Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-02-23

OlIAlCc3 ny "by
capital doctor here that knows how to
manage this sort of revelry. and IL faculty
for nursing close at hand. Anyhow, I'm
within here, and I'm glad, and l am al
ways your worthless
"JACK LIVINGSTONE
envy best Dam" wrote Jack Livingston
later on. do you remember Winters
sweetest woman ever Fate, perverse, de-
MED ii household mate ? who kept so long
''her genial mnod and simple faith Of maid
enhood p Well, here she is, and her sister
too. The first time our excellent buffalo
of a doctor helped me down into the Sit
tine-ruom, and into a stuffed chair that
just fitted my aching spine, and lifted to a
magical footstool my demon of a leg, and
my eyes fell upon Miss Mary, who sat OPP
posite me, drawing in and out her needle
upon some tasteful design for d pulpit
cushion, | recognized the gentle, gracious
element so happily pictured in the poem
the pale low forehead. from which was
drawn back her hair, without crinkle or
I curl; the mild beam of her hazel eyes :;
the low monotone of her voice; the per-
feet curves of her lips, which never vary,
or break into smiles, or draw themselves
out of shape as other lips are prone to do,
with agony, or joy, or nasty sarcasm. 1t
was fine, it was good, Dan. Then no soon
er had 1 lain back and shut my eyes to di-
gest this comfortable felicity for the tile ed
J soul and the aching brain, than | found
close to my fainting lips a mug, to which
I was impelled by some intuitive power-a
mug of quaint device and transparent tex
ture, which 1 afterWard admired, but not
then, Dan. l drained the delightful bey-
erage to the dregs, and opened my eyes
upon the generous cup-bearer, and here, in
I plump, dimpled, comfortable humanity,
was the other element needful to the house.
hold-the sagacious, the culinary, the ad-
ministering. Fancy your poor tempest
tossed, crippled Jack in the hands Of these
two dear women! Before a fortnight has
gone by, the seven devils are driven out of
me. Only this morning | held out my
hands to them in helpless gratitude, and
audibly thanked God for my broken leg.
"'Oh yes [ said, I can't help it. You
know miny and manifold are the ways in
which His infinite mercy is directed. l
was gone in body and spirit; not a bit of
faith. hope or charity left in me-only a
blind drifting to that species of feline IA
talism popularity known as the dogs. No
thing but YOU two women could have say
! "a NTou, 10, l;r,,nJ Tn, b.rnu
I'm grateful. | feel like Christian did
when he lay down his burden at the heaven
ly gates For l can't tell you, Dan, just
what d point in Turkish philosophy l had
reached when | mercifully broke my leg
and poor little Hetty her arm that morn
ing. 1 have incidentally learned that
Hetty is not yet very strong, but she is in
good hands, and will doubtless speedily
mend. Old Bllsby is to go out West, they
say, in the spring, and take his whole
wretched brood. His OLD ramshackle Of
a place is for sale-unbearable, perhaps,
for the amenities of life, but wondrously
a~lluring to a vagabond taste. There's a
bit of rocky waste behind the old barn,
where Hetty and I spent one whole perfect
June morning afield. We were all alone
with the queer wild grasses and blossoms
that grow there, and would puzzle you to
put into recognizable Latin. Hetty mani
ed them all, with doubtless the same SIM
plicity that Adam did in Paradise and
the child was 81 verify akin to the SHY
mysterious growth of nature about us, thai
| painted her in a part of it all, and L
wouldn't take a big nugget of gold for
that sketch. 1 can tell you, when old Bis
by takes her out Vest B'r-r-r what
makes me shiver. I wonder. The seasons
are short up here, Dan in the early morn
ing the air is already chill. I'm glad they
have Tut Hetty on the south side. think
| know the bit of gable and arch that shell
tiers her fallen head but l won't hobble
that way-it is best not.
1--WE are to take advantage Of the few
! noon-tides left 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 Martha's 'chefs-d'puvre' in
UilC way vi u luISiSoll III IL C"lIy
noon; the excellent doctor will take me to
drive, and am your unspeakably comfort
able and lucky
"JACK LIvIN GsToN
"P. S.-I've just come back from the
| drive. Whether it was that autumn is
really creeping upon us, and the winds up
here at night-fall chill to the marrow of
oEe's bones; whether it was that icy fog
that crept down from the mountains and
enveloped us before we had many miles, or
the lugubrious mood of the doctor that
made me out of sorts, I can not tell; but I
have limped up here to my room and shut
out the CHASTITY phantoms on the noun
tains wonder, stirred up the fire-and it
would he hard to find in the four quarters
of the world a cheerier nook than this
yet, Dan, l am grim and uneasy, a dull
perception of misery somewhere makes my
whole harmony out OF tune and harsh.
Confusion to the worthy surgeon, with his
direful prophecies! 1t can not be expected
that weak little bones like Hetty's should
knit together as satisfactorily as my
grizzled muscles; and yet he did not say it
was her arm. He muttered some trash
about an uncomfortable 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 ey es, and
an indefinable yearning in her face, which
haunted the worthy doctor day after day,
and which he declared to me had reached
a positive pain to him, And if this burly
follower of Jason, this chopper of slnews
and splinterer Of bones, can be thus affect
ed, is it any wonder that he has infected
me with his grim follies? Besides, / can
fancy it 50 we'll, even when Hetty was