The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1874-12-31
Thomas Yarn.

energetic town of Mossbreok rather
because he was too amOrphous to be
kicked out than from any power Of
his own to keep in. Thomas Yarn
had never made living, but had
hung, q Darnaeie, on somebody else's
living all his life. He was ugly, and
dirty, and poor, and lazy, yet these
terms seem too strong for so nebGlOus
creature. The colors IN which his
portrait should be painted are what
the French call TENTS degrddes-
snugy brown, pale-oliye greens,
mixed and tardy grays; no black, nc
white, no red all shadow, dead
lights, a poor, fOriOrn, faded picture,
which no gallery coveted. He was a
sort of connecting link between the
earth-wOrm and man, suggesting both
extremes. Yet the creature was kind,
and had his own little corner of wit
and humor once in about ten years
he said good thing. He had never
harmed anything, not even hyi IN
fact, he and flies we're rather intimate,
and had acquired a right OF pOssessor-
ship from long occupancy OF dirty,
curtainless tavern window, which was
the height from which Thomas Yarn
surveyed life as twent on in Moss
brook. He was in some remote way
supposed to be q gentleman, perhaps
because be never did anything, per.
haps for a better reason. At any
rate, he was tolerated in some of the
best front-parlors when on centen-
malls, and on such infrequently oc-
CURING occasions he put on a new
shirt and made a call. Thomas Yarn
was not dirty for the same reason
that is saic to govern q celebrated
English scholar, "because it rhymed
with Goethe ;" no, poor Thomas was
not even literary, that next to moth
ingness in good, hard-wOrking New
England. His habits grew out of q
slovenly soul the cold waters of en-
ergy and ambition bad never cascaded
down Thomas Yarns back. He was
sunk low in the slums of lazipess and
inertia. Who knows what had de-
prived Thomas Yarn of his birthright
Of success -? who knows what heart
aches had paralyzed his energies {?
who knows any of the great secrets Of
Nature ?-why one brain works and
and another will not? and why one
man sits still while another man
runs
One thing Thomas Yarn Away s
possessed and that was the village
news. The tavern window, in spite
of the flies, was a good field of obser-
walton. He went around with the re-
turns of elections, with the deaths and
marriages, and the latest, well author
lied scandal. Never malignant, new
er prone to see evil, Thomas still
al kA nd frUdI nj q
local newspaper. He would put his
sad figure in penitently at the side
door, as if to say that the news be
brought was the only excuse for be-
ing there.
There were rumors of his once being
seen driving horse, but this was not
well authenticated. II gave too much
energy and decision to the picture,
and was rejected by most as imprOb-
able; but one great, grand, important
thing he had done, one event iliuml-
mated his existence, and he never was
tired talking of it and boasting OF it.
He had once been married, and he
could not forget the pride, pomp, and
circumstances of that occasion.
Possibly at that moment he might
have been cleaner and more prosper
Gus than at any subsequent one else
why did that very pretty girl with
her long, black hair-always remem-
bered in the village admiringly-Why
had she SO over-estimated her own
powers of endurance as to marry
! Thomas Yarn ? Marry him she did,
and naturally died in two years, to be
ever after the primal beauty and saint
of his life. He placed it among the
considerations like BeFenice's, and
wore one long tress, folded in CHINA
naper. next to his heart. The way
he worshipped his "Mary in Hesven"
laffirmed Thomas Yarns claim TO the
name of gentleman. He had been I'm
lbusinessn when he married, out he
failed Immediately, and that conlln-
ned to be his business fOreV6 aiter.
The tavern swallowed him u,, ana It
was on its Worm-eaten porch tnaE ne
first learned that he was remembered
in Governor Hammond's vii. Some
one else knew that piece of Jews be-
! fOrehe did.
Governor Hammond wasa rich and
prominent citizen, who haf been ter
ribly stricken, in the most OF ms
PROSPERITY, by the death OF ms only
son, young man but q lew years
married, who had left one young
daugtter.
1t vas a proud old maze, and Gov
ernor Ham mond did no like to have
it die out. But Fate was stronger
7 than he. He left his fjne property to
z this little girl, something IN the same
. disappointed frame of mind as Dom
bey, snd he added Singular eodicil.
= 1t was to charge his efecutOrs to pay
: a small annuity to Tomas Yarn, and
20 give him the charfe OF his library
which was large and in fireat disor-
der, and which needed attention and
repair.
This library had come from "two
llawyers, one gentleman and one
lclergyman ancestor as Gov. Ham
mond was fond of explaining his
IvariOusforbears, and had been tumb-
led by the Governor, no great reader,
in an .unoeeupied room, which was
J not unszited to it, being in a wing ol
the house in which Emily, the child.
heiress, lived with her aunt Margaret
and the old servants. The little un'
conscious owner of all this rambling
property was a healthy, hearty, ro-
Hsst little girl. with an early propen
SIHy Iot s-ses of fancy, and legitimate
" ior noVeI-reaGA1s She spent hel
saturday afternoons, and a0me par
|. OF the next day, in her library, sittin.
on the top step of a ladder readinS
"Fhe Cottage of Glenbumie," "A
Simple Story" or "Thaddeus of War
saw" These wrapped in the delici
cious mantle of romance, would sh'
sit for hours, while Thomas YarI
would look up from his paste-pots ass
dreamy mole might contemplate a
6 butterfly. He and she were great
friends not having arrived at the
critical age, she did not notice hi:
soiled habits as Aunt Margaret did
, but willingly put her soft, white hanC
in his, and was led to Mary's grave
: listening with much gravity TO tbs
: account of that famous wedding, anC
looking with sweetly-sorroWful eye
at the long tress of beautiful hair.
It was q part of Saturday afternoon
to Emily: a part of "Thaddeus O
Warsaw ~ a part of the golden prim
which Emily was passing through
and. as he was indulgent, and let he
: nress WiId-fiowers in some of the oil,
1 theological works, EMILY thought n
was a model librarian.
Emily found the library rather over
stocked with the sermons and gray
folios of her clergyman ancestor, rsth
er too sparsely furnished with th
IEThaddcus of Warsaw" school of lit
erature. She had gone through Scott
and gentle Miss Austen, and Mis-
Fdpeworth and dull old Mrs. SheT
wood. whose story :of "Rich in tn
i. Kitchen and Poor in the Parlorn
chiefly valuable for its recipe for max
ing gooseberry-tarts. She had wep
over that redeeming work of "Littl
Henry and his Bearer ;" she ha
? shuddered over 1.-THE Ruffisn Boy !;
and she had got to Pope. Then sh
began to sigh for fresh fields and pas
lures new. Cooper she tried and eOui
not; and, az for the theological vol k:
what were they good for but to pres
flowers in?
o, old dry doctors did not you
pulses beat as this image Of spring
and hope, and joy threw open you
musty pages, and laid the freshly
gathered flowers in your heavy grasp
: Were these the only flowers you ha
helped to press down and dry up?
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