The Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1870-1871, 1871-03-05

present, saving how much sweeter WAS
the old habit of playing the air as accom-
| paniment and singing the alto; and, after
a little chat, would close the piano, and
one of the girls and their mother would
go up to my room with me to stir up my
fire, and bring the stand, with my Bible,
up close to il, for me to have hours
quiet before sleeping. I SUPPOSE, as I
said, my music was no real pleasure to
them, yet, somehow, it frightened the
whole day for me. and brought back an
echo of the old times, Us it were; and
used to fancy their young, sweet faces
never looked happier than when they
had given the old woman this daily, silly
pleasure. a....,-. .i. la,
Sitting alone before my fire. with the
Bible on my knee, ], used to live over my
life, as all old people do, perhaps, with
this difference, I think, that I never had
grown old. Singing those merry tilts,
my heart was as young as either Of the
girls beside me, and as full of jests and
laughter. Ny white hair, when went
to the glass, never ceased to strike me
with new surprise, Is did the then
treble of my voice in singing. 1t used
to ring out in another fashion once!
The untinely yonthfnlness of feeling, I
believe, is peculiar to me; other old peo-
pie grow different and wiser in heart as
their limbs fail and hair whitens. But
when I would be reverend as my mother
was, with all the crown of her long life
upon her head. John and the girls
seem to regard me with just that affec
tionate awe which had for her, but with
out reason, it seems to ne.) I am a
round, chubby mother-bunch of q little
woman, with a good deal of pink in the
wrinkled checks over which hang the
white curls. My mother was picture,
with her tall, spare figure, severe face and
silvery hair, done up under thin, Qnak-
or cap, with bow of white satin ribbon
ON top. She walked with slight bend,
(which was the fashion of her youth,
and stately, slow movement. The
heavy silks she wore, the high-heeled,
pointed shoes the diamonds ON her
wrin.lcd fingers, belonged to her by ns-
| ture
The old harp, of which I have curl
ous story to tell you, was given to her
on her bridal morning. 1t was one of
the first brought across ''the mountains"
as we called the Alleyhanics, and was
not the least of the rich gifts which cal
led out the envy of our poor neighbors.
For the La Pierres, my mothers family,
were of Nh old stock, different from the
traders and raw. half-cultured people who
filed the country town where she lived
Her father had drop Of vagabond blood
in him, aud wandered out West; but his
family never suffered him to cut loose all
ties between them; and when his eldest
daughter was married, tokens OF kinship
and affection came to her, both from Ma
ryland, where the American branch of
the La Pierres had settled, and from
France, where the original stock had
root. -., - ..,.... .--'..-,
Most precious of al, perhaps, this
poor, old ricketty hat, thing of wonder
ful beauty then, coming az it did with a
romantic story hanging about it. 1t had
been the property of some Austrian no.
BILE, and being confscated, with all that
he possessed, for treason, came at last to
the doom of public auction. .r.'I
1t was an exquisite piece of workman
ship, the stock inlaid with flowers in
Florentine mosaic, and, more rare and
costly, two delicate miniature paintings
on black ground Of Venus Aphrokite
remember the awe-struck wonder with
which used to stand by my mother as
she played, when ! was o child, tracing
out the fairy, rose-tinted limbs growing
into shape, rs it were, out of the spray
of the green waves, and then turning to
watch the stately old lady, whose gray
head kept time to the measure which her
jeweled, wrinkled hands brought forth.
One was as fine q picture to me as the
other. Almost a. far off, too-my mother
MnS alwava a afranner ffl her children