Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1873-09-30
EDITOR News.

EDITOR News.
Love on Log .
Miss Becky Newton
well, sir
will you marry me-?
No, | won't
Very well, then don't, that's ALL
Mr.. Fred Eckerson drew away his
chair, and putting his feet on the piaz-
"a, unfoided a newspaper. Miss Becky
Newton bit her lip and went on with
her sewing. She wondered ifthat was
going to be the last of it. She had felt
this proposal coming for nearly a
month but the scene she had antici-
pated was not at all like this. She had
intended to refuse him, but it was to
be done gracefully. She was TO re
main firm, Notwithstanding his most
eager entreaties. She was 10 have told
him that, though respecting his manly
worth and upright character, she
could never be more than an apprecia-
ting friend. She had intended TO shed
a few tears, perhaps, as he knelt in an
agony of supplicatiOn at her feet. But
instead. he had asked her the simple
question, without any rhetorical en-
bellishments, and on being answered,
had plunged at once into his newspa-
per, though he had merely inquired
the time of day. She cOuld have cried
with veXatiOn,
You will never have n better
chance he continued, after a pause, as
he deliberately turned over the sheet
to find the latest telegraph reports.
y better chance for what?' she asked
shortly.
y better chance to marry young,
good looking man, whose gallamtry to
the sex is only exceeded by his bravery
in their defence Fred was quoting
from his newspaper, but Miss Newton
did not know it.
And whose egOtism is only exceed
ed by his impudence,' retorted the
lady sarcastically.
Before long continued Fred, you
will be out Of the market. Your chan
ces, you know are getting Simmer cv-
cry day"
'Sirn
1T won't be a great while before you
are ineligible. You will grow old and
wrinkled, and
Such Tudeness to lady. sir, is mon
strOus = exclaimed Miss Newton rising
hastily and flushing to the temples.
"I'll give you fina! opportunity,
Mss Becky. VIII you mar
Not if you were the King of Eng
land, Interrupted Mis- Newton, throw
ing down Der work. 1 am not accus-
toned TO such insults, sir And so
saying she passed into the house and
slammed the door behind her.
she is never as handsome as when
she is in a rage thought Fred to him.
self after she had gone, as he slowly
folded up his paper and replaced it in
his pocket. i was fool to gOard her
so. | shall never win her in that way.
But I'll have her, he exclaimed aloud.
by heaven I'll have her, cost what
it may
Very different was the Fred Ecker
son of the present, pacing nervously
up and down the piazza, From Ecker
son of a few moments ago, receiving
his dismissal from the woman he loved
with such calm and imperturbable
for he loved Becky Newton
with all his heat. The real difficult
" in the way, as be more than half
was not so much in himself
as in his pocket. Becky Newton had
an insuperable objection to an empty
wallet. The daughter of a wealthy
planter, reared in luxury,
and a recipient of weekly allowance
of pin money sufficient to pay Fred's
whole bills, for a whole month, she
had no immediate idea Of changing
her situation for one of less comfort
and independence. Besides it had
been intimated to her that a neighbor-
ing planter of unusually aristocratic
lineage had looked upon her with cov-
Gus eyes. To be sure, he was old and
ugly, but he was rich and in her pres
ent mercenary state of mind, Miss
Becky Newton did not desire to allow
such chance of becoming a wealthy
widow slip by unimprOved.
But alas for human nature! If
Becky was really so Indifferent to
Fred Eckerson, why did she run up
stairs after that interview, and take
.he starch all out of her nice, clean
by crying herself into
mysteries on the bed? 1t was not all
wrath, not all veXatiOn, not all plque.
There was somewhere deep down III
Becky Newton's heart, feeling very
much akin to remorse. She was not
sure that she would not one day be sor-
" for what she had done. She had no
ioubt she could be very happy as Fred
wife, after all.
But then she cried, growing hot
With the recollection, he was SO rude |
md so insulting! L could never live
With such a man-nevern
When Fred Eckerson had walked !
IF some of his feelings on the piazza,
ne concluded to take a look at the riv-
r. The Mississippi, which flowed |
githin 500 yards OF the house, was AZ
hat time nearly at the height of It's
'egular spring tide Its turbid wa
ers, rushing swiftly toward the sea,
lad nearly filled the banks, and in /
many places had broken through the
evees and flooded the low-lands for
nany miles. a crevasse of this de-
cription had been made in the farther
,ank, nearly opposite the house, and
he windows OF the Newton mansion.
a view of a vast and gilt
ering inland sea, not laid down on the
nap. The main current Of the stream
,ore upon its coffee-colored bosom an
normous mass of floating timber,
which was dashed along in the boiling
Iood, rendering navigation wholly inn
possible. The waters were still rising,
nd the frequent crashes far and near
old of the undermining power of the
urrent, as sections of theeandy banks
uceumbed and disappeared, carrying