The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-10-23
SELECT STORY.
TIL MAS VAR N.


out than from any power of his own to
keep in. Thomas Yarn had never made
a living, but had hung, barnacle, 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
nebulous creature. The colors in which
his portrait should be painted are what
the French call TENTS degrddes -snuffy
brown, pale-olive greens, mixed and
tardy grays; no black, no white, no red;
all shadow, dead lights, poor, forlorn,
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
kindly, and had his own little corner of
wit and humor; once in about ten years
he said good thing. lie had never
harmed anything, not even fly; in fact,
he and the flies were rather intimate,
and had acquired the right of pOssessor-
ship from long occupancy of dirty,
curtainless tavern-window, which was
the height from which Thomas Yarn
surveyed life as it went on in Mossbrook.
He was in some remote way supposed
to be gentleman, perhaps because he
never did anything, perhaps for better
reason. At any rate, he was tolerated in
some of the best front parlors, when on
centennials, and on such infrequently-
occurring occasions ne put on clean
shirt and made a csH Thomas Yarn
was not dirty for the same reason that is
said to have governed a celebrated Eng
lish scholar, "because it rhymed with
Goethe" no, poor Thomas was not even
literary that next to nothingness in good,
hard-working New England. His hab-
its grew out of slovenly soul; the cold
waters of energy and ambition had new
er cascaded down Thomas Yarns back.
He was sunk low in the slums of lazi-
ness and inertia Who knows what had
deprived 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 another will not?
and why one man sits still while anoth-
er man runs?
One thing Thomas Yarn always pos
sessed, and that was the village news
The window, in spite of the flies,
was a good field of observation. He
went round with the returns of elections,
with the deaths and marriages. and the
latest, Northumberland scandal. New
er malignant, never prone to see evil,
Thomas still told what he heard-an in
valuable local newspaper. He would
put his sad figure in penitently at the
side-door, as if to say that the news he
brought was his only excuse for being.
There were rumors of his once having
been seen driving horse, but this was
not well authenticated. 1t gave too
much energy and decision to the picture,
and was rejected by most as improbable;
but one great, grand, important thing he
had done, one event illuminated his ex-
istence, 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 circumstance, of
that occasion.
Possibly at that moment he might
have been cleaner and more prosperous
than at any subsequent one; else why
did that very pretty girl, with her long
black hair-always remembered in the
village admiringly-why had she so
over-estimated her own powers of endur-
ance as to marry Thomas Yarn? Marry
him she did, and naturally died in two
wears, to be ever after the primal beauty
and saint of his life. He never could
sufficiently praise her hair. He placed
it among the consultations like Bere-
nice's, and wore one long tress, folded in
China-p paper, next his heart. The way
he worshipped his "Mary in heaven" af-
frmed Thomas Yarns claim to the name
of gentleman. He had been in "busi-
ness" when he married, but he failed i'm
mediately, and that continued to be his
business forever after. The tavern swal-
lowed him up, and it was on its worm
eaten porch that he first learned that he
was remembered in Governor Ham
mond's will. Some one else knew that
piece of news before he did.
Governor Hammond was a rich and
prominent citizen, who had been terribly
stricken, in the midst of his prosperity
by the death of his only son, a young
man but few years married, who had
left one young daughter.
1t was proud old name, and Govern
or Hammond did not like to have it die
out. But fate was stronger than he. He
left this fine property to this little girl
something in the disappointed frame
of mind as Dombey, and he added sin
gular codicile. 1t was to charge his ex
ecutors to pay small annuity to Thorn
as Yarn, and to give him the charge o
his library, which was large and il
great disorder, and which needed atten
tion and repair.
This library had come from ''two law
yers, one gentleman and one clergyman
ancestor" as Governor Hammond wa
fond of explaining his various forbears
and had been generally tumbled in b,
the governor, no great reader, into al
unoccupied room, which was not insult
ed to it, being in wing of the house il
which Emily, the child-heiress, live
with her aunt Margaret and the old ser
wants. The little unconscious owner Q
all this rambling property was healthy
hearty, robust little girl, with an earl
propensity for tales of fancy, and legiti
mately tor novel-reading. She spent he
Saturday afternoons, and some part c
the next day in her library, sitting o
the tep step of a ladder, reading eth
Cottages of Glenbumie," ga Simpl
Story" or "Thaddeus Of Warsaw
There, wrapped in the delicious mantl
of romance, would she sit for hour