;
are you ill?"
"No my daughter, l am not ILL.,
| Well, well, fortune is tickle goddess,
we MAY not trust her. Some go up and
some go down." and STOPPING over her
ne softly smoothed her shining hair,
and then went to his room, and we
saw him no more that night.
A day OF two passed away with their
usual freight of joy and sorrow, and
then the 10y went from our home, and
the sorrow remained with us. VIM.
Harrison, ESQ.,, merchant, was a bank
rupt. And / heard him say, in q
strange, broken kind of way, to his
daughter: "You see, my dear, i'm my
old age have come to beggary, and
there is nothing left to me, nothing
Houses, lands, even the very furniture,
all gone-a perfect wreck-and what
ami? A perfect wreck, too, drifting
amon., the broken timbers." "a
"My dear father, | am left to you,
| and | am young and strong, and we
have many friends"
"Yes, Lucy, ] haveyou," he answer
ed, rather bitterly. DO you think
that there is any satisfaction to me in
knowing that you must suffer through
mn mistake? And as to many friends,
they will pass from our pathway as
quickly as the clouds sail over the sum-
mer sky. Friendship seldom keeps
company with poverty"
| IMcy couldn't believe in that doe
trine, however, and she eNerted herself
to raise her ,fathel's dropping spirits,
and looked so bright and blooming,
ana there was so much music in her
| Noicc' titiI Dtcaine puite cuSSI iu my
self, and managed to sing for full five
minutes for her benefit, although my
voice shook good deal, ard was al
together out of sorts.
| Well, time passed on. The rich
merchants affairs were almost wound
, up, and Lucy had plenty of time to
think of her troubles, for very few OF
, her many friends had crossed the
threshold of her home since poverty
. ! ba,l to,lahpd lis inmate. rrba ,.o,,n,