The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-08-26

weak state forbade excitement. And he
content in his sisters love and in the kind
ness of everybody he saw, never referred
to the past at all.
What, then, did we talk about? We
had abundance of subjects; and that is one
thing in which they were not commonplace
Their story came to me, as knowledge oil
anybody might, by facts and circumstances
naturally mentioned in conversation
Their hostess, who was not so delicate as |,
and who saw no reason to suppress the
appearance of kind curiosity, learned
much more from Fanny direct than did.
And had the benefit of all that she dis,
covered.
The father of these orphans was ply
stefan in excellent practice. l have since
ascertained more respecting him than |
could ever have done from them, either
directly or indirectly. For the memory of
their parents was shrined in their hearts:
and they never accounted for their poverty
by the remotest reflection upon those who
were really the cause of it; who had fitted
them for luxury, by the culture of elegant
tastes, and had deprived them of the means
of procuring the qualifications which to
such refined natures were necessities.
A drawing in crayon by poor Frank, the
brother. hangs before me as write 1t is
a portrait of himself which begged him
to make, and into which he introduced my
own face, which was more than l asked
for. From anybody else the expression
which he has given me would have seemed
like gross tlattery. Artists like to draw old
subjects. The strong lines in their faces
tell. pretty young creature is apt to
Look insipid in a portrait, do the best you
can with her. But the deep wrinkles, the
scanty hair, the cap and the quaint ribbons,
! give face like mine expression whether
the artist understands it or not. The ten
dency is to caricature, undesigned but still
caricature. One-half the pictures of old
faces that have seen would have been
burned had they been pretences at portraits
of any kin of mine. But Frank made me
an ideal of heaven, born charity, grown old
in good deeds. wonder if was not very
handsome when I was young? l was told
so more than once, and by more than one
person. But all my flatterers are dead long
| ago!
Fanny can play exquisitely. l had my
touched for many year before she came
tried it after the man had done his best
to restore it. Certainly to me it seemed to
jingle awfully, and it's tone was thin and
wiry. l half regretted the trouble l had
taken with it. But l left it open, and
when Fanny came in she sat down to it in
the twilight. Her performance made me
perceive that the jingle was, in no small
degree, in my old joints, and the wiryness
and thinness in my stiff fingers. Is there
anything in the world prettier than the toy
ing of delicate fingers with the keys, the
brooding of fair hand over them? don't
care about dash and rapid execution and
all that. But it always seemed as if Fan
| ny's hand rested on the key board like a
cloud, Or foated over it, and that the notes
came forth at a hint. l said, Fanny, why
don't you teach music?"
"My poor brother" she answered, "could
not be left alone. did think of it, but
found it would not do. l hired piano to
give lessons at my lodgings, and it crazed
him 500
And thus, poor child, she was not only
obliged to take charge of her invalid broth.
er, but forced to forego the only means
that would enable her to do it with any
degree of comfort. On every hand she met
the unmitigated hardships of her condition.
She could not complain; she dare not even
look sad. For the terrible disappointment
of his life crushed poor Frank, and added
to the grief Of his disease. He had taken
high rank in college, had selected his pro-
| fession, and made no small advance in the
preparation for it. For he was a most dill
gent and ambitious student. He rebelled,
almost insanely, against the conviction that
his feebleness of body would prevent his
success, even if it did not abridge his life.
His father exhausted all physicians skill
| in the effort to arrest his malady. And
while he lived he never intermitted, that
better than any leech's science, the tender
| love of father. His mother seemed to
live only for him; and his siste was devoted
to Frank, bright, intelligent Frank, even
from his cradle. Anxiety for him and
thought for him, and hope against hope for
him was the one domestic care which hid
the greater danger which everybody else
could see was impending over the household.
1t was terrible shock when the father
suddenly died. And it was greater when
the unfeeling processes of law laid bare to
all their little world the fact that they were
beggars. 1t was not the mere burden OF
poverty which was intolerable, but the
cause of the insolvency of the estate was
freely canvassed, and the fault of the
father, to which the household were So
accustomed that they apologized for and
scarcely needed it, became patent to every
body. The wretched indulgence which
ruins so many men, had not only defrauded
| the DOCTOR Oh his own earnings, UuI udu
wasted competence which his wife brought
him. She soon followed her husband to
the grave, dying of disappointment, NOR.
LITIGATION, and broken heart All this
weighed heavily upon the sick boy, and
his sister had to bear his burthen and hel
own beside. Not till kind Providence
directed her to our village did she find the
comfort of really hearty and bracing
sympathy in her sorrows. The good crea
ture, with whom she lodged, did every
thing that she could in her homely way
And, as for myself, l am sure that the
gratitude which the two orphans felt fol
me was not undeserved.
Still another trial awaited Fanny. The
young man who had many time protested
his willingness to share n cottage with hel
while such talk was mere poetry, cooled
sensibly when the reality of pennies.
bride and dependent brother was pre-
scented to him. His friends said that sucl