Litchfield enquirer., 1874-01-29

buG we are never 1ull6Q Into C3ImnGSS in this world, but some event which we have ceased to fear bursts upon us, and overwhelms our well-laid plans. The ghosts, which we supposed effectually laid, came back upon us in 8 very unusual and unexpected form.
 Faithful was cbopping wood in the back yard one day in April, when he ob- served white dove sitting on log quite near him. It was common pigeon, such as one sees in hocks around a well-fIled barn; and had it been later in the season, or had the bird been accompanied by oth- CTS, 1t would not have surprised him, but its quiet regard was peculiar. and it's mo- threw chip at 1t; the bird moved off a kept this up all the morning without tightening the bird away, and came in to dinner; the dove followed him. He turn claiming. "I am sent for" dropped on the floor in dead faint.
 Cousin Miranda was on the spot before he recovered consciousness but with dash of cold water she had common-sense she mastered the situa- tion.
 ''Now, Faithful" with incis1ve voice, ''1 thought you were wiser man than to believe in this poor, old, worn-out sign, that birds bring evil Why, don't you see that this is tame bird which has flown out of some open window, and lost it's way? We shall have it's mistress here tomorrow asking for it will feed and take care of it meanwhile. Come here, little bird p
 Thus Miranda; and taking the dove in her two hands, she pressed it gently to her bosom. "Oh, don't Oh, don't ]" said Faith full; Sit means sickness and it means death. Don't let the critter come near you, Miss Miranda! Scare it away ?"
 ''I do not believe a white dove is charged with any such message, Faithful. ," said my cousin, majestically, and she walked away with the bird.
 Faithful went back to his work, but he Jagged perceptibly. When the gardening came round, he put the peas in the ground with feeble hand. One day, as he was coming in from his work, Miss Miranda saw him stagger. She knew it was no doubtful sign; she saw that he was very i'll. A typhoid fever was paying Moss brook 8 visit that spring, and in almost every house there was one sick. Faithful was soon in his bed, as delirious a mad man as ever raved. talking of Maggie, the white dove, the Light Infantry, and the early peas.
 Cousin Miranda put the house under hospital rule, and banished us to the front, while she and Maggie nursed Faithful in a large roomy apartment full of air and light, in the back of the house. It was a six weeks task, but she &C., complished it we'll; the fever went no further in ouf house, and Faithful re- covered.
 During this time of anxiety and labor on Miranda's part, she had taken a singu- lar pleasure in the white dove, which no one had appeared to claim, and which be- a woman to indulge in pets indiscrimi- nately, but this one seemed to have been forced upon her. It followed her about like dog, walking after her rather than flying; sometimes the dove would perch on her shoulder, and she would go about the house looking like some medieval saint.
 She was careful, however not to bring the white dove and Faithful together until he was sufficiently recovered to bear the sight
 However, he began in July to sit up at the kitchen door, to take some fresh air, and look out with envious eyes on his sub stitute, who. was wedding his ''gardin sass very badly. On one of these occa- sions Cousin Miranda, coming to the kitch- en on some housewifely errand, was fol- lowed as usual by her white dove; the widows and doors were all open, aIsudden blast blew door to behind her, it caught the poor little bird and crushed it; little body came dropping down. down after my cousin, dead.
 Reader. have you ever seen mountain torrent which has been closely sealed all winter break away from its coating of ice and dash down the steep, carrying every thing before it?
 If you have, you can picture Miranda 8 grief. The cold, reserved "Alruna Maid en" was gone: in her place wild, crazed, weeping girl, another reading of Lesbia's sparrow.
 She frightened us all, but we loved her the better for it. She had laid too firm a hand on her emotions for perfect human sympathy. It was g sight we had never expected to see.-our cousin overcome by her emotions; but she was demoralized by being in love- The birds death shocked Faithful, but 1 suspect it acted like a mental tonic on him. For those who are curious in such matters, I may as well add, that this is no fgment of the imagination; the birds visit, the fever, and the birds death, all happened as I have narrated 1t, in every detail
 In the autumn Cousin Miranda was to be married, Maggie was deep in tears and dress-making; Faithful was creeping round, very much annoyed that his legs would ache, and his back would give way, and that he must be ''lazy," as he called it, for some time longer; but of one thing he was fully convinced, nobody should do anything for Miss Miranda but himself. He would be we'll enough to strap all the trunks and drive her to church. Deep in his heart was written that love which Is born of gratitude, and his was a service which money could not buy. The gallant Captain arrived on the appointed day, and brought some fellow-officers to act as his best men. We had the joy of being bridesmaids, and of walking up the broad aisle, leaning on arm which which West Point had made as hard as iron, and of having our shoulders scratched by an ag- gressive epaulet. A military wedding is no common pleasure to the brides maids 1!
 Faithful drove the bride to church, and throwing the reins to some less favored mortal, walked III with Maggie, after the bridal party, in suit of clothes so new and stiff, that his arms could not touch his sides at all. Maggie bravely walked by his side; they were not ashamed to be engaged now; there was something in their hearts which raised them above the world and It's critics.
 Miranda went off with her Captain to the life of an oficer's wife. We did not see her for many years. Faithful and Maggie got married, and went into their own little house; the Mossbrook Light Infantry was disbanded and became thing of the past: and we all grew up. and were absorbed into the whirlpool of existence. Dick had taken so much doctoring into his sys- tenn from the hands of Cousin Miranda. 4 Al--LI |