The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-08-29

| NOhiSht p"itNh VI
Time was when | needed no curs
shorn from maidens across the seas or
manufactured from home material.
had plenty of my own. Jack Hunter
cut one of them of with his penknife
that night when we parted.
al don't know" said he, savagely,
whether | most hate you or love you !;
but I'll keep this to remember the girl
who firted and fooled away the truest
affection man ever had for a woman"
He cut the curl from my head with
his penknife, and looked at me as If he
was half tempted to do me further
butchery and God knows didn't care
then il he had drawn tho knife across
my throat should not have resisted
him.
"Don't go, Jack " I cried out at last,
holding the edge of his coat. "Dor't
go, anyway 50 far as China if you do, |
shall commence to dig hole when you
get there. They say that China is right
under us, and Pll begin with little pick
and shovel as soon as we get news Of your
arrival. Then you can begin on your
side and we'll meet each other half way"
He flung me frem him with something
J 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 come and ago, the
sweet summers bloom and fade, the
heart of the roses lose strength and fail
and fall away, to come again as strong,
as fresh as ever, and Jack, my Jack,
never come back to MeY Yet he was not
dead-nor wed. That was one good
thing. And he was out there among
these women with narrow eyes and
stinted feet, and he didn't as yet know a
word of the language. He was growing
fat, he wrote home to his people next
door, and bald, which didn't matter on
the top of his head 80 long as he could
keep enough to cultivate pig.tail.
This was necessary, as he meant to set
up for Chinese mandarin, and was
already embroidering a gown for the
purpose on spare nights. And 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 one little line !!
He showered gifts upon other people
chests OF tea and parcels of silk, lovely
bits of decorated china, big soft beautiful
shawls of Grape. He sent gewgaws and
gold to so many others; if he had only
given one little word
They must have told him | had been
sorely punished; that my mischievous
gayety 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. Sleep.
less nights and useless repinings, long,
wearisome days, endless years filled with
wild yearnings for that which seemed
forever hopeless, had robbed me of all.
The 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 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 l'' cried, and wiped away
with the hand towel some salt tears that
fell upon the dimity bureau cover, and
upon the grave of sad, sweet memories.
Then put on my ugly brown dress, and
the hideOus bonnet to match, and went
off to the church, pausing at the portal
to look longingly 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.
| GLOW calmly, calmly smile the dead
who do not therefore grievel"
"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. | took
possession OF whole crate of these,
sending the young and pretty maidcns
home to recruit for the evening.
There we're few faint, polite remon-
strances when | declined to take any
active part in the evenings entertain,
ment. we must leave that part to
the young and attractive,"I said, and
there was a general buzz of acquiesence
had the consolation of hearing several
remarks upon my extraordinary good
sense and practical capability.
! was graciously allowed, after I had
hulled whole crate of strawberries, tt
hold a step.ladder and some nails fol
Mrs Smith, the apothecary's wife, while
she hung some gorgeous drapery, and
otherwise de 'ormed the cool gray walli
of our chapel, so that | was pretty vel
tired when | went home at nightfall
Mamma met me at the gate, and looked
at me so dolefully that | burst ou
laughing,
"Never mind, mamma" said |, "I
won't look so cadavorous after Pm resteC
and dressed tor the evening"
But I'm afraid was rather a painful
object for the gaze of doting and ono,
ambitious mother when had dOnned m,
black silk, and was ready for the even
/ ing. My hair was neither crimped no
curled. You zee, had depended upol
the switch, which was bought for pur
, poses of that kind, and it failed me igno
, miniously at the last moment, My hea'
ached, and could not bear many hair
| pins tnIusb lnIo uy o1o'p, III iO OIhc
3 way would the obstinate thing be in
duced to stay on. Mamma was heart
i broken, and / was perverse at times.
3 thought perhaps t e switch was grievin
over a beloved and lost head of which
4 was once part and parcel, and | forgav
, it, and left it to its perverseness iror
, that time onward
When reached the church was i'm
4 mediately seized upon for something
they called the grocery counter-an in
D novation brought about by the adven
!; of well-to.do grocer in our midst,
widower, a stock raiser, and man at
flicted with many malsdies, of which HI
4 loved to talk. He had generously sen
!. down from the city, in round package
n and tin cans, samples of his available
goods, and proposed this grocery coIne
to the young ladies, which they deSpiset