The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-01-30
HORRID MISS LEIGH.

Tom Luttrell, aged twenty-four, was
thoroughly good fellow-good tenn
pered, good looking, and heir to a good
fortune but he had one sorrow-he
was engaged to girl whom he had
never seen.
Some ten years before a dispute had
arisen about a certain Hillingdon estate
in Worcestershire, to which Mr. Luttrell
Toms father-and certain earn
worth Leigh both laid claim. Litiga-
ton seemed inevitable, and the legal
fraternity began to prick up its ears,
when one morning Mr.. Luttrell received
the following note:
"DEAR LUTTRELL: You and / have been
good friends all our lives, aid there il no man
living for whom have a 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 wears, and
killed him in the end. Now, listen to me nv
daughter Nellie will have all I've got at my
death, except Barfeld, which goes to Jacks
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 four and twenty-if they like to marry
then, we'll and good if either should decline
to carry out the arrangement, let the property
go to the other.
Jackson, your lawyer, would soon put into
shape. What do you say? Yours. etc,
CARNwoRTH LEIGH, Barfield."
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
years he resided entirely on the CONT
nent. SO it happened that Tom and his
future bride had never met
About n month before the time fixed
for his decision, Tom betook himself to
an inn in the village of Settlebourn, near
Stockford, 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 a
a high bank above him and dropped
lightly on the water, while a girls voice
exclaimed
"Oh, my gracious, my hat ~
Tom looked and saw a neat little hat
floating, boat like, down the stream.
"Bother the young woman y he
grumbled.
CT suppose now she'll expect me to
fetch it ~
AS he rose he looked up to the spot
from which the voice had proceeded,
and saw girl whose beauty surprised
him. She stood bareheaded on the bank,
gazing with look of comic dismay al
the fast-receding hat, and Tom had an
opportunity of examining critically
from the little head, with its crisp
brown hair, disordered by the wind, tC
the slim ankles which her position re
vealed 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 no
disappointed, and in a few minutes
more he was again on terra frma will
his prize.
must make friends with this youn,
person." he thought, as he CAREFUL,
dried the dripping feather with hi
handkerchief.
The fair stranger had watched hi
efforts from her elevated post. an
smiled sweetly upon him as he climbe
the bank with his recovered treasure
She had evidently bee sketching, for he
materials were scattered in picturesqu
confusion around her.
81 hope it's not much damaged,
said Tom, as he looked rather ruefull
at the result of his manipulation
"I'm afraid the fathers in bad way.
ooh, it doesn't matter in the leas
thanks. How kind of you to take s
much trouble. But for you 1 must hay
walked home bareheaded. "
"I wouldn't put il on just yet" Tol
said" Let it lie in the sun little an
dry while You go on with your work. "
"But suppose it starts of again whe