The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-08-07

that effect When ne WenI away, L uat
the old letter yet in a secret recess o.
that same old bureau where lay the con
venient switch of hair.
Time was when I needed nc curli
shorn from maidens across the seas o,
manufactured from home material.
had plenty of my own. Jack Hunter
cut one of them off with his penknife
that night when we parted.
81 don't know" said he, savagely,
whether I most hate you o. love you:
but I'll keep this to remember the CIR
who hirted and fooled away the truest
affection a man ever had for a woman. .
He hacked the curl from my hend
with his penknife, and looked at me as
if he was half tempted to do me further
butchery; and God knows I didn't care
then if he had drawn the knife across
my throat; I should not have resisted
him.
"Don't go, Jack |" I cried out at last,
holding the edge of his coat. "Don't
go, anyway, so far as China; if you do,
T shall commence to dig a hole when
you get there. They say that China is
right under us, and I'll begin with q
little pick and shovel as soon Is WI get
news of your arrival. Then you can
begin on your side, and we'll meet each
other halfway"
He flung me from him with something
like an oath. "You would joke and
laugh over my grave" he said, and
went away, not to come back again.
Who would have believed it possible
That the years would. como and go, the
sweet summers bloom and fade, the
heart of the roses lose strength and fail
and fall away, to come again as sweet,
as strong, as fresh as ever, and Jack,
my Jack, never come back to me? Yet
he was not dead-nor wed. That was
one good thing. And he was out there
among those women with narrow eyes
and stintel feet, and he didn't as yet
know q word of the language. He was
growing fat, he wrote home to his peo-
pie next door, and bald, which didn't
matter on the top of his head so long as
he could keep enough to cultivate a pig
tail. This was necessary, as he meant
to set up for a Chinese mandarin, and
was already embroidering a gown tor
the purpose on spare nights. And Il
felt, when they read me the letter, that
it was Jacks turn now to make merry,
when other hearts were sick and sad.
If he had only sent me n little line
He showered gifts upon other people
chests of tea and parcels of silk, lovely
bits of decorated china. big soft beauti-
full shawls Of Grape. He sent gewgaws
and gold to so many others; if he had
only given me one little word
They must have told him I had been
sorely punished; that my mischievous
gayety he had whitfield out like the flame
of a candle; that even the beauty of
which he had been so proud and fond
was gone-every bit Of it gone. Sleepless
S;shths%spd useless repinings, long, weari-
some DAYS, en~dfess$ears filled with wild
warming for that which forever
hopeless, had robbed me of all. TBe
old bloom of the heart took with it the
crimson cheek, the laughing eye, and
the light, elastic step. Even my hair
fell out. Alas poor me, the flesh fell
from my bones. AS I limited before, it
was not a very alluring object that
greeted me in the glass on the morning
of my twenty-seventh birthday:
"Aroint thee, witch !" I cried, and
wiped away with the hand-towel some
salt tears that fell upon the dimity bu-
reau cover, and upon the grave of sad,
sweet memories. Then I put on my
ugly brown dress, and the hideous bon
net to match, and went off to the church,
pausing at the portal to look longingly
over at the cool, quiet graves of our Old
neighbors. A soft wind stirred the long
grass there; a few birds hoped lightly
and fearlessly about.
How calmly, calmly smile the dead
Who do not therefore grieve!"
"The Yea of heaven is Yea," said,
and went on into the church where the
ladies were grouped around the straw
berries that had Just arrived. l took
possession of o whole crate of these,
sending the young and pretty maidens
home to recruit for the evening.
There we're a few faint, polite remon-
strances when I declined to take any &C.
tive part in the evenings entertainment.
"We must leave that part to the young
and attractive" I said, and there was a
general buzz of acquiescence. I had
the consolation of hearing several re-
marks upon my extraordinary good
sense and practical capability.
I was %graciously allowed, after 1 had
hulled q whole crate of strawberries, to
hold a step-ladder and some nails for
Mrs. Smith, the apothecary's wife, while
she hung some gorgeous drapery, and
otherwise deformed the cool gray walls
of our little chapel, 80 that I was pretty
well tired when / went home at night
fall. Mamma met me at the gate, and
looked at me so dolefully that I burst
out laughing.
"Never mind, mamma" said I; 81
won't look 80 cadaverous after I'm rested
and dressed for the evening"
But I'm afraid I was rather a painful
object for the gaze of a doting and once
ambitious mother when I had donned my
black silk, and was ready for the evening
NY hair was neither crimped nor cnrled'
You see, Ihad depended upon the switch,
WulCu was OOuBue lOA polPoSSo Va oU
kind, and failed me ANONYMOUSLY at the
last moment. My head ached, and ]
could not bear many hair pins thrust
into my scalp; in no other way woulo
the obstinate thing be induced to stay on
Mamma was heart-broken, and l was
perverse at times. T thought perhaps
the switch was grieving over a beloved
and lost head of which it was once par
and parcel, and I forgave it, and left il
TO its perverseness from that time on
ward.
When I reached the church I was i'm
mediately seized upon for something
they called "the grocery counter ar
innovation brought about by the adven'
of a well-to-do grocer in our midst, {
widower, a stock-raiser and a man af1ict
ed with many maladies, of which ht
loved to talk. He had generously sen
down from the city, in pound packages
and tin cans, samples of his available
goods, and proposed this grocer,
counter" to the young ladies, whichthe,
despised and would have none Of. TIL
grocer himself found favor in their sight
They fitted about him, filled his button
holes with bouquets, his pockets will
bon-bons; they looked up in his face
and tried to talk to him, poor children! a
best they could. But they appealed to m
to take the ugly counter, with it's sordit
pound packages for home necessity, an
I took it with an i'll. concealed avidity
The truth was. a kind of heart-sicknes