Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-04-26
down and extinguish the earth alto

down and extinguish the earth alto
gether.
GA wisht night, surely" said Miss Ju-
liza, with Just a little tremor of uneasi-
ness at her heart, as she tried to cross
the road against the driving wind and
rain, and found herself wading in three
inches deep of white mud the district
around the town of St. Parnell's
Astounding in china clay-and upon
finally reaching the opposite sidewalk,
she missed a step in the storm and
darkness, and falling forward found
that her head had got entangled with
some swaying holly-tree boughs, and
just then her left patten came off,
However, after while her eyes be-
came more accustomed to the intense
darkness. She could distinguish against
the black sky the blacker outline of the
leafiess trees in the hedgerow.
Presently she discovered that she had
arrived nearly opposite the entrance to
st. Mewan churchyard, and then, after
another period of anxious cropping and
trying backwards and forwards, she
found the stile beside the churchyard-
wall, which skirted the meadow path
by which she had to go.
The rain came pattering in steady
downpour as Miss Julia stepped care
fully along the muddy path, the black
ness Of the night became simply Egyp-
tian, and then her pattens commenced
to stick at each step in the soft grass
grown earth.
Thus her method of progression be-
came painfully slow, as three tugs were
| required to eXtricate the right foot and
it's patten, and then four TUCSON an
haverage-for the left foot and patten,
which had stuck whilst the other was
being tugged at; until at length the left
patten sunk with gurgling splash into
a deep cOw-track, and with faint
scream Miss Julia toppled over on her
side amongst some singing nettles.
"What a fortunate thing brought
my pattens !" she exclaimed, picking
herself up. 81 should have stuck here
all night if | had only got my shoes on;
but it's wisht night and a wisht place
There; I've passed the church now;
yes, that's the steeple that folk say the
Devil knocked down SO often while they
We're building, that they had to leave it
as it is, unfnished-such stuff O. non
sense There's the lane and the gate.
Pm all right now if / don't fall over
these nasty stones" a
just at this moment, however, she
saw advancing towards her light, and
| hurried on to meet it as fast as her
pattens would allow her to do.
"Hillo!" said Miss Julia, running
down the land with outstretched hands
and down-bent head, to avoid the con-
sequences to her face and eyes of the
struggling brambe and thorn bushes.
That's John Andrews, know" she
she said, confdentially to herself. He
has got his lantern, and he. is going
across the old workings on his way,
home. Hillo +! John p and just as she
said the words, Miss Julia's right PCT
ten took took up a stone, horse's-hoof
fashion.
She stamped and shook her feet and
leg frantically, but she could not get rid
of the stone.
9 Drat these pattens !"said Miss Julia,
in her intense despair, and then she
strove to kick the patten off, but it was
too heavy and two we'll fastened, and as
she struggled and foundered about, she
found, to her horror, that the other
patten had sunk in something very soft
that her leg was sinking, that herself
was sinking, and with a shrek loud
enough to wake the ghosts in ST.
Mewan churchyard, Miss Julia. with
both her patten-encumbered I t.,
slipped, sank, plunged down into one
of the deep dykes that ran at each side
of Casusawsaud Lane, at the bottom of
which ran 6 chalk-white stream of
liquid mud from the Merriam "clay :"
pits. ...
Hillo! Help! Murder" screamed
Miss Julia, madly plunging about as
soon as she could stand upright. But,
alas even this effort atdeliverance was
the next moment denied her. $3.50
The pattens, with fendish ingenuity,
had found bed of deep and most ten
acious mud, and slowly but surely they
sank in it, roofing their unhappy owner
in the depths of the clay dyke.
Hillo What's the matter@' a voice
shouted through the wind and rain.
2" The mud my pattens p said Miss
Julia distractedly.
"The mud and your pattens p re-
peated the loud, CHEEKY voice, with a
laugh. Where are you ma'am :?
Why, I'm blown sky-high you're in
the dyke. Hold hard, and I'll drag
you up. It's an ugly place to get down
into, sure enough. Why, / never
you're all in a muck OF mud MAN,
+" Indeed, am" said Miss Julia mis-
erably, as her rescuer, by slow de-
grees, hauled her up the slimmy bank,
her pattens considerably obstru citing his
efforts, and bringing away with them,
when finally dislodged, solid mass of
"clay" sufficient for the material of a
small dinner-service.
L am much obliged to you, sir"
said Miss Julia, with chattering teeth );
"Pd have died in that dyke with those
those horrible pattens holding me. I
live only a little way on, if you would
please to come in for a few minutes"
She spoke respectfully to him-this
stout elderly, gentlemanly stranger
and carefully kept her frightfully be-
plastered skirts from touching his dark
| cloth suit. aee
| Lawk me, missus! Whatever
/ horo Loo,, o,,J Jox,o ~ 49,. ~,