Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-02-23

kiN0oa HNhR ShAAAA1ANt W.
Fancy your poor tempest-t tossed, crippled
women Only this morning held out
my hands to them In helpless gratitude,
and audibly thanked God for my broken
eg.
f3TO o yes, i said, can't help II. You
know many and manifold are the ways
in which His infinite mercy is directed.
] was gone in body and spirit, not q bit
Of faith, hope or charity left in me-
only blind drifting to that species of
feline fatalism popularly known as the
dogs. Nothing butyou two women could
have saved me. Now I'm disarmed, TN
happy, I'm grateful. ! feel like Christian
did when he lay down his. burden at the
heavenly gatcs.h For / can't tell you,
Dan, just what point in Turkish phi
losophy had reached when mercifully
broke my leg and poor little Hetty her
arm that morning. have incidentally
learned that Hetty is not yet very, strong,
but she is in good hands, and viii doubt
less speedily mend. Old Bilsby is to go
out Wet t, they say, in the spring, and
take his whole wretched brood. His old
rsmshackle of q place is for sale--un-
bearable, perhaps, for the amenities Of
life, but wondrously alluring to a vaga-
bond taste. There's bit OF rocky waste
behind the old barn where Hetty and
spent one whole perfect June morning
aheld. We were all alone with the queer
wild grasses and blossoms that grow
there, and would puzzle you to put into
recognizable Latin. Hetty named them
all, with doubtless the same simplicity
that Adam did in Paradise; and the child
was so verify akin to the shy, mysterious
growth of nature about us that painted
her in part of 1t all, and l wouldn't
take a big nugget of gold for that sketch
can tell you, when old Bilsby takes
her out West B'r.r-rl what makes
me shiver, wonder9 The seasons are
short up here, Dan; in the early morn
ing the air is already chill. Pm glad
they've put Hetty ON the south side
think / ow the hit of gable and arch
that shel GER fallen head; but l won't
hobble this 1T is best not. ..r
We are ne advantage of the few
noon tides lett us, now that the season
is on the wane; Miss Mary is to bring a
soothing old volume out on the sheltered
porch this morning, and we are to have
one of Miss Martba's hefs.d0upre in the
way of luncheon in the early afternoon;
the excellent doctor will take me to drive
and ! am your unspeakably comfortable
and lucky JACK LIVINGSTON.
up. S.-Tve just come back from the
drive. Whether it is that autumn is
really creeping upon US, and the winds
up here at nightfall chill to the marrow
of ones bones; whether 1t was that icy
fog that crept down from the mountains
and enveloped us before we had gone
many miles, or the lugubrious mood of
the doctor that made me out of sorts,
cannot tell; but have limped up to my
room and shut out the CHASTITY phantoms
on the mountains yonder, stirred up the
fire-and it would be hard to find in the
four quarters of the earth a cheerier
nook than this-yet, Dan, AM grim and
uneasy, II dull perception of misery
somewhere makes my whole harmony
out of tune and harsh. Confusion to
the worthy surgeon, with his direful
propheciesl 1t cannot be expected that
weak little bones like Hetty's should
knit together as satisfactorily as my
grizzled muscles; and yet he did not say
was uCI arm. lnullCIGu bOllit
trash about an unconquerable weakness
and apathy that had seized the child
how she would lie for hours with her
face to the wall, big tears rolling out of
her eyes, and an indetinaole yearning in
her face, which haunted the worthy doc
tor day after day, and which he declared
had reached a positive pain to him. And
if this burly follower of Jason, this
chopper of sinews and splinterer OF
bones, can be thus affected, is it any
wonder that he has infected me with his
grim folliesF Besides, can fancy it so
we'll, even when BETTY was as strong and
1.-THE as young fawn, there was always
that beseeching fervor in her eyes-l
caught it pretty we'll in that sketch told
you Of. I'll get it down now and have q
look at it-no, won't! Iought to have
been satisfied with that mornings work
/ intended to take it back to town with
me that afternoon, and go the next day
to Newport to my rrother and the girls,
but old Bilsby wasN little violent that
night, and Hetty clung to me. Oh, well,
Dan, | didn't go, as you can plainly see,
and am your perplexed and mutinous
81. L."