The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-10-05

girl, startled into silence by my un-
expected appearance. In later years,
Dalton, have travled in many climes
and among many peoples, but never
have seen two more beautiful sspeci-i
mems of our race than the two that con-
fronted me. The man did not give me
much time to study his swarthy. hand !
some face, for on catching sight of me
he suddenly turned and strobe in among
| the thicket. The girl, however, remain
ed gazing at me with her great lustfons
eyes, not in the least disposed to
| look upon me as a rescuer, but appar-
emily doubtful whether the man just ar
rived were not more dangerous than
the man just departed. I addressed
her in English, and saw at a glance that,
however ignorant / might be of her Ian
guage, she at least was partially famil-
lar with mine. Reassured by my quiet
voice, her face lost its expression OF ter
lror, and we glided insensibly into a con-
versation,I / exerting myself to the utter
most to detain her. So bewildered. was
l with her extraordinary beauty that l
felt the light would 90 out of the heav-
ems if she left me. When at last she
did go, had won from her promise
to meet me there again.
ssBy this time you have probably di-
yined who my wild bird of the forest
was: stray little waif from one of
those wandering tribes of Ishmaelites
that civilization is so rapidly extermin-
.ating; dusky little fairy, if fairies
ever have jet-black hair, delicate and
graceful as sapling, wonderfully, eX-
quisitely beautiful. The quarrel which
L had interrupted was nothing more, it
appeared, than the violent arguments
of a gypsy lover who endeavored to for
ward his suit by crushing the hand he
desired to possess.
"Of course I fell in love with her.
i For this, it appears, | had passed by
some of the fairest women in England
and America. All my hopes of happi-
ness and every longing of my soul cen
tered in the little woodland nymph /
} had found by the old Druid stone. And
I had no doubt that had won her to
love me. In my besotted, idiotic infat-
q uation I could not remember that a
great impulse had been given to our ac.
quaintance by the surrender on my
part of large sapphire that hung from
: my wateh-chain. That cursed cotton
mill in Massachusetts, furnished such
things too literally for me to value
them, and could not suppose that she
did. 1t took some time for my imagi-
nation to grasp the fact that the little
hand that passed carressingly over my
: bosom was attracted thither by my
i shirt studs. And yet / dare say that
7 am misrepresenting her. She was so
i LII -A nd f1o,
/ ornament was but the, instinct of her
/ race. fiksSs
"In my case the course of true love
ran, or appeared to run, with remarka-
BILE smoothness. The sight of the
golden circlet that was to be her we'd
: ding ring did not alarm her as similar
5 suggestion had done on the part of her
| last lover; and one day a romantic Gu
rate of the neighboring parish, whose
E acquaintance l, had made, pronounced
= US sman and wife in the very shadow
i Of the old Druid oak. Then, in shoot
: ing-box amid the Scottish heather,
/ whittier took my bride for three short
Q months, I indulged in all the luxury of
t loves young dream. And she too was
2 happy. It takes fully three months for
| woman to explore all the miracles of
/ finerv and furniture with which the
i fashion of the present day surrounds a
7 bride; for although had married her
t in her wild gypsy garb, London milli-
a ners and upholsterers had prepared her
d home.
0 SIT was knowledge that broke the
e charm in Eden. Well, the first cloud
e gathered over us upon the day that !
d gave up wandering over the hills with
e my gypsy bride, and having unpacked
E a case of books, ventured to appear be-
a fore her in the character of peda-
: gogue. I was just explaining to her the
d awful meaning and significance of the
: letter A, as it appeared on the first page
n of a primer, when she broke away from
i me and rushed away through the gar
> den and into the woods. Smiling at the
Il result of the first lesson, Lit d cigar
e and fell to dreaming; of the pleasure /
Q should yet have in guiding my dainty
/; little wife along the rough roads that
d Head to knowledge. It would be a la.
e Dor of love, and, however painful, the
result would surely repay us both. And
a surely her Ignorance was sweeter than
II all the accomplishmentso other WON
n en-. .s..ss. @sff TFr
# "That very night, as 1 was closing
d the shutters Of my room previous to re
l. firing, I was startled by the figure of {
}, man upon the lawn. Something in hi
g gait reminded me of the 1.-THE form tina
z STROBE away from us on the first day
1t met my love. I attached no importance
IS to it, however; and yet, during th'
1t months that followed, I met him thre'
,r times, always apparently on his road +