Middletown transcript., 1875-09-04
So I led the sort of a life one in the mer.

So lied the sort of life one in the mer
chant service leads-no very pleasan
oneI can tell you-for year or two
/ grew no better for it, and no happier
The other men had mostly some one
home-mothcr or sister, wife or sweet
heart-to get message from at times
1, Of my own act, had no one. AM
all the while, at work or at mess, or il
the hours when watch was kept OF
deck, I thought Of Nellie; saw her a
she looked when she sat by her father
side in the summer moonlight; saw he
with the freight on her golden hair
beside the winter hearth; saw he
smiling up at me as we whirled through
the snow drifts that last bright day
and saw her as she lay like a deat
thing in my arms. And fancy painted
other pictures. Isaw her as Tom Arm
strong's wife. I saw her-oh, gooe
Heavens!-with his children on bel
knee!
I am not sure but that I should have
turned idiot, had not something hap.
pened to alter the circumstances in my
position. This was nothing else thar
the total wreck Of our vessel, and my
narrow escape from drowning, but with
an arm broken by the falling of a spar.
For month lay on sick bed; and
then, with softened heart and feeling
that I was sick of the sea, went home
to sister Jennie, to be farmer again,
if I could.
In these two years she had never had
a line from me. Not an angry word
did she give me, but ran into my arms
and wept on my bosom like a child /;
and she showed me the wedding ring
on her finger, and the baby lying asleep
in the cradle, and told me whose wife
she was. H
She was Mrs. Tom Armstrong, and
had never guessed they liked each
,ther.
And I'm as happy as the day is
ong,' she said, only fretting about
you. How could you go away SO, Ned?
# you did not think of my feelings,
7ou might have remembered Nellie
Brodie's.'
Nellie Brodie's feelingsp l cried.
Nellie Brodie'a Don't laugh at me,
(ennie.'
Laugh at your she cried. Laugh
t you, my dear! haven't thought
# it. Did you quarrel that night? It
must have been a quarrel, I think.
Whose fault was it, yours or hers?'
Miss Brodie and I never had quar-
el,' I said.
'Oh, Ned she resumed, softly,
don't try to hide it from me, when I
aw your portrait in her bosom. I told
'ou SO, know, and thought it was all
ettled and was SO glad
I started up and caught Jennie's
7rist. my portrait 2 I cried.
why, Ned, Ned, don't look at me
o. screamed Jennie; what does it all
,ean? Your portrait, Of course; one
f those photographs you had taken-I
,und the rest after you went away.
)h, Ned, don't look so, dear!
4 thought you told me she wore
mother mans PICTURE I said. That
rove me away; that, and nothing else.
)h, what wretched fool I've been! I
id not know she had my picture; and
might have cast her away! I who
wed her SO, and have pined for her all
,ese years 7
But Jennie, dear Jennie, with her
ind, .motherly face and loving woman's
yes, came close to me, and put her
rms about my neck, and whispered,
Don't despair, Ned. She has never
ked any one else, and I know, for GER
lin, that she wears your picture still.
And those words brought my youth
ack to me; and the years seem blotted
ut, and I was the Ned Brown, who
III in with Nellie Brodie, once more.
Well, Jennie told the truth I went
, see Nellie Brodie, and found her
weet and beautiful as ever; and we
ere married when the spring came
nd the birds began to build their nests
! the green orchard. Afterwards,
hen she had been my wife for some
me, Nellie told me, under those very
pple trees, how she had found my pic
Ire one day when no one saw her, and
orn it afterwards for love of me-
orn it and wept over it while I was
If away, trying to forget her-trying,
ut never succeeding; for the love I
ad for Nellie Brodie was part Of my
fe, and will be, l believe, part of the
.ernity, where, when death sewers US
ere, we shall be reunited.
UTILIZATION OF A WEED.-The COM
on cat-tail Of our swamps, scienti6cal-
7 known as typha latifolia, is suscep-