The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1877-06-16

Jake was off robbing a h~en-roost, Jehiel
sat up in bed in his sleep and crowed like
a frightened cock until the whole family
was aroused.
81 came here and opened my Office
about ten years ago. At that time Jehiel
had grown into a steady, tolerably in
dustrious young man, prominent in the
congressional church, and SO sober and
decorous that that the village people had
trusted him with the driving of the town
hearse. When | first knew him he was
counting a young woman by the name
of Giles, who lived about seven miles
back in the country. Jehiel was a tin
knocker by trade, and a mor pious, re-
spectacle, reliable tin knocker you never
saw.
Jake had turned out very differently.
By the time of Sumter he had made Sat
urday Cove too hot to hold him, and
everybody, including his twin, Jehiel,
was glad when he enlisted in a Maine
regiment. I never saw Jake in my life,
for I came here after he had departed,
but have a pretty good notion of what
a reckless, loud-mouthed, harum-scarum
reprobate he must haveraeen. After the
var he drifted into the western country,
and we heard of him occasionally, first
as a steamboat runner at St. Louis, then
in Jail at Jefferson for swindling a blind
Dutchman, then as a gambler and rough
in Cheyenne, and finally as a dead beat
in Frisco. You could tell pretty we'll
when Jake was in deviltry by watching
the actions of Jehiel. At such times
Jehiel was restless, knocked tin with an
uneasy Impotence that wasn't habitual
with him, was as mum and glum at
prayer-meeting as the worst sinner in
Saturday Cove, and evidently had to
struggle hard to be good. It seemed as
if DIR. Gookin's knife, which cut the
physical twins apart, had been unable to
discover the physical twins, and that
some part of Jake's soul fingered at
times in Jehiel. Whether Jehiel's piety
ever influenced Jacob, lam unable to say.
"The most singular thing of all was
in regard to Jehiel's attentions to the
young roman named Giles. She was a
sober, demure, church-going person,
whom Jacob had never been able to en-
dure, but who, as everybody said, would
make an excellent heIpmate for Jehiel.
He seemed to care a good deal for her in
his steady, slow way, and made a point
twice a week of driving over to bring
her to prayer-meeting at the Cove. But
when one of his odd spells was on him
he forsook her altogether, and weeks
waiild 60 by, to her great distress, with
out his appearing at the Giles gate. AS
Jake went from bad to worse these Pc
RODS of indifference became more fire.
quent and prolonged, and occasioned the
young woman named Giles much mis-
cry and a good many tears.
"One fine afternoon in the summer of
1871, jacob Dow, as we afterward learned,
was shot through the heart by a Mexican
in a drunken row at San Diego. He.
sprang high into the air and fell upon
his face, and when they laid him away a
good catholic priest said mass for the re-
pose of his soul.
"That same afternoon, as it happened,
old Doctor Gookin was to have beer
buried in the graveyard yonder. He
had died a day or two before at an ex-
treme age, but in the fulr possession of
his faculties, and n of the last remarks
he made was to express regret that he
would be unable to follow the career of
the Dow twins any further.
cit became Jehiel's melancholy duty
to harness up his hearse on sccount of
old DIR. Gookin's funeral; and as he
busted the plumes and polished the
ebony panels of the vehicle, his thoughts
naturally REQUIRED to the great service
which that excellent physician had rem
dered him in early youth. Then he
thought Of his twin brother Jacob, and
wondered where he was now and how
he prospered. Then his eyes wandered
g the hearse, and he felt a ~duutpride
In its ereditable appearance. 1t looked
SO bright and shiny in the sun that he
resolved, as it still wanted a couple hours
of the time appointed for the funeral, to
drive it g to the Giles farm and fetch
his sweetheart to the village on. the box
with him. The young oma named
Giles had frequently ridden with Jehiel
on the hearse, her demure features and
sober apparel ~detracting nothing from
the respectable solemnity of the equi-
page.
"Jehiel drove up in state to the door
Of his betrothed, and she, not at all re-
luctant to enjoy the mild excitement of
4 funeral, mounted to the box and set
lied herself comfortably beside him.
Then they started for Saturday Cove,
and logged along on the hearse, discourse
.ng afectionately as they went.
"Miss Giles afirms that it was at the
third apple tree next the stone wall of
Hosea GetcheI's orchard, just opposite
1he bars leading to MI. Lords private
:oad, that a sudden and most extraer-