The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-08-27

/, net eyes and speak one word f.
: NE but she vas like one dead. and i
ouy Terror dare not take her home.
fr;ai.II-uer, f-teu uer, instead, to nv sister. who
f1i9i ffdignVened half out of her senses cam,
a., ;ll..e ~ 70 meet me. She took Nellie int,
TOR, and he was there soon '''0
spent an hour of agony sucb a., 7
u'sd never felt before; but at LAST Jann;[
came to me, all smiles.
There is no danger" she said sscto
mas come to herself she oplv faintaI
rom rom night. You haven't killed her m
o'Sn 1GrG her much, you foolish bow -
over me. 0e"nie Oent
but to think she should be so slv -
She'said- "a gentleman's nortroit' ?,
her bosom all the while and not a - wor5 n
20 me OF it. I'll punish her for i
"A ana away she ran back to Nellie. but
ny Tears were all dried up. and NV
@ @nearI was gall. She was ahoaoed ~
~ Ioile one else, this girl who was 40 dear
J " me. Some one had been before me-
ana she wore his portrait next To beJ
ness5' Fool that was not to suess r.
~, never asked whose portrait it was
ION Armstrong's or Jack Mayden's. I
uIu not care When Nellie was well
enough to go, in the course of an bour
goodbye, ''-'>' -'''''0 lei
SAID, = 1 regret that 1 should have
Hg.s Ueen the means of alarming you SO,
And she looked up into my face with
uer great blue eyes, and said, cit was
not your fault; you could not helm If
1t was so foolish to faint away. "
And thought to myself, Hwhat de.
Gelttul creatures women p for the
look she gave me was as sweet as if she
had not worn another mans portrait in
her bosom. IL
=, a week from that day 1 went to New
YORK, and sought out an old ship-owner
VINO had been my fathers friend.
m tired of farming said, "and
want to try the sea as a common sailor"
The old man would have laughed me
out OF the notion; but when he found
me hrm, he gave me what help he
Il went on board q vessel bound for
Chlna, and wrote to sister Jennie. tell
ing her to send for Uncle William and
his wife to man ge the farm, which I
knew they would'be glad to do; but I
never told where 1 was or what I had
done. L meant, you see, to throw my
SELF away, and be heard of no more by
any one. OF course was mad, for the
time; that is the only excuse for me.
So 1 led the sort of life a sailor in
the merchant service Ieads-no yerv
pleasant one, can tell you-for wear
or two. L grew no better for it, and no |
happier. The other men had mostly |
some one at home-mother or sister. |
wife or sweetheart-to get a letter or |
message from at times; 1, of my own |
act, had no one. And all the while, at |
work or at mess, or in the hours when |
watch was kept on deck, I thought of |
Nellie; saw her as she looked when she
sat by her fathers side If the summer
moonlight; saw her smiling up at me,
as she whrled through the snow-drifts
that last bright day, and saw her as she
lay like dead thing in my arms. And
fancy painted other pictures. saw her
as Tom Armstrong; wife. ] saw her
oh, good heavens with his child on
her knee,
am not sure but that I should have
turned idiot, had not something lap
pened to alter the circumstances of my
position. This was nothing else than
the total wreck of our vessel, and my
narrow escape from drowning, but with
an arm broken by the falling of a spar.
For a month lay on n sick bed and
then with a softened heart and a feel
ing that was sick of the sea, I went
home to sister Jennie, to be farmer
again, if I could.
In those two years she had never had
a line from me. Not an angry word
did she give me, but ran into my arms
and wept on my bosom like a child
and then she showed the wedding-ring
ON her finger, and the baby lying asleep
in the cradle, and told me whose wife
she was.
She was Mrs. Armstrong, and had
never guessed they liked each other.
''And I'm happy as the day is long,
said she, ''only fretting about you.
How could you go away so, Ned? if you
lid not think of my feelings, you might
have remembered Nellie Brodie's."
Nellie Brodie's feelingsp I cried.
i'NelHe Brodie's Don't laugh at me,
Laugh at you :" she cried. Laugh
1t Won my dear I haven't a thought of
t. Did you quarrel that night ? It
must have been a quarrel / think.
Whose fault was it, yours or hers?"
"AIiss Brodie and never had quar-
rel, ;" 1 said.
"Oh, Ned" she resumed, softly,
don't try to hide it from me, when | {
saw your portrait in her bosom. / told ]
you so, know, and thought 1t was all
settled and was so glad"
/ started upand caught Jennie's wrist, ]
"NIy portrait p cried.
"Why, Ned, don't look at me SO,
screamed Jennie "what does it all ,
mean? Your portrait, of course one
If those photographs you had taken ]
/ found the rest after you went away.
Oh, Ned, don't, don't look so, dear p l {
Thought YOU told me she wore an |
1ther mans picture, said. That ]
lrove me away that, and nothing else.
Oh. what a wretched fool I've been.
lid not know she had my picture and
{ might have cast her away /, who 1
owed her so, and have pined for her all
hese years.
But Jennie. dear Jennie, with her
lind. motherly face and loving wOman's {
,ves' came close to me, and put her
,rms about my neck, and whispered, 4
g don't despair, Ned. She has never
liked any one else, and know, for GER
ain. that she wears your picture still. |
And those words brought my youth !
pack to me; ard the years seemed 4
dotted out and 1 saw the Ned Brown
Who fell in love with Nellie Brodle,
,nce more.
Well, Jennie told the truth; went 10
zee Nellie Brodie, and foun I her sweet
md beautiful as ever +; and we were mar
lied when the spring came aud the BIRDS |
,eCan to build their nests IN the green
orchard. Afterward, when she had been
nv wife for some time, Nellie told me,
1nder those very apple trees how she
lad found my picture one day when no
me saw her. and worn it afterward for
owe of me2worn it and wept over 1t |
while I was far away, and trying to for
yet terrifying, but never succeeding,
'or the love had for Nellie Brodie was
oart of my life, and will be, believe,
oart of the eternity, where, when DEAN
sewers us here, we shall be reunl'eu'
A FEW days since, at the Royal italian
,pera. Covent Garden, London, at the
md of the opera, when amid hurricane