The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1873-11-27
THAT HORRID MISS LEIGH.

->eN IL tAe TURKEY uauusOulest!
Our Young Folks.
THAT HORRID MISS LEIGH.
Tom Luttrell, aged twenty -four, was a
thoroughly good fellow, goodtempered,
good looking, and heir to good property
but he had one sorrow, he was engaged
toa girl he had never seen.
Some ten years before a dispute had
arisen about a certain Hillingdon estate,
in Leicestershire. in which Mr.. Luttrell-
Toms tather-and a certain Carnworth
Leigh, both laid claim. Litigation seemed
inevitable, and the legal fraternity began
to prick up its ears, when one morning
MIR. Luttrell received the following note
friends all our lives. and there is no man living for
whom have greater esteem than for yourself.
cannot we. then, settle this wretched business
without troubling these Internal lawyers: Ny un-
Gle. Haughton Leigh, had a suit that lasted him
twenty years, and killed him in the end. Now lis
ten to me; my daugh,er Nellie will have all I've
Jacks boy. Why shouldn't she marry your boy
Tom: Let the property alone for the next ten
years: then Nellie will be eighteen and Tom four.
and twenty-if they like to marry then, well and
good; if either should decline to carry out the ar
ra mem let the property go to the other.
son This ms Is rough idea Of my plan which Jack
Mha DO you say' Yours, etc., Carnworth Leigh
To this proposition Mr.. Luttrell agreed,
and Tom found himself an engaged man
at fourteen. Soon after this, Mr.. Leigh
was obliged to leave England for his
health, and for many years he resided en-
tirely on the continent. So it happened
that Tom and his future bride had never
met.
About month before the time fixed
for his departure, Tom betook himself to
small inn in the village of Settle.
bourne, near Stockford, nominally to fish,
but in really to 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
bank above him, and dropped lightly on
the water, while girls voice exclaimed;
"Oh, my gracious, my hat!'
Tom looked and saw very neat little
hat floating, boat-like, down the stream.
Bother the young woman" he grum-
bled; II 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
saw girl whose beauty surprised him.
She stood bareheaded on the bank, gazing
with look of comic dismay after the
fast receding hat. and Tom had an oppor-
tunity of examining her critically, Fl ON
the little head with its crisp brown hair,
disordered by 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.
truded over the stream, and waited in the
hope that the current would bring the hat
within his reach. He was not disappoint-
ed, and in a few minutes more he was
again on terra firma with his prize.
II must make friends with this young
person." he thought, as he carefully dried
the dripping feather with his handker-
chief
The fair stranger had watched his
efforts from her elevated post, and smiled
sweety on him as he climbed the bank
with his recovered treasure. She had
evidently been sketching, for her materials
were scattered in picturesque confusion
around her
Il hope it's not much damaged" said
Tom, as he looked rather ruefully at the
result of his manipulations pm afraid
the feathers in bad way"
"Oh, it doesn't matter in the least,
thanks. How kind of you to take so
much trouble. But for you, I must have
walked home re-headed"
II wouldn't put it on just yet" said
Tom. "Let it lie in the sun little and
dry, while you 60 on with your work i"
:" But suppose it starts off again, and
there's no one to recover it for me I" she
suggested.
"Let me guard it, then, and you can
work in peace. You are sketching, see,
may look:"
'Oh, yes; but it's miserable failure.
I'm afraid" she said, laughing, as she
handed it to him. Tom examined it, and,
being 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 ali con-
yentionality, without at all resembling
his bette noir, the fast girl"
They grew quite confidential as the
lesson proceeded, and were amazed when.
on consulting their watches, that it was
$50 O'Clock.
Il must fly" she said, "or shall be
late for dinner, and Sir John can't stand
that"
"Have you far to goy" asked Tom,
crafty.
"About mile. I'm staying at New.
lands. Goodbye. No, can carry them.
thanks; I couldn't think of troubling you
any more. Goodbye" and she went of.
Tom went to his room thinking great
deal about his new friend, wondering
where the charms lay which, even more
than her beauty, had fascinated him.
Perhaps it's her DRESS" he thought:
''she dresses better than any woman ever
saw; and then her boots!" Here he lit a
cigar, and fell into q dream about the said
boots, and about the little white hand that
had worked so industriously and confid-
ingly under the direction of his big, brown
paw. All the next day he wandered by
the river, but she came not. That evening
he was restless and ill-tempered with his
hostess and every one who approached
him.
The day after was more fortunate. She
was sitting in the old spot, and greeted
him smilingly.
at my tree; isn't it like those bright green
cauliflowers you see in the pickle bot
tlesg' :.
Tom sat down and set to work on the
refractory tree, while she watched him.
II say" she said ct last "imt this
dreadfully impfoperin
"Whichs" asked Tom, working away
vigorously.
"Why, you and me-" she replied I'M
dramatically. We've never been intro
duced, and don't in the least know who
You are or anything about you. Lady
Turnbull would have At II shs knew"