Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-01-17

Tom Luttrcll, aged twenty-four,
was a thoroughly good fellow, good
tempered, good looking, and heir to
n good property, but he had one sor-
row-he was engaged to a girl lie had
never seen.
Some ten years before n dispute
had arisen about q certain HillingdOn
estate, in Leicestershire, to which Mr..
Luttrell-Tom's father-and certain
Carnworth Leigh both laid claim. -
Litigation seemed inevitable, and the
legal fraternity began TO prick up its
ears, when, one morning, Mr.. Lut-
trell received the following note:
''Dear Luttrell: You and | have
been good friends all our lives, and
there is no man living for whom I
have greater esteem than for yourself.
Cannot we, then, settle this wretched
business without troubling these in
fernal lawyers? My uncle, Haughton
Leigh, had a suit that lasted him
twenty years and killed him in the
end. Now, listen to me; my daugh-
ter Nellie will have all I've got at my
death, except Barfield, which goes to
Jacks boy. Why shouldn't she mar
ry 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 arrangement,
let the property go 10 the other.
This is a rough idea of my plan,
which Jackson, your lawyer, could
soon put into shape. What do you
say? Yours, etc,
"CARNwoRTH LEIGH,
"Barfield."
To this proposition Mr.. Luttrell
agreed, and Tom found himself an
engaged man at fourteen. Soon after
4 this Mr.. Leigh was obliged to leave
/ England for his health; and formany
years he resided on the continent
| So it happened that Tom and his fu
/ ture bride had never met.
About a month before the time fix
/ ed for the decision Tom betoOk him
self to . small inn in the village o.
/ Settlebnurn, near Stockford, nomi
/ nally to fish, but IN reality to cscap,
/ from his fathers arguments and t.
/ get little time 10 himself for quie
reflection, while he solaced his wretch
ed soul with tobacco.
One day aS he lay smoking by til,
/ silver Beck something fell from tn,
bank above him and dropped lighll,
ON the water, while girls voice cX
claimed:
"Oh, my gIaci0us, my hat -
Tom looked and saw Il very nca
little hat floating, bOat-like, down tn
| stream.
| Bother the young woman" h
grumbled; Il suppose, now, she'll cx
pect me to fetch it p
As he rose he looked up to the spo
from which the voice had proceeded
and saw a girl whose beauty surprise,
him. She stood bareheadcd on tn
bank, gazing with q look of conf
dIsmay after the fast receding hat
and Tom had an opportunity of cx
amining her critically, from the Httl
head, with its crisp, brown hair, dis
ordered by the wind, TO the sin
ankles which her position revealed 4
she stood above him.
Running some yards down the BAN
he stepped out upon an old willow
which protruded over the stream, an,
waited in the hope that the curren
would bring the hat within his reach
He was not disappointed, and in
few minutes more he was again o.
terra frma with his prize.
81 must make friends with thi
young person." he thought, as h
carefully dried the dripping feathe
with his handkerchief.
The fair stranger had watched hi
efforts from her elevated post, an
|gs-a, Ns,aN l.. L.
the bank with his recovered treasure
She had evidently been sketching, fo
her materials were scattered in pic
turesque confusion GROUND her.
4 hope 't's not much damaged,
said Tom, D. he !, ed rather rueful
ly at the result of his manipulations
I'm afraid the feathers in 4 ba,
way"
"Oh, it doesn't matter in the least
THANKS. How kind of you to take s