Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-12-18
THAT HORRID MISS LEIGH.

THAT H0RRID MISS LEIGH.
Tom Lut.rell, aged twenty-f0Ur, was
thoroughly good fellow, gOOd-tCmpered,
r1edIOoking, and heir to good property
but he had one sorrow, he was engaged
% q girl he had never seen,
Some ten years before a dispute had
arisen about a certain HillingdOn estate,
a. Leicestersbire, in which Mr.. Luttrell-
Tennis fathar-and a certain CarnwOrth
Leigh, both LAID claim Litigation seemed
Inevitable, and the legal fraternity began
,ss prick up its cars, when one morning
Mr Luttrell received the following note:
-'nzlR LUTTRELL; You and | have been good
Trends all lives and there is man living for
szyElUl have q greater esteem than for yourself.
Cannot we, then, settle this Wretched business
without troubling these internal lawyers? My I'M
90. HaUghtOn Leigh, had suit that lasted him
eaze1ly years and killed him in the end. Now lis
1sE 10 me; my daughter Nellie will have all I've
rat az nv death, except Barfeld which goes TO
Jacks beg Wsy shouldn't she marry your boy
EGUls Let the property alone for the next ter
-aaa-s; then Nellie will be eighteen and Tom four
m& tFenty-if they like to marry then, well and
TIaE IL either should decline to carry out the ar
EFtHJemeRt, let the property go to the other
This is a rough idea of my plan, which Jack
zUU aud your lawyer could soon put into shape.
Zehzt do you say' Yours, etc, Carnworth Leigh,
3srfeldn
To this proposition Mr.. Luttrell agreed,
lBd Tom found himself an engaged man
u fourteen. Soon after this, Mr. Leigh
was obliged TO leave England for his
Stealth, and for many years he resided en-
EiTely on the continent. So it happened
Shat Tom and bis future bride had never
met
About month before the time fixed
2Nr his departure, Tom betook himself to
y small inn in the village of Settle
bourne, near StOckford, nominally to fish,
Dur in really 70 escape from his fathers
arguments, and TO get little time to him
self for quiet reflection, while he solaced
his wretched soul with tobacco.
One day as he lay lazily smoking by the
silver Beck something fell from high
@he water while girls voice exclaimed !;
ooh, my gracious, my hiatt"
Tom looked and saw very neat little
hat floating, bOatlike, down the stream
Bother the young woman" he grum-
5ledi y suppose now she'll expect me to
fetch it''
AS he rose he looked up to the spot
from which the voice had proceeded, and
sew a girl whose beauty surprised him.
She stood bareheaded on the bank, gazing
with look Of comic dismay after the
East receding hat. and Tom had an Oppor-
1unity of examining her critically, fom
Gle little head with its crisp brown hair,
eIis0rdered 10y the wind, TO the slim ankles
which her position revealed as she stood
above him,
Running some yards down the bank he
stepped out on an old willow, which pro-
1luded over the stream, and waited in the
nope that the current would bring the hat
within his reach He was not disappOint-
cd and in few minutes more he was
again on terra firma with his prize.
Il must make friends with this young
person" he thought, as he carefully dried
Che dripping feather with his handker-
Chief.
The fair stranger had watched his
efforts from her elevated post, and smiled
sweedy on him as he climbed the bank
with his recovered treasure. She had
evidently been sketGhing, for her materials
were scattered in picturesque confusion
sround her.
Il hope it's not much damaged" said
Tom, as he looked rather ruefully at the
result of his manipulations. "l'm afraid
.lc feathers in a bad way"
ooh, it doesn't matter in the least,
thanks. How kind of you to take so
much trouble. But for you | must have
walked home bare-headed."
Il wouldn't put il on just yet" said
Tom. 'Let it lie in the sun little and
lry, while you go on with your work"
But suppose it starts off again, and
there's no one 70 recover il for me?" she
suggested.
"Let me guard it, then, and you can
work in peace. You are sketching, / see,
may look?"
ooh, yes; but it's q miserable failure,
I'm afraid,' she said, laughing, as she
handed it "a him Tom examined it, and,
being a bit Of an amateur himself, pro-
ceeded to critiCise and, finally, to instruct.
He found his girl very charming; she
seemed so delightfully."- free from all con-
ventionality, without at all resembling
his bette a0ti', the fast girl"
They grew quite confidential as the
lesson proceeded, and were amazed when
OH consulting their watches, that it was
I so O'Clock
x must fy," she said, cor l shall be
1ate for dinner, and Sir John can't stand
shat"
< Have you far to go3" asked Tom
craftily.
About mIie. I'm staying at New
lands. Goodbye. No, l can carry them
thanks; I couIdnttbi of troubling yor
any mores Good bye" and she went off.
Tom went TO his room thinking grea
deal about his new friend, wondering
where the charms lay which, even more
&Eth 1ST ptdutft hdu ldSClUdJSu MIN
* Perhaps it's her dress" he thought
@>she dresses better than any woman l eve
saw; and then her bootsr Here he lit
cigar, and fell into dream about the sale
boots, and about the little white hand tina
had worked SO industriously and conf1d
znrly under the direction of his big, brown
r7sE. All the next day he wandered b,
-5fe river, but she came not. That evening
he v-as restless and illtempered with hi
hastess and every one who approaches
aim.
The day after was more fortunate. Sh
v&as sitting in the old spot and greete
aim smilingly.
You're Just in time" she said. Loo
at NV tree; isn't it like those bright gree
caulifiowers you see in the pickle bo
s5eS 90
Tom sat down and set to work ON tn
Gafractory tree, while she watched him.