New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-11-15

"Dev'iish strange" he muttered. ut ,cas
there" Then facing his clerk pro tenn,
You won't steal anything, because there
isn't anything to steal, you know"
The boy looked YEARLY around him, and
seemed to think that the temptation WASH
very strong.
| thought Jedd.
However there was no alternative but to
trust him Somehow or other, and God
! wills il so, the most suspicious are obliged
to place confidence in q fellOw-mOrtal. Not
you and /, gentle reader: we would do 1t
willingly, for it is good to believe in hui
| mapity. Among other things, the old man
of three.scOre had not learned this.
TOmtit glanced over the apartment.
There was only the ghost of fire in a
small stove: all sorts OF grotesque shadows
peOpled the room, and the dim, blue light,
which fell like an imitation of moOnrise on
the long, narrow houses Of the dead, made
them look frghtful. A coffin is an ugly
looking thing anyway one can fix 1t, and
twenty cottins are, of course, twenty times
uglier.
"Queer place." soliloquized Tomtit IL
rather like it, though And the boy smiled
q sickly smile. ''He thought I'd be afraid.
A man who has been on whaling voyage
here little thirteen years-Old drew himself
up to his full height-''isn't likely to be
scared by two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve,
fourteen. sixteen, eighteen. twenty empty
boxes! guess not"
ine child must have been exceedingly
weary, for he had no sooner located him.
self ON one of the tall black stools than be
sank into a profound slumber. His body
swayed to and fro in very undecided man.
ner At last it gave an extra curve, and
TOmtit fell. He broke neither his slumber
nor his neck-heroes never break their
necks, l believe. The critics, however
| ,metiues do for them. l know al IN.
stance.
Tomtit lay at the foot of his perpendicu.
lar bed, and there We will leave him-leave
him Sleeping with one OF his thin, brown
hands grasping the leg OF the stool. and one
foot in cOtfin-the first time, think, that
such fact has been recorded of ybody
though we often hear Of people having ZONE
loot in the grave"
But while whisper in yoar ear. let him
sleep.
There is curious skeleton in Jedd Pail.
fry's heart, and every Christmas eve il
turns and twists, and makes the old
man feel queer pains and see strange
sights.
These skeletons are very common 10 the
human race generally. They arc the
phantoms Of evil deeds and malignant
thoughts-mental sprites that grow up III q
single night, like tOod-stools. BE wary,
that you may not have one growing in your
bosom; it will show itself Mrs. Mac Ele-
CANT can now drape hers with all the silks
and brocades in Stewards. nor old Three
percent his; 10 goes to the very bed cham
Der with him, and rides in his cushioned
carriage. 1t walks with him in Wall street
and sits beside him at church
But the undertaker's skeleton for the
present.
There was never anybody prettier than
Nannette Pallfry. Indeed it would be hard
to find in any wOmans eyes more en-
chanting light than that which lay in
Nannette's. Her voice, like the poet g
western wind, was sweet and low. She
was as lovely and natural as a summer
wild flower, and SO good that Elm in her
was no evil
Mr.. Theologian, you would interrupt me.
l will explain 1t she had been more
worldly wise, cautious instead of loving,
arttul instead of sincere, in short, anything
but the very angel she was, NaDnette's life
would have seemed purer in the worlds
eyes, but not in Gods. l know that.
Nannettes history is an Old story, told
every dry. For shame, man, that ii is told
every day! She lived, and loved, and trust
ed. and that is all OF it. or nearly.
One December night she came in the
snow to her fathers door, and he turned
her away-Nannette, the only thing in Gods
world he loved with a human love. She did
not weep. she did not even murmnr: she only
pressed the hand of a child who walked
YEARLY beside her, and passed on.
Her life from that time was SO full of suf
fering, yet SO womanly and true. that the
angels might sit and listen to narration Of
it with delight. Nannette went far away
from the city, and in little town by the
sedgy sea shore. taught her boy to pray.
Year after year went by.
The world wen. on like great wheel;
men, and women. and children dropped of
like tiles, and Jedd Paliirys hammer was
busy! Now while shrOuds were being made,
and cotiins vanished. and the old world was
turning on its axis, Nannette died.
The night of her death. just as old Jedd
was fitting the lining 10 an infants coffin. a
grave grew up ~ his teet--a willow and .
rose-kush. and he heard the singing of birds
He knew what 1t meant. He knew that
somew here-he could not tell where--there
was another mound just like the one beside
him. oh how blithely the little birds sang
I" Jed0 There was u new heaven and
new earth for somebody that night. and
how merriiy the robins sang about 1t! All
this happened while the snow iiakes were
running nimbly over the housetops like lit.
tie white nice!
Every Christmas eve. a. the same hour,
Jedd sees THIS phantom mound will: it's
signing willow tree. and its fairy birds, fit.
ting here and there like the fragments Of a
broken Rainbow: And at night he has
fearful dream. lie fancies tina, four fever
fiends with janndiced visage. brain fever.
shouting delIriously. scarle, fever. with red
hot eyes and their disgusting hands. hiss
him on the mound till poor Jedd is near go
ing mad with agony and Tear.
Nannette's child was Adopted By a fisher.
mans wife. very badly adopted: for when
poor Tom was not busy catching fish. he
was catching something else. So between
boating and beating. the child was not 40
happy as he might have been with more OF
one and less of che other. or gen,eel sutii
cheney of both. Having INDUCED in four
years experience in being whaled. he took
it into his head TO have hand in the bust
ness himself. "To be, or not TO be- beaten
any moor was his decision; go one fine
without as much rs the cognizance
of his beloved mother Amphisrite, he placed
his name in the books of 1.-The good ship"
Maria Theresa, and sailed out of port with |
4 light heart, one suit of clothes. and pros
Dect Of hard work, which is all the rig |
,ut" q true sailor needs. Heaven bless
him!
But Tom was too delicately made for . !