Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-12-09
THANKSGIVING BEGGARS.

Iss your Thanksgiving beggars amt
4iag new! We used to rig ourselves
rold rags when / was CURL, and
sYsrr,s the good laugh we've he'd when
- - nf the neighbors was took in by us
Titled our baskets with Thanksgiving
- Your spelling matches amt moth
- new. neither We used for TO hev 'em
III 70 Pixies Clearing, jest for recreation
lie. cold winter evenings they warmed
ros up bit and begot many heart
iurusnr. I'll warrant. In the summer
,;me. YOU see, we could hev figger in
tsr harm, If Ben he'd his violin mended;
Int winters there want nothing we could
AZ hut lest get together and cultivate our
minds with the spelling book, for we
eonldn't dance in the school house on &C
eount of the seats. Seems TO me / can
zee sibyl Jones now waiting on the sittee
fr 10 be chose ON one side or tother; for,
ran see. Jack Rhett, Square Rhett's son,
nsed 10 come and join us while he was
s,uaving with Parson Paul TO keep up
w;tI, his class at Yale the year he was
rustjcatcd; and the way of ii was, he al
ways led one side of the spelling match
and Matthew Morris, Farmer Morris
Matt, led the other; and there sat Sibyl rs
still as a mouse, only her hands working
together under her shawl-for the school
house want always as warm as love-and
her two soft eyes glittering, glittering
snd p'raps l. wouldn't be till there wasn't
nobody left To Choose that young Rhett
would say, sarc enough:
"Wen, now ii take Miss Sibyl Jones"
"Iast. but not least" Matt Morris
would call out. For the truth was, Matt
would bev chose her furst himself, but he
knew that she wouldn't do anything a
spelling against Jack Rhett, and that she'd
sooner be last with Jack than first with
ANYBODY else. That's what | call self-dc-
NAL. or else never came across the thing.
But, you see, Jack was a playing sort of
fast and loose with Sibyl; he hankered
after her pretty face and pretty manners,
but be couldn't quite bring himself to
overlook the distance between Square
Rhett's son and Farmer Jones daughter,
specially as Farmer Jones was neer-do-
we'll, and loved his own cider barrel bet
term all the rest of mankind. Now with
Matthew Morris it was different, as every
body knows He loved Sibyl jest for her
self and il didn't make no odds 10 him
who or what her father was so long as she
was nobody but herself. But then he was
only a farmers son himself, and p'r'aps
he didn't know no better. Well, we kept
no the spelling-matches pretty much all
winter, and sometimes Rhett would choose
s,byl the very furst, and then again he'd
centriye not to choose her at all, and she'd
be that cut mp by it--for Sibyl never he'd
much proper spirit--tbat she'd be the furst
to miss Cd words that baby could spell,
and Rhet would be sure to laugh and
chat her till the tears was jest ready to
glsh out OF her two dove eyes, for the
rogue knew twas all his work Heavens
only knows why she cared soumarkee
for the young saucebox. He wasn't so
handsome as Matt Morris, but he he'd the
Hall and the Square behind him, to be
sure, and he wore store clothes, and he'd
such airs as women-folks take to. You
see, he'd carry your shawl and hold
your umberell and quote pretty verses to
You if you was young and pretty your
self; and he he'd a mustache that sort
ofdIooped at the ends and gave him sad
look, which was quite contrary to his feel
iDgs. I've always noticed that gurls take
toa mustache as duck takes to water.
He was full of mischief, too, and that's
what gurls don't object to in the leastest;
the kind that gets rusticated and expelled,
and that proper sort of mothers don't
countenance, is Jest the kind the daugh-
tiers mostly lose their hearts to. Not that
Sibyl was one to like fast young men !; she
was so innocent herself that she didn't as
much as suspect anything about the wick
edness of this wicked world, and she
thought Rhett was all that fancy painted
him, and maybe good deal more. His
fine airs was so many virtues, and she be-
lieved him if he said black was white.
Sibyl was good and pretty enough for
Dukes son, and she he'd bin sent to
school b. her greataunt Cover TO the
seminary at Great Guns, and want no
ways lacking in book learning; she could
pass any word in the language, and she
didn't murder the kings English as I've
herd some do that's he'd more Chances;
and she was master-hand at reading,
and could tell you all about furrin parts,
and do the biggest sums in the arithmetic.
Nobody needn't bin ashamed of Sibyl, she
was that ladylike and fit for the kingdom
OF Heaven. But the trouble was, she he'd
set her poor heart on Jack Rhett. When he
neglected her all the light in her world
become darkness when he was kind the
darkness divided and it was day. Many's
the time I've seen Rhett lettering in the
bit of wood near the school house waiting
for Sibyl who taught the district school
that summer; and then, when the schol-
airs d come trudging out, he'd seem
TO happen near all by accident, and
raise his hat and kiss his hand and walk
along with her. and 1t didn't need specta-
cles to see that the longest way round was
the shortest way home at such times.
Well, when he went back to college he'd
used to correspond with Sibyl, and when
he come home ON vacations he'd contriye
to meet her either by the trout brook or
the Witches Pool-a pretty puddle
enough, that didn't seem TO lead nowhere,
nor to come from anywhere, all overhung
with trees that reached across and knit
together and darkcned the place with
shadders. II was such lonesome place
that you couldn't hire a CURL in all Pixies
Clearing TO 90 there alone, yet ii was q
fayorite spot for young folks a-keeping
company; such as amt afeard OF ghosts
II amt anything but rivals as will make
Their hair stand on end. One time Jack
come home and didn't go a-nigh Sibyl for
several days, and she set In the porch in