The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-05-03
COLUMBIA, TENN, FRIDAY, MAY 8. 1872.

| tIllS OuTlStiIlttS eve, Will tuc uclSAuO4'
ing church-bells Ginning their joyous
tones in her ears, she fell into an undis
turbed sleep, her last thought and hope
being of the coming "Wednesday, and
the letter from "dear toiling Jem" its
arrival might herald.
A loud knock at the door, and the
shrill voice of the landlady, not over
pleased at having to leave the prepara-
ton of the goose to come up three
stories flor it is at that height Nelly's
bedroom is situated), rouses the maiden
from.her peaceful slumbers.
"Please, miss, here's boy from the
theatre with note. Perhaps you'll be
as good as to go down to prepare the
| dinner"
The landlady-the trying nature Of
whose culinary preparations afforded
an excuse, perhaps, for her shOrtness Of
| temper-dOes not wait for an answer,
and the startled Nelly finds that the
hour is half-past ten. The missive has
been pushed through at the bottom Ol
the door, and half in surprise, half in
trepidation, Nelly opens the note, writ
| ten i'm the managers own hand, to find
the following:-
"DEAR Miss BLIMBER.-Late last
night Nile. Fopar wrote me a letter
throwing up her engagement. 1 can
| think of no substitute as cOlumbine but
yourself. Will you assist me? Re
hearsal tomorrow at 1880. If you will
oblige me by taking Fopar's place,
send word by boy, and come to rehear-
the "call," so that we can talk the
srS Il Isc.c
Blimber, yours very faithfully,
III. NOEGO."
Nelly rubbed her eyes in fear, lest
the note should not be a reality; and
as surprise gave way to feelings of joy
and pride that the manager should
have selected her above all others to
assist him in his strait, the little maiden
could not restrain tear or two, that
made their appearance in her eyes.
With every feature in her pretty face
beaming with brightness, she hurried
down stairs to the boy waiting in the
passage, and soon dispatched him with
satisfactory answer to his master.
Joe had risen earlier than usual, and
finding that Nelly was not awake, he
resolved not to disturb her, but to go
for a walk before breakfast, So he
strOlled through the streets for q good
hour, and previous to his arrival home
was quite unaware of the important
missive that had been received by
Nelly.
When he did get home, and found
his daughter busily engaged in brush
ing up the stove, and with the tea
kettle on the fire singing to welcome
his arrival, and his breakfast prepared
for him; then, when he saw the man.
ager's note, and Nelly came and kissed
him, and said she knew she cou4d get
through Mile. FOpar's part, even with
out any rehearsal at all, you wouldn't
be surprised if foolish Joe Blimber's
voice grew thicker and more tremulOus
than in the conversation of the night
before, and that he had to turn his head
away from his daughters face, to con-
ceal the few tears of paternal pride and
happiness that he tried to brush from
his eyes, and couldn't. Then, after a
time, the father and daughter sat down
to breakfaSt,-nice hot toast, prepared
by Nelly's own little fingers but
neither of them could eat. Wasn't Joe
full of gratitude and appreciation of the
manager who had recognized the abili-
ties ofhis Nelly? and wasn't Nelly her.
self too busy with the thoughts of the
distinction bestowed upon her to talk
about anything else? They then laugh
ed about it, and thought somebody
must be playing a joke-only they
didn't mean it, but said so just for the
sake of varying the all-absorbing topic.
They talked so much about the mana
gers condescension i'm writing to Nelly,
that it was nearly twelve O'Clock before
the breakfast things were cleared away;
and then Nelly had to prepare the din
ner. And such dinner it was! She
had bought nice piece of beef, ,-sirloin,
and no mistake about it,-and Nelly
had promised to try her hand at a
plum-pudding, which had been in Sc
cret preparation for several days. Sure
ly the worthy couple might have good
| dinner just once in a way, and at
Christmas time too! Joe offered his
| assistance in the culinary preparations;
but Nelly wasn't to be interfered with
more especially as Joe was rather a
hindrance than otherwise. Silly old
! Joe! he didn't know one bit about
cooking, and he kept up such torrent
| of laughter and capered about the place
to such q degree, as though he was
| going to play harlequin to his daugh-
ter's columbine, that Nelly had to get
rid of him, and so Joe put on his hat
| and went out. Entering church, he
! got Just in time for the sermon; and if
any one was touched by the rector's
hOmily, it was Joe. His heart was
| full of thankfulness for the blessings
that had been showered upon him and
his daughter of whom he was so proud.
| Oh, happy Joe Blimber, may this day
be but the first of many such occasions
for the overflow of thy praise and
thanksgiving for the mercies bestowed
upon thee by the All-seeing!
| At their lodging Nelly is as busy as
possible; the beef is getting on beauti-
| fully-hissing and spluttesing before
the cheerful fire, as if it also wished t.
! give its congratulations TO the fail
young cook.
| Half-past one was the time noted by
! the church-clock within sight of Nelly's
window when q knock was heard al
the front door, and Nelly, who thought
it must be her father, could not help
wishing that he had adjourned his re-
turn just for about twenty minutes,
when the dinner would have been
thoroughly ready, and placed upon the
table. No, it was not her father; fol
Joe knew his way up the stairs, and
would never have stumbled against the
mat outside the first-floor's door in that
noisy fashion. 1t couldn't be the
manager or anybody from the theatre
at least, Nelly thought not. And
then, as the sound of the approaching
footsteps grew more and more distinct,
Nelly feels her heart beginning to beat
with singular rapidity, and as the han
| die of the door is turned, suspicion be-
comes certainty. Yes! there can't be
the least doubt about tin the door,
way stands Jem DuckwOrth-Nelly's
| Jem ckworth-Nelly's Jem!
Did he kiss her, and take her In his
arms? L should rather think he did
and what is more, held her there until
the beef began to splutter and hiss SO
violently, that it seemed as if it intend
ed to fall off the hook into the fire out
of sheer envy and pique at not being
attended to. However, Jem at last LEI
90 of his Nelly, and she, blushing az
red rs the fire, said Jem mustn't be SO
sifly-she didn't mean it, thOugh-and
that she must see to the dinner. Sc
the beef was taken up, just done to a
turn; and a few minutes afterwards
Nelly heard her fathers familiar foot
stems ON the landing. Joe expected tC