Smyrna times., 1870-06-22
MGSceIIUWe u e Gus.
A Safe Investment.

In the second year of the late civil war. I
was married, and went to live with my husband
IN small village on the Hudson, some fiftv or
sixty miles from New York. The house we
occupied was large, rambling mansion, of con-
siderable antiquity tor this country, and stood
a little apart from the rest of the village. sur
rounded by broad fields, and commanding a
glorious view of the river and the hills of the
Highlands 1t had been built before the Revo-
luton, by my husband great grandfather, and
though destitute of many . modern improve
ments, was still comfortable and pleasant
residence
My husband was a lawyer and large real
estate owner in the neghborhood, and, at the
period OF which l write, was greatly perUexed,
ike many other persons in the North, by the
perl.ous state of the times and especially
about the safe investment of his funds, as the
suspension OF specie payments, the great rise
In gold, and the military disasters in Virginia
made 1t almost impossible to tell where it would
De safe to deposit or to use ones money in any
large amount.
ln the course of his transactions in real. estate
1t happened, one day, that he received what
was for US then large sum, about ten thou
sand dollars, which he brought home and plac-
ed IN my charge, telling me at the same time
that he should be absent during the evening
attending to some business on the other side
OF the river, and should not be at home till
about midnight.
" You can place the money in the safe
dear, he said, as he gave it to me, and to-
morrow l VIII try and lind some way to invest
it securely"
So saying, he stepped into the buggy, which
was standing at the door, and drove away, tax.
ing with him our hired man Slas, and leaving
me with no one In the house but Dinah. an old
cOOred woman, who fulfilled in our modest
household the functions of cook and maid-of.
all-wOrk, as she had long done in the family of
, my own parents, who on my marriage. had
yielded her to me as valuable part of my
dover.
Dinah was indeed character. She was tai
y and very stout, weighing, she would never tel
= : how much, more than two hundred pounds
/ She was very black, and as lazy as she wa.
black. do not think any one could move
more deliberately than Dinah, that is, to NOV,
d at all. And, by wonderful di>pensation, sh,
d seemed to feel that, whatever her other fault,
might be, she was strong on the point of 10
}, comotIOn. For, when she has been moving will
/ a ponderous slOwness, almost maddening to ;
person of ordinary quickneSs, one of her favor
), ite expressions was, Well, Miss Lille, wha
q shall fly onto nextW How she accomnlishe,
! all she did, the brownies only know. We usec
10 sometimes almost 20 tremble when there wa!
e e any special hurry about our domestic arrange
ments and yet Dlnah always managed to brin
d affairs to consummatiOn Just when minut
= more would have ruined everything and. wit
undlsturbed front, would slowly enunciate
iS Well, miss, what shall fly onto next2''
le 1t was nearly dark when my husband deoart
d ed, and, after giving my orders to Dinab q
W rather my suggestions, | left her. and mad
ID the tour OF the house, to see that all was SAT
u and properly locked up. This duty attende
le to, went to my bedroom, intending to pas
a%c % the time in reading till my husband should re
turn.
y 1t was large room on the ground-ho wit
,e two French windows opening on broad verar
C C. dab. The windows, were draped with lon
10 yellOw-silk curtains, between which the moor
sIss sIs light family entered, dimmed by the shade,
n of the roof of the piazza, and partly intercept
We ed by the fringe of wOOdbine which hung frOr
1gy it. My bed stood with its foot toward th
nd windows, and with its head about half var
h. from the wall. 1t was an Old-tasbioned struc
be ture, hung with yellow silk like the windows
IS. but L slept with the hangings drawn back an
6S fastened to the headboard The bed was so larg
en- that no one ever thought of moving it, exceI
"a. In those seasons of household panic calle
ed house -cleanings, when the combined strengt
IS OF three or four men was called into requistiO
ie n6 to draw it into the middle of the room.
elaborately carved was it that it went by tn
re-, re-, name of Westminster Abbey in the family
n At one end OF the room, at no great distanC
IT, from the bed, was large safe, built into tn
pd huge chimney of the mansion with doc
ed ed high enough for person to enter standing III
right. Here | was accustomed to place, ever
ne evening, our silver plate on shelves, which ey
,ty tended around the sides, on which also wei
placed boxes containing papers and other va
1Id IIa uables. Opposite the foot of the bedsteaC
nd between the windows, was a mirror, runnin
~ from the floor almost to the ceiling Like a
-. other furniture in the room, it was old an
handsome. How many happy scenes it ha
me reflected in the hundred years it had stoo
me there
The night was exceedingly hot, and there
ty 1ty fore left the windows open, though drew tn
uT- curtains before | seated myself at the table
per the centre of the room, lighted the candles, an
or began to read in order to pass the heavy tim
an, before the return of my husband.
After while, heard the clock strike ninc
lil e at which hour Dinah always went to bed He
chamber was in the attic, the third story Of th