The Van Buren press., 1874-04-21
MISCELLANY.
Horrid Miss Leigh.

Tom Luttrell, aged twenty four, was q
thoroughly good lellow-good tempered
good locking, and heir to a good prep.
erty, but he had one sorrow; he was en-
gagged to girl he had never seen.
Some ten years before a dispute had
arisen about certain Hllingdon estate
in Lecestershire, to which Mr.. LuttrelI
Toms lather--and certain Carnworth
Leigh both laid claim Litigation seemed
inevitable, and the legal fraternity began
to prick up its ears, when one morning
Mr. Luttrell received the followidg note
DEAR LuTTRELL You and | have
been good friends all our lives-and
there is no man living for whom l have
greater esteem than for yourself Can
not we, then, settle this wrctched busi-
ness without troubling these internal
lawyers? My uncle, Houghton Leigh,
had suit that lasted him twenty years,
and killed him in tbe end. Now listen
to me; My daughter Nellie will have all
| We got at my death, except Bariield
which goes to Jack S 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
fourand twenty; If they like to marry
then, well and good; if either should de-
cline to carry out the arrangement, let the
property go to the other. This is a
rough idea Of my plan. which Jackson,
your lawyer, could soon put into shape.
What do you say
Yours, dc,
CARNwoRTn LEIGH, Balfield. "
To this proposition Mr., Luttrell
agreed, and Tom found himself an en-
gagged man at fourteen. Soon after this
Mr.. Leigh was obliged to leave England
for his health, and for many yeais he re-
sided entirely on the continent SO it
happened that Tom and his future bride
had never met.
for his decision, Tom betool himself to
q small inn in the village of Settlebourne,
near Stoekford, nominally to fish, but in
reality to escape from his fathers argu-
ments and to get little time to himself
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 n
high bank above him and dropped light
" on the water while a girls voice ex
claimed
"Oh, my gracious. my hat"
Tom looked, and saw very neat little
hat floating, boat.ike, down the stream
Bother the young woman !! he grum
blcd Il suppose now she'll expect me
to fetch it. y
As he rose he looked up to the spot
from which the voice had projected, and
saw girl whose beauty surprised him.
She stood bareheaded on the bank, gag
inc with look Of comic dsmay after the
fast-receding hat, and Tom had an op
portunity Of examining critically, from
the little head, with its crisp brown hair,
disordercd 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 upon an old willow, which
protruded over the stream, and waited in
the hope that the current would bring the
hat within his reach. He was not disap-
pointed, and in few minutes more he
was again on terralrma with his prize.
IL must make friends with this young
person, he thought and he carefully
dried the dripping feather with his hand
kerchief
The fair stranger had watched his ef.
forts from her elevated post, and smiled
sweety on him as he climbed the bank
with his recovered treasure She had
evidently been skotching, for her mate
rials were scattered in picturesque con-
fusion around her.
IL hope it's not much damaged, said
Tom. as he looked rather ruefully at the
result of his manipulations. I'm afraid
the feathers in bad way"
"Oh, it doesn't matter in tla least
thanks. How kind of you to take so
much trouble. But foryou, ] must have
walked home bareheaded.
~ wouldn', put in on just yet. Tom
said. "Let It lie in tho sun n little and
dry, while you go on with your work. "
"But suppose it starts off again, when