The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-10-31

D Shall wish Us 10Y OF 4 voyage fair,
WiIhcalm sweet skies and favOring air,
when the tide goes out"
MY MTNIsTERING ANGEL.
We were all at Long Branch. An
e included Tom and his wife, Nettie, and
your humble servant, Walter Byrne,
Toms cousin and a wandering waif of a
7 rich man, without occupation, home or
) family ties. Nettie was Toms wife's
cousin. I had heard it said before 1
went down to Long Branch on Toms
) invitation, that Nettie had emphatically
declared that she knew she should detest
Walter Byrne, for she hated an idle
man, she despised a rowing man, and
rich young men were always horrid.
4 Being gifted with a moderate amount
Of selfconceit, and accustomed to receiy-
ng rather fattering attentions from the
fair sex, I stroked my mustache and
shrugged my shoulders, resolved that
Miss Annette Raymond's detestation was
a matter Of profound indifference to me.
The first time I saw her she was bob
bing up and down holding on to the
bather's rope. Tom was driving me
over to his cottage, and pulled up his
horses
There's Nettie," he said, q in the
broad straw hat and scarlet suit. Halloa,
Netp
A pair Of saucy black eyes gazed at
US, and piquant, pretty face was visible
under the straw hat.
"Where's Amy?" shouted Tom
Got the headache"
Tom laughed as we drove on.
Amy won't bathe unless I am with
her." be said she is nine-tenths afraid.
While I was in my room arranging
my bachelor belongings, Nettie came
across the garden in a crisp pink muslin,
with her black hair loosely braided and
tied with pink ribbons. She IVES more
than pretty then, the most brilliant bru-
nette beauty, not more than seventeen
years old, slender, graceful and altogether !
bewitching.
For three weeks we quarTeled- about |
ten times a day Nettie Knocked at my
lazy speech, taunted my stylish COS
tunes, made fun of my neckties, and nv
gloves, and gave me fully to understand
that L was a coxcomb. L bore it philo-
sophicalIy, but in my heart I ragged I
was not accustomed to being treated
in that style, but Nette seemed to ignore
my bank account entirely.
We nearly cane to a better under
standing once, when Miss Nettie was
carried out BY the undertow, and might
have been drowned, if I had not been a
powerful fellow and good swimmer. I
brought her home, all limp and senseless,
and she was very quiet all day, and
almost begged my pardon for all former
Ofenses IN her gratitude. But the next
day she was worse than ever, and the
day after that she left.
I wandered about aimlessly to tho
White Mountains, Niagara, up and down,
until October, when a party going to I
Europe tempted me, and I sailed away
from New York and Nettie. I was not
in love, but certainly I thought more
frequently of those saucy black eyes, the
sweet ripping voice and beautiful face
of Nettie Raymond than I had ever
thought Of any woman's charms.
1t would be too long a story to tell all
my adventures in the next two years, but
it was just so much later in my life when
I found myself travelling hOmeward from
Florida, sick and wretched.
We had been wrecked off the coast Of
Florida, and I was Ill with fever con-
tracted in New Orleans, when I was
tossed up, high and dry, in a suit of
sailors clothes hurrIedly snatched up as
my sailor nurse and myself dressed in
tie confusion, unconsciously appropria-
ting each others clothes. My watch,
purse, papers, were all in my pockets, but
in the sailor S coat I found money enough
10 carry me home, to such a home as I
could command, a room in boarding
louse
But I was terribly i'll, and every day q
the prostrating heat was weakening to I
me. It was like insanity, the longing I I
had for a breath Of northern air and so
[ sped on and over the iron road. looking S
more like a walking corpse than a living {
nan.
My journey was nearly accomplished
when sat in the train carrying me from l
to New York, my last dol 4
ar spent, my rough clothes traveLwom !
md shabby, my life almost gene from
ne.
1 don't know exactly when I tainted, 2
)ut 1 came to consciousness perceiying a i
Of cologne water near me, and d
moving something was held to my lips,
tasted wine, but I was too weak to
peak. Little cool hands arranged some u
oft bundle under my head, and then
an stirred the air around me. 1 must
nave slept, and again I aWoke. P
Very near me, on the next seat, I heard G
sweet, low voice, saying: 9
We get off at the next station, and I {
ate to awaken that poor sailor for my n
anderchieE 1 put it over his bundle n
or his pillow, and there is another Oh. II
is forehead" p
Av0ice, pettish and familiar answered: tc
Just Ike your impudenceI Now
hat common fellow viii have your hand II
erchief! You are so horribly impul- v
i've! 1t Is very forward and unmaid- l
My to have been fussing over a strange III
ian, at any rate. You don't know how al
c may annoy you" N
Low and sweet, quivering a little,