The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-03-09
JACK LIVINGSTON.

The story ora AesaHianee i'' Three Lettsr'
"MY DEAR OLD DAN"-wrote Jacl
Livingston from a mountainous COUNTY
n New Hampshire, to his college chun
and confiGant, the Rev. Daniel Delany-
81 have happily broken my leg Th
doctor assures me it is a compound fraC
ture of rather a serious and complieate'
nature, so that l may hope, despite N.
inevitable drawbacks of youth and vigo
to be laid up for some months. Blu
don't pull long face in my behalf; rath
er rejoice and be exceeding glad. In
the happiest man in the world. \ be
nign providence threw me frem the bacl
of a vicious and untamed brute over th'
relentless pickets, and into the heart o
a hitherto inaccessible paradise, peopleC
by only two women, one of them pale
placid, peaceful, profound, pious, the
other capable, comfortable and Gull
nary. Mary and Mertha Marks. they
are called, and they live together hal
way up the mountain. Their low, long
cottage car scarcely be seen at all from
/ the main road, so hidden is it by 8
I tangled and beautiful mass of bloom, but
appears to the ascending traveller like q
fresh. vivid, reckoning oasis in the desert
( of uncomprOmising clay and rock up
which he has been tOiling. ] fell in love
with the spot before I knew il was peo-
pied; and when ! saw the pretty nest,
with its irregular p9rches and gables, its
dormer-windows and quaint caves,
its jutting bits of wood, carved
into artistic shapes, l paused before
1t with delight, and, with my usual i'm
prudence, went in at once. All the peo-
pie hereabouts keep boarders, and al
though l had an uncomfortable misgiv-
ing that here might be a general excep-
ton to the plain, the greedy, and the
prosaic, had the hardihood to ask the
little maid that came to the door if such
a thing were possible. This little girl
was well known to me, fortunately. !,
in fact, boarded at that time with her
people, who lived in a miserable hand
to-mouth way in an old dilapidated house
half dozen miles off.
"'Hetty,' whispered, IS, with a sort
of prolonged hope, pleaded thirst, and
we went together TO the we'll. cant you
put it to these maiden ladies in the light
of charity? You know how things are at
home. Tell them 1 shall only be sketch
ing up here for a few months at the
furthest'
'F'I told them everything, sir said
Hetty; how that pappy was drunk
most of the time, and the baby cried and
cried, and we had a sick sheep that
bleated in the cellar
And what did they say, Hetty?'
"'Just nothing, sir-only shuddered
kind O sorry like. Folks say they hate
men; but if they could only see you, if I
could only tell 'em how different you are
from anybody hereabouts, If they knew
how much you looked like a picture
they've got of beautiful holy man over
the mantel-piece but you bid me not to
chatter, sir
"sAnd do you mind everything say,
Hetty?'
Everything, sir A pause here,
Dana sunburned, sun-glorifed face
lifted to mine; eyes which are as quick
to tears as smiles; baby mouth, fresh
and dewy as violet, and as tremulously
sweet. All, well, Dan, let's get back to
the conversation again.
"'Then it's a hopeless case, Hetty.
I'd better get back to town.
ooh, please, no, not yet; something
may happen. They may be brought to
see you. If you go back to town A
sob here, Dan, by way of punctuation.
"'Well, Hetty
'''I shall die
% You see, Dan, l have to tell you
verbatim, so you'll get the whole gist OF
it. This Hetty Bilsby is foolish little
body, with an 'unmanageable crop OF
hair that takes every shade of brown in
the gun, from pale-yellow to deep
reddish-ochre. To colorist, there things
amount to a study, you know. Then
one can see her pure virginia. soul
through the unfathomable depths of her
eyes. For the rest, she is freckled, thin,
and crude in outline. / happened to
put her in two or three of my sketches,
paying the old woman well for her time
but Hetty, being child of nature, and
babbling innocently, like one of her
mountain brooks, the rapacieus NAV of
village gossip got hold of it all. Tie
end of it was they boundled her out here
to service. However, there's no law
against travelling the highway, and my
vicious brute, that ought to know the
road well enough, took fright at a stump
by the way-side the other day, and
though Hetty was foolish enough to
cling to his bride, and did check him in
the main, he broke her arm and my leg.
and we were both brought in to be
mended
"t Hetty lies up over the kitchen some
where, poor child, and am in capacious
chamber at the front of the house, the
three windows of which command the
whole panorama of splendor in light and
shadow on yonder misty mountain-tops.
My leg holds high carnival of agony at
times, by way of contrast, but there's
capital doctor here that knows how to
manage this sort Of revelry, and a faculty
tor nursing close at hand. Anyhow, I'm
within here, and I'm glad, and I am al
ways your worthless.
JACK LIVINGSTON"
"MY BEST DAM" wrote Jack Living
ston, later on, "do you remember Whit
tiers sweetest woman ever Fate, per-
verse, denied a household mate % who
kept Sc long her genial mood and simple
faith of maidenhood?' Well, here she
is, and her sister too The first time our
] excellent buffalo of doctor helped me