The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-11-15
VIOLET'S LAST PROPOSAL

VI0LET'S LAST PROPOSAL.
A letter from Betsy at last Crumpled
it is and hy-stained, divers bits of paper
of many colOrs, one OF them actually
bearing the crossed out signature of the
poor dead and gone Mrs Higgins, and
another muti!ated page, bearing marks
of calculation for tailoring done by
Betsy herself; but the whole funny COM
| pilation makes me look around my room
ia the boarding house as any prisoner
might upon gaining q brief boon of
| liberty, for the letters come straight from
the dear old mountains that | thought
| Violet had spoiled for me forever Only
one year ago Violet lay upon yonder bed, ,
and having just got Farmer Higgins's
| letter / called out to her that at last
had secured a boarding-place for us where
| might hope for little rest during this
one holiday.
" What sort of a place is it, Lide ?'
| said my sister, turning her head Ian
| guidly on the pillow and looking over at
me with her tricksy brown eyes. Not that
she was sick. Pm not going to intro
| duce you to an interesting invalid-oh
no; If anybody could lay claim to SYM
pathy i'll that way. it was the rack of
| bones of which [ was composed. We
were both school teachers; but Violet
WAS not much more than monitor as
| yet. while ! had climbed the weary grade
OF promotion TO vice principal. Violet
gave me great deal of trouble; it seemed
| to me st times that all my care and
interest could not keep her position for
| her, and the bare thought of her bsine
idle and away from me made me tremble
/ would have been glad to support her in
| idleness, ior she was little more than
child, and all | had in the world, but |
could not have her out OF my sight
Not that she had any secret tendency
to lunecys kleptomania or anything of
that kind. She was only an incOrrigible
tiirt-that vas all but that WAS enough.
1ou Wcut1 tnIHA - A you happened to
be Of her sex, and under the roof with
her abode your brother or sweetheart. or
uncle or grandfather. 1t made no differ
ence whether it began with q disinclina>
tion on one side or both-sometimes this
was an incentive. 1t mattered little
whether the party Was prepossessing or
otherwise, old or young, grave or gay,
stupid or bright; IL was all the same 10
Violet. During the last two years had
been afflicted with no less than seven
offers ct marriage in her behalf, five OF
them wholly ineligible; one | looked
upon with q great degree of favor. which
destroyed its every chance of success
and the other, that of the principa! of
cur male department, Mr.. Baxter, filed
me with sickening sense of the rough
and-tumble way in which pearls were
cast before swine. Here was a man of
mature age, OF commanding intellect. os
81 - Fof.l
ing himself with the idea that his happi-
ness depended upon a vain, silly chit of
nineteen, when withia the four walls with
him, right under his injudicious nose.
were several women who would have
been admirable companions for him in
every way, suitable in age snd intellect
and appreciation, each and all of them
so worthy and deserving of q rest from
toll, and the love OF manly heart. But
he WIS completely infatuated and when,
driven 70 desperation, / consented to her
marrying him, and, as usual, she was
surprised and shocked and couldn't
entertain the idea for a moment, he gave
, me to understand, with an air OF icy dis
dain, that it was merely personal feel.
ing upon my part which was the obstacle
to his happiness. She certainly did wear
sn air of secret sorrow in his presence as
she did in that of each of her rejected
suitors; her eyes sometimes filed with
tears, her voice trembed. At such
moments these men have looked upon me
in a way that WAS positively violent;
between the seven of them my lie was
not worth halfpenny. Vacation did
not come q day too soon for the salvation
Of my sanity, if not my life. How
could help, then, turning to this letter
of Farmer Higgins as a refuge from
these persistent and ubiquitous evils?
stIt is q sort of place." l replied TO my
sister, g where it IS impossible for you to
do any mischief. 1t is in the heart OF
the Catskills-""
Her eyes Frightened an almost inper-
ceptible smile touch 4 her lips
Not & hotel. ny lear, , said quickly,
% nor a boarding house, nor yet in
the vicinity of boarders, nor peopled by
race of men that you will find avail
able for your wiles; and anyway there IL
only one man--the farmer himself He
has q termagant sickly wife and five
young children; the hired men 90 away
to sleep. and get to work at day break;
it is five miles from the nearest village,
and not house within walking dis
tance"
''There must be doctor and minis
ter" said Violet, refectively.
:" Not at all, - reioined " the people
mp there understand the healing power
of herbs a surgeon is only required for
the setting OF bones, and lives miles
away. The rinister rides over every
Sunday from a neighboring parish, only
leaving his pulpit TO mount his horse and
go back again. think it will do, Vio-
let," l added, eagerly; i" really think
it will do. l must have rest, or l shall
lsse my senses
and SO you ssl5l have rest, dear"
said Violet, and vel have real splen-
did time together, just you and ! P5
And we did, for about week. began
to understand the nature of Violet's
magnetism. Her beauty was chiefly
remar kable in that it was never the same
from one moment TO another. Her color
went and came; her voice took every
| inhectien, from the widest gayety TO the
tenderest melancholy, and the present
moment, wherever or whatever it might
be. seemed always the one she held rarsst
and best. She had wonderful power
| Of adaptability / found her capable OF
entering into my ideas of pleasure with
/ a zest that cheated me into believing
| they were her own. 1t can readily be
/ believed that there is q certain limit to
this power. At the end of q week Violet
began to materially increase and widen
our sphere of enjoyment. To my delight,
one day / found myself whisked away
ont of sight Of the two or three noun
t.tains by which We were shut in, and
J introduced TO some Of the same range in