Connecticut western news., 1874-08-07

and besides, she had more than ont
 found, and helped herself to; he
 fathers "spirit" bottle. Threats (
 punishment, and even punishment i
 self, had very little restraining effet
 upon her in this particular thing. Sh
 seemed to have no conscience in tn
 matter, no moral sense which could b
 appealed to.
 Her grandmother, too, with many ar
 prehensive shakes of her capped head
 had told the writer's grandmother tha
 "Ettie "tplagued her almost to deat
 by getting to her snuf-box and takin
 the snuff. Before she was three year
 old she would cry for "suff," and whe,
 once she had got hold of the snuff box
 would sniff up the foul powder with
 strange, hungry craving. Once, too
 she had got possession of her father
 tobacco "fig" and gnawed it, as
 puppy would have gnawed a bone
 swallowing not only tue juice, bat th
 tobacco itsey And strange to say, i
 had not made her sick.
 Boy that l was, these unnatural ap petites in little girl used to astonisl me greatly, and all my young compan ions as we'll.
 have since learned the sad fact tha such hereditary cravings are too com mon and I have ceased to wonder though do grieve the less at the mon strosity. Punkinetta was the victim ot al inherited appetite-inherited from her hquor-soaked and tobacco-seasone6 father2 So the curse of parents sins descends upon the innocent children Ancestral iniquities are visited "upon the third and fourth generation" Tc use a striking Drusee phrase, little Punkinetta was "boras murdered"
 These infantile "drunks" of hers, doubtless, had sinister effect on an in, tellect so young and susceptible. She was always peculiar. That delicacy and modesty which even rough boys so respect and admire in their girl-mates seemed to be dormant, perhaps drug- ged is the right word, in Punkinetta. There was something in her eye that we, her mates, instinctively disliked. Not very unfrequently she would shock the other girls by giving utterance to thoughts inherently coarse, uttered in all well-meaning, too. The injury lay at the very root of her faculties, taint- ing her own individuality till appar- ently no reform could reach her. Only a life long effort could have refined her, even In degree, for, what was worst ot, al, these mental tairts were be- yond her own self lf-consciousness.
 She was fair scholar at the district school, rather slow, plodding reader, but rare good speller, when she could have time to think and try twice. I recollect that she had full forehead and rather large head.
 Srom the date of her first little "spree" at the old cider-miu up to the age of eleven or twelve, Punkinet was feature" at all the cider-makiags. Not fall passed, think, but that the girl got maudlin once or twice. I doubt whether any thing less appalling than the prospect of instant death would have withheld her mouth from cider when once it was within her reach. She was pretty sure to go home more or less 'shappy, and often not until she had cut very sorry figure.
 All the natural gallantry which boys feel for their girl friends vanishes straightway when they behave unbe. comlngly. I am obliged to record that Punklnetta sometimes got used rather unhandsomely. Once recollect help ing to lead her home when some fresh pomace had been rubbed into her hair, both pockets filled with it, and an un- limited quantity of the same poked down the back of her neck-so much that at each of her unsteady steps it dropped out on the road. I remember, too, that on this occasion she insisted on kissing us all round when we bade her goodbye. Even sound box on the ear from her mother failed to efface her unnatural smile and afectionate ogling.
 There was one of the boys-Zeb Man. sur-whom she always expressed 8 preference for when "boozy." Poor Zeb Many and many time have the rest held him for Punkinetta to kiss The worst faces he could make up would not deter her. Boys of ten or a dozen years are not apt to be troubled with moral qualms on such occasions. To see her kiss Feb was fun for us. But in time Feb got so shy that he would flee at the first signs of affection on Punkinetta's part.
 Whether the girl was ever really ashamed of her behavior after she got over the effects of the cider I cannot say. She never seemed to be-not as should suppose almost any other child would have been. Yet there was noth- ing in her speech or behavior when sober to indicate that she was not of sound mind. And at fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, she was not an ill-looking girl by any means. She had large gray eyes, well featured, and, despite the still lingering saffron tint of her com plexion, had 8 fresh, pleasant face, with a Johnny y-go-easy expression on it which strangers often noted admiringly. In conversation, too, she would keep her eyes bent on ones face with steady contemplative gaze, which was at once honest and indolent.
 In due process of time, Punkinetta became possessed of that complement of young ladyhood which country lasses call a beau." Punkinetta's beau was a thriving young fellow, born in an ad- joining township, but now hailing from the State of Illinois, whitherward he had gone several years before. Rumor said that he had come back to get @ New England girl for 8 partner of his joys-thus showing his good taste, of course.
 Miss Henrietta B. was not to him the " Punkinetta" of our acquaintance, I suppose. .>
 The affair ran very smoothly, and finally the old ladies of the neighbor- hood gave out that the ''knot was to be tied next Christmas, or New Years at the farthest. Most of our New England country girls, by the way, change their maiden names at Thanksgiving, Christ mas, or New Year's, save few rattle brained ones who marry on the Fourth of July. And, in fact, the "knot- tying" did come off at New Years; and we, her old playfellows, were to have still another proof of Punkinetta's de- prayed propensities.
 On the evening of the Thanksgiving previous to her wedding there was a party, or young folks sociable in the