American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-01-24
MY FRIGHTS.

am far from being a strong minded
woman, l cannot say as much Perhaps
am too easily alarmed l am, Tor in
stance, afraid of a COW. 1t may be very
silly; but l cannot help it. All the pleas
ure of a country walk through fine land
scape has often been spoilt tor me because
of cattle in the field. If l pass through
them without being tossed or gored, the
recollection that / have got to come back
again remains with me for the rest of the
day. As for bull, l would rather never
see the country than run the chance of
meeting with such a creature. A dog is
thought to be very harmless animal-a
domestic animal-and the friend of
man. He is not, however, the friend of
wOman-or at least of a nervous woman
like me. l should be afraid to write
down how often l have been prevented
from calling at a friends house by the
presence of a little poodle or terrier upon
their doorstep. l should as soon have
thought of disturbing an adder. The Ro-
mans Ia people quite remarkable for their
courage) used, l am told, to paint Care
canem, Beware of the dog" at their front
doors; but such warning would have
been unnecessary in my case. l am al
ways fully 'beware" of it. Every farm
yard in the country has a dog, and that is
why l don't like farm yards.
My widowed sister-In-law (the fat one)
and myself once lived in such place a
whole summer, during which time L lost
more flesh than if l had been all the time
in a Turkish bath. From sunset to sun
rise was in a perpetual fright, from fear
of robbers; and when the days
grew shorter, and the nights long
er, the place became insupportabie,
and l fled from it. The usual nightly
programme was as follows: My sister-in-
law, who occupied the same apartment as
myself, would fall asleep as soon as her
head touched the pillow, and leave me,
as it were, alone, prey to my terrors.
She always reminded me of the Irritating
bed fellow described in ghost stories, who
will not wake while the apparition is
peeping through the bed curtains at you,
and who, when all the dreadful things are
over, cannot be persuaded that they actu-
ally occurred. Next to ghosts themselves
L dislike people of this cast, and would
almost as soon have no companion at all.
Ii the wind was up l at once began to
picture to myself band of ruffians effect
ing a forcible entry into all the rooms
below stairs, and giving shouts of trl-
umph at the ease with which they accom-
plist.eel. their purpose. We could not af
ford to keep a man servant, and even if
if we had done SO l should have always
imagined him the accomplish of the bur
glars, or coming up stairs upon his own
account with a carvlng-knife concealed in
Il
in book. Our house pretended to no
means of resistance, and l always placed
the platebasket and its contents upon the
landing of the stairs, in hopes that the
gang might take what they came for, and
go away without asking for my money or
my life. On particular occasion, being
unable to sleep, 1 fancied heard the APP
proach of robbers up the stairs. Being
no longer able to contain myself, / with
Fort c,H loft
ooh-poohed the whole affair, and
dropped to sleep again, leaving me to my
fears.
However one very wet and dark night
she got a pretty fright herself 1t was a
little past midnight. The drip, drip,
drip, of the rain was ceaseless, but for all
that, as lay awake, could hear mems
steps without splashing in the pools it
made, as the wretches walked round the
point of entry. Then l heard the back
door "go''-it burst open with a sort of
muffled violence, like the sudden outpour
of a waste-pipe-and then that "pit-a- pat"
l knew SO well, of feet coming up the
stairs. Then pause of frightful siynifi-
canoe.
Charlotte !' cried !, in an agony,
'They are really here. They really are,
this time. Wake, wakel''
cTleu she. ALL Wluc
awake, and l hear nothing"
''They are just outside the door," whs-
pered L; "they are listening at the key
hole. HaIkl''
Il certainly hear caves dropping" was
her heartless answer (she was woman
who enjoyed joke, and her fat sides
wobbled with mirth at this one); but
it's only the rain from the roof
II tell YOU" said l, solemnly, ''there's
robbers in the'' -
Here something fell in the drawing
room beneath us with hideous crash
In an instant, and before could recover
from the sort of collapse into which this
shock had thrown me- Charlotte had flop
ped out of bed, seized the lamp, and was
about to hurry from the room. NO"
said she, pausing in the doorway; "it is
better that they should not see me, but
that l should see them"
IL was certainly much better, consider
ing Charlotte's very slight attire, that the
robbers should not see her; bur why she
should want to see the robbers was quite
unintelligible to me.
"Stopi' cried l but the fatal deed was
done, and 1 was left in the darkness.
Dreadful AS it was to accompany her
upon such an expedition, it seemed
thousand times worse to remain in the
room alone; and, trembling in every limb,
hurried after her
To reach the drawing room, it was
necessary to pass through the dining
room. 1t was pitch dark, but / could
hear her breathing hard Qor her stoutness
made her very short of BREATH as she
made her way round the table that occu-
pied the center of the room. Fear lent
me wings, and l hurried round the other
way to meet her, and rushed into her arms
just as she was feeling for the drawing
room doorway. Directly | did so, she
uttered shrl!l scream, and fell on the
floor in dead faint / had forgotten that
the poor dear did not know was pursuing
her, and she very naturally took me for
the robbers. / suppose l tainted, too; for
the first thing | remembered was hearing
loud purr close to my ear, which pro
ceeded from our favorite cat who having
knocked down the fire-irons in the next
room (Which was the noise we had heardD,
had come, as II were, to assure us that there
was nothing the matter. That was the
last night we spent in our country house :;
and 1 remained in town for three whole
summers afterward. kough fresh air
and ''change," waSalFer indispen-
sable, / resolved to do without them,
since one might just as well die as be
frightened to death
In the July of the fourth year, however,
| received an invitation to the seaside,
which / really thought it safe to accept.
My host and hostess lived at Disney
Point, in Cornwall, a very lonely spot, it