The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1873-05-28
MisesIla"eo"5.
MILLY MORE'S LETTER.
How II Happened She Didn't Have 10
Wait Three Months.

I'm Aunty Gunter. Job Gunter
is my husband. We keep the Anchor
Port Post Office and store, and sell
groceries and garden sass, calico,
shoes and medicines, like other folks
in our line, when anybody asks for
| EN-.
When the ships come in and the
sailors come home to their wives and
mothers trade goes brisk. The
housekeepers do their best, and the
raisins and dried curants and eggs
and butter go off finely, and it's worth
while to lay in ribbons for the girls
and smoking tobacco and long pipes
for the men.
Jack and his wages make old
Anchor Port brisk for a while, but
at last he sails away, and all the
women seem to ask for will be letters,
letters, letters, letters, when they
have a right to expect them, and
when they haven't all the same.
It's "Please, Aunty Gunter, look
over them, and see if there aren't
one fer me-" and it's Please, Uncle
Gunter, it might have got mixed up
and overlooked somehow = often
and often-God help the poor souls
after Jack lies at the bottom of
the sea, and nothing will ever reach
them but the news of his shipwreck.
But plenty of letters come after all,
and sometimes we have to read them
for the folks, job and I. and so we
get to know something of their lives.
Milly More could read and write
herself, but still always knew when
she had letter from Will Masset.
[ knew it by the handwriting, and
knew it by her bushes, and by that
happy look in her face. When he
came home, she bought ribbons and
bits of lace by the apronfuIl; and |
knew where the packages of candy
that he bought were to 90. And |
used to keep Job from fishing down
in Pullman's creek of afternoons, be-
cause knew that was where Milly
and VIII liked to walk. Courtine
time comes but once in a lifetime,
and always liked to see it prosper.
AT last he sailed away, second
mate of the Golden Dove, and when
he came back from the voyage they
were to be married.
1t was a sad day when the ship
sailed. Mrs. Capt Rawdon and her
girls were crying from the shore.
Twenty women from the Port and
five from the Hill were there to see
her set sail.
1t was under an old sycamore that
Will took Milly to his breast.
Don't fret, darling" he said,
''rll come back safe and sound. /
couldn't drown now; I've too much
to live for"
Poor boy! In spite of that the
Golden Dove went down in mid
seas, and only three men reached
Anchor Port to tell how Capt, Raw.
don and the rest were lost, at dead
of night, in a most woeful storm.
Capt. Kincaid brought the news to
Mrs. Rawdon. He stopped at the
store to tell about it. A nice old
man. A bachelor still. at tifty-eight,
and as handsome, with his white hair
and red cheeks. as a picture.
That was twelve months ago, the
night l went into the store to sort
things out, as always did Saturday
nights. Through the week Job used |
to get everything mixed up-letters
in my tea boxes, candles in the let
ter box, eggs where they oughtn't
to be, and all the place askew, I'll
was o warm autumn night, and Capt, |
Kincaid's, vessel was in port, and |
We had plenty Of custom. Job sery- !
ed the people while tidied up. l
found half the last mail in the sugar |
oox, and clothespins in the ground /
coffee canister, aud Just dumped /
hem out.