New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-02
HONIE AGAIN.
A Skel CHI EauRl to Anything In Dickens.


ran across what first struck me as a very
singular genius on my road from Springfield
to Boston. This was a stout, black whlsk-
cred man. who INDUCED, from time to time,
in the most strange and unaccountaole
maneuvers. Every now and then he would
get up and hurry away TO the narrow pas
sage which leads to the door in these draw
ingroom cars, and when he thought himself
secure from observation, would fall to
laughing in the most violent manner and
continue the healthful exercise until he was
as red in the face as lobster. AS we neared
BOSTON these demonstrations increased in
violence. save that the stranger no longer
ran away to laugh, but kept his seat and
chuckled to himself, with his chin deep
down in his shirt collar. But the changes
that those portmanteaus underwent. lie
moved them here, there, everywhere; he
mt them behind him, in front OF him, on
each side of him. He was evidently getting
ready to leave, but as we were yet twenty
five miles from Boston, the idea OF such
early preparations was ridiculous.
If we had entered the city then the mys-
tery would have remained unsolved, but
the stranger at last became so much ex-
cited that he could keep his seat no longer.
Some one must help him, and as was tne
nearest, he selected me. Suddenly turning
as if had asked question, he said, rock
ING himself to and fro in his chair the mean
time, and slapping his legs, and breathing
hard: been gone three years! 'Ah. II es,
been in Europe. Folks don't expect me Tor
six months vet but l got through and
started. / telegraphed them at the last
station; they've got it by this time AS he
said this he rubbed his hands and changed
the portmanteau on his left to the nght,
and the one on the right to the lelt AGAIN am
"Got a wifel" said l. .'Yes, and three chill
dren. he returned, and he got up and folded
his overcoat anew, and hung 1t over
the back of the seat. you are
pretty nervous over the matter, amt
you!" raid. watching his fidgety move
ments. "Well, l should think l was" he
replied; hain't slept soundly for a week.
And do you know" he went on, gianclng
around at the passengers and speaking IN
lower tone, 81 am almost certain tnls trai il
will run off the track and break my neck
before get to Boston," "Well, the fact is,
have had too much good luck for one man
lately. The thing can't last; faint natural
that it should, you know; Eve watched II.
First it rains, then it shines, then 1t rams
again; it rains so hard you think it's never
going to stop; then it shines so bright yoa
think it's always going to shine; and just as
YOU are settled in either belief, you are
knocked over by change to show you
that YOU know nothing about it. well,
according to the philosophy" says L,
"you will continue to have sunshine
because you are expecting storm
.'It's curious" he returned. after pause,
hut the only thing which makes me think
I'll get through safe, is because l think
won't" "Well, that is curious, said L.
Lord, yes" he replied. I'm ma
chinist made a discovery - nobody be-
lieved it; spent all my money trying to
bring it out - mortgaged my hOme-all
hn III WIfp-gDnnkV
little woman-said she would work her
fingers off before should give itup. Went
TO England-no better there: came within
an ace of jumping off London Bridge
Went into a shop to earn money enough 10
come home with; there met the man |
wanted To make a long story short, I've
brought thirty thousand pounds home with
me-" Good for you" exclaimed. Yes,
said he. thirty thousand pounds; and the
best of it is She doesn't know anything
about it. I've fooled her so often, and
disappointed her SO much that / just
concluded / would say nothing about
this. When / got my money, though,
YOU better believe | struck a bee
line for home" .'And now you will
make her happy said |. Happy - he
replied, "Why, you don't know anything
about it. She's worked like a dog while
have been gone, trying to support herself
thirteen cents apiece for making coarse
shirts: and that's the way she lived half
the time. She'll come down there to the
depot 10 meet me in gingha dress and
shawl hundred years DID, and she'll think
she's dressed up. Oh, she won't have no
clothes after this-oh, no, | guess not !"
and with these words, which implied that
his wife's wardrobe would soon rival that
of Queen Victoria's, the stranger tore
down the passage way again, and getting
in his old corner where he thought himself
out of sight, went through the strangest
pantomime, laughing, putting his mouth
into the drollest shapes, and then swinging
himself backward and forward in the lin
tied space, as if it were walking down
Broadway a full rugged metropolitan
swell. And so on until we rolled into
the depot, and / placed myself on
the other car, opposite the stranger,
who, with a pOrtmanteau in each hand, had
descended, and was standing on the lower
step, ready to jump to the platform. |
looked from his face to the faces of the peo-
pie before US, but saw no sign of recogni-
ton. Suddenly he cried: There they are
and laughed outright, but in a hysterical
sort of way, as he looked over the crowd.
l followed his eyes, and some distance back.
as if crowded out and shouldered away by
the well dressed and elbowing throng, a
little woman in faded dress and a we'll
worn hat, with a face almost painful in its
intense, but hopeful expression. glancing
rapidly frCm window to window as the
coaches glided in. She had not yet seen the
stranger, but moment after she caught his
eye. and i'll another instant he had Jumped
to the platform with his two portmanteaus,
and making hole in the crowd, pushing
one here and there, and running one of his
bundles plump into the well-developed
stomach of notwithstanding old gentle.
man in spectacles, he rushed toward the
place where she was standing.
l think i never saw a face assume so
many different expressions in so short a
time as did that of the little woman while
her husband was on his way to her. She
didn't look pretty. On the contrary, she
looked very plain, but someway felt a big
lump rise in my throat as | watched her
She was trying to laugh, God bless her,
how completely she failed in the attempt
Her mouth got into that position, but it
never moved after that, save to draw down
at the corners and culver, while she
blinks her eyes so fast that l suspect
she only caught occasional glinpses OF
the broad shouldered fellow who
elbowed his way so rapidly toward
her. And then, as he drew close and
dropped those everlasting portmanteaus
she just turned completely around, with
her back toward him, and covered her face
with her hands And thus she was when
the strong man gathered her up in his arms
as if she had been baby, and held her sob
bling to his breast. There was enough gap
ing at them, heaven knows and turned
my eyes away moment, and then | saw
two boys in threadbare roundabOuts stand.
ing near, wiping their red eyes and noses
on their little coat sleeves, and bursting out
anew at every fresh demonstration on the
part of their mother, who seemed as if the
pent up tears of all those weary months OF
waiting were streaming through her ewes.