The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-03-22
JACK LIVINGSTON.

b. Story OF McsGhtdnce IN 1hree 10''''
FsMY DEAR OLD DAN"-wrote Jack
livingston from mountainous county
4 New Hampshire, to his college chum
Ia confdant, the Rev. Daniel Delany-
have happily broken my leg! The
xpctor assures me it is compound trac-
ARE of rather serious and complicated |
nature, so that may hope, despite my |
ineyitable drawbacks of youth and vigor
= be laid up for some months. But
dcn't pull long face in my behalf; rath-
y rejoice and be exceeding glad. I'm
he happiest man in the world. A be-
nign providence threw me frem the back
4Bf vicious and untamed brute over the
elentless pickets, and into the heart OF
- hitherto inaccessible paradise, peopled
n by only two women, one of them pale,
d placid, peaceful, profound, pious, the
ether capable, comfortable and Gull
harry. Mary and Mertha Marks, they
IRE called, and they live together halt
way UP the mountain, Their low, long
cottage can scarcely be seen at all from
the main road, SO hidden is it by
Hangled and beautiful mass of bloom, but
appears to the ascending traveller like a
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 / knew it was peo-
7 ha
with its irregular porches and gables, its
# dormer- windows and quaint caves,
n its jntting bits of wood, carved
II into artistic shapes, paused before
il 1t with delight, and, with my usual i'm
4 prudence, went in at once. All the peo-
pie hereabouts keep boarders, and al
though had an uncomfortable misgiv-
ing that here might be 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
thing were possible. This little girl
was we'll known to me, fortunately. l,
in fact, boarded at that time with her
people, who lived in miserable hand
\ to-mouth way in an old dilapidated house
NJ half dozen miles of.
"tHetty,' I whispered, as, with a sort
4 of prolonged hope, pleaded thirst, and
N we went together to the we'll, cant you
put it to these maiden ladies in the light
Il of charity? You know how things are at
home. Tell them shall only be sketch
u ing up here for few months at the
q furthest.'
a "I told them everything, sir said
i 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
"tAnd what did they say, HettyT
"'Just nothing, sir-only shuddered
kind O sorry like. Folks say they hate
men but if they could only see you, if
could only Tell 'em how different you are
from anybody hereabouts, if they knew
how much you looked like picture
they've got of a beautiful holy man ove1
the mantel-piece; but you bid me not t.
chatter, sir
"sAnd do you mind everything l say
HettyT
H "'Everything, sir A pause here
4 Dana sunburned, sun-glorifed fac
Il lifted to mine; eyes which are as quicl
VI to tears az smiles; baby mouth, fresl
and dewy as violet, and as tremulousl.
sweet. All, well, Dan, let's get back t.
~ the conversation again.
M "'Then it's hopeless case, Hetty
IL Id better get back to town.
q wOh, please, no, not yet; something
Il may happen. They may be brought t
see you. Ii you go back to town. 4
sob here, Dan, by way of punctuation
"EWell, Hettyg'
"sl shall die
"You see, Dan, / have to tell 20
ua5atsm, 80 you'll get the whole gist G
N it. This Hetty Bilsby is foolish ittl
u body, with an unmanageable crop {
hair that takes every shade of brown
the sun, from pale-yellow to a dee
reddish-ochre. To colorist, there thing
amount to study, you know. The
one can see her pure virginia. Sol
through the Questionable depths Of hs
eyes. For the rest, she is freckled, THU
and crude in outline. I happened I