Litchfield enquirer., 1873-02-06

10 S,-alu Iedfu IOEueS III tHS OeTndu
 Opera, they rode in the Park, they
 browsed in the Astor, and went shopping at Stewart Sand they saw people paint porcelain at Haughwout' E, sand by Mir. Alden's kindness, went through the won- ! ders at Harper's; in short, for three weeks, all of which time they lived on board ship, they saw tine lions Of New York as i children of the public do,-for whom that great city decks itself and prepares i its wonders, albeit their existence is hard 1 ly known to its inhabitants.
 ! Meanwhile Jem had chartered the 'Laura' for voyage to San Francisco. And so, before long, her cargo began to come on board, and sine and Tom and the babies took moucnful farewell, and came back to Tripp's Cove again, to Moses Mar vel's house. And poor Tom thought 1t looked smaller than ever, and that he i should find 1t harder than ever to settle ] down to being of no use to anybody, and i to eat Moses Maryel's bread, without 1 house, or barn, Or bin, or oven, or board, ! or bed-even the meanest--of his own. ! Poor Tom and this was the reward of i being the first man ill Maine to enter for I three years !
 And then things went worse and worse Moses Marvel was as good and as taciturn as ever. But Moses Marvel's affairs did not run as smoothly as he liked. Moses held on, upon one years cutting of lum- 1 Der, perfectly determined that lumber should rise because 1t ought to, and Mo- ses paid very high usury on the money he borrowed, because Ae would hold on. Moses was set in his way, like other per sons whom you and I know,-and to this lumber he held and held, till finally the bank would not renew his notes,-no, and they would not discount a cent for him at Bang&and Moses came back from long taciturn journey he had started on i'll search Of money,-and with only the cer- tadnty that if he did not mean to have the sheriff sell his lumber he must sell it for himself Nay! he must sell 1t before the fourth Of the next month, land for cash, and must sell at the very bottom of long falling market Poor Moses Marvel That operation served to show that he joined all the Cutts want of luck with the Marvel obstinacy. It was wretched twelvc-lnonth the whole of it,-and it made that household and made Tom Cutts more miserable and. more.
 Then they became anxious abOut the Laura and Jem. She made almost d clipper voyage to California. She dis charged her cargo ill perfect order. Jem made capital charter for Australia and England, and knew that from England 1t would be easy to get a voyage home. He sailed from California, and then the let ters stopped. No! Laura dear, no need of reading word of the ship-news in the ''Semi-Weekly Adyertiser;'' the name of your namesake is not there. Eight, nine, ten months have gone by, and there IS no part Ill Chrlstendom which has seen Jem's face, or the Laura g private signal. Do not strain your eyes On the ''Seni-Week- ly" any more.
 No! dear Laura's eyes will be dlmmed by other cares than the ship news. Tou' father, who had shared Toms wretched- ness, and would gladly have had them at his house, but Moses Marvel's was the larger and the less peopled of the two,- Tom's father was brought home speech less, one day. by the men who had found hlm where he had fallen or tte road, his yoke of oxen not far away, waiting for the voice which they were never to hear again. Whether he had fallen from the cart, Ill some lurch it made, and broken his spine, or whether all this distress had brought on all of q sudden @ stroke Of paralysis, so that lie lost his consciousness before he fell, do not know Nor do l see that 1t matters much, though the chimney cor ners of Tripp's Cove discuss the question quite eagerly to this hour: He lay there month after month, really unconscious. food. He tried to say '"Thank you, ,' they of his bosom, who had been the Laura Marvel of her day, in any different way from that ill which he tried to speak to any stranger of them all. 4 living death he lay in, as those tedious months vent by.
 Yet my dear Laura was as cheerful and hopeful and buoyant as ever. Tom Cutts himself was ashamed to brood when he got sight of her. Mother Cutts herself would lie down and rest when Laura came round with the two children, as she did every afternoon. Moses Marvel himself was less taciturp when Laura put the children, one at one side, one at the other, of his chair, at the table.
 And i'll both of those broken house holds, from one end to the other, they knew the magic of dear Laura's spells. So that when this Christmas came, after poor Mir. Cutts had been lying useless so long, when dear Laura b6de them all take hold and fit up for the little ones and for the Spaulding children and the Marvel cousins, and the Hopkinses, and the Phips and Newmarch children, the first Christmas tree that bad ever been seen ill the Cove; they all obeyed her loyalty, ,and without wondering They obeyed her own determination that they would have one merry Christmas more. It seems strange to say that this was such a novel, ty for all the little ones of the neighbor- hood. But so 1t was, a novelty to all the home stayers, for all such festivities are of recent importation in such regions. But there was something for every child. They beaped on more wood ,and they kept merry Christmas despite the storm with out. This was Laura s will, and she had her way.
 And she had her reward Job Stiles came round to the door when he had put up his horses, and called Tom out and gave him letter which he had brought from Ellsworth. And Tom read the let ter, and he called Laura to read it. And Laura left the children and sat at the kitchen table with him and read ik, and said, ''Thank God ! this is q Christmas present indeed. Could anything in this world be better?'
 This is the letter. .<
 JOIN WILDAIR TO ToM CUrTs.
 
 DEAR ToM,-I am just back from Washington. 1 have seen them all, and have done my best, and have failed They say, and believe, that the colleetorship was promised to Waters before the old mans death,-that Waters had honest claims, he has but one leg, you know,- and that it must go to him. As for the surveyorship. the gift of that is with Plumptre. And you know that I might as we'll ask the Pope to give me anything, as him. And if he hates anybody worse than me, why, it is your vife's father. So l could do nothing there.
 Let me say this though it seems noth- ing. If while we are waiting to look round you like to take the Bell and Ham mer Lighthouse, you may have the place tomorrow. Of course know 1t is exile in winter, but in summer 1t is lovely. You have your house. your stores, two men under you (they are double lights), and a thousand dollars. l have made them promise to give 1t to.no one till they hear