The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-08-26

and-Aft and the Greyhound were set fire
to by their own crews, and Varuna was
never heard of. Then the State of
Arkansas offered sixteen townships of
swamp land to the first manufacturer
who would exhibit five gross of the
home manufactured article. But none
ever competed. The first attempts, in.
deed. were put to an end when Schofield
crossed the Blue Lick and destroyed the
dam on the Yellow branch, which that
brute of Grierson said there was
never anything of it but the outside.
OF course, then, put in the bottom
of my new large trunk in New York,
not "duplex elliptic" for none were
then made. but Belmonte of thirty
springs, for my.wife. l bought for her
moro-!common wear good g Belle.Fon.
taine." For Sarah and Susie each got
two Dumb. bellies" For Aunt Eunice
and Aunt Clara, maiden sisters of my
wife, who lived with us after Winchester
fell the fourth time, got the " Scotch
Harebell," two of each. For my own
mother got one "Belle of the Prairies ~
and one Invisible Combination Cos
samer." | did not forget good old
Mamma Chloe and Mamma Jane. For
them l got substantial cages without
names. With these tied in the shape
of figure eights in the bottom of my
trunk, as l said, put in an assorted
cargo of dry goods above, and, favored
by pass, and Major Mulford's courtesy
on the flag.of-truce boat, | arrived
safely at Richmond before the autumn
closed.
l was received at home with rapture.
But when, the next morning [ opened
my stores, this became rapture doubly
enraptured. Words cannot tell the
silent delight with which old and
young, black and white, surveyed those
fairy-like structures, yet unbroken and
unmended.
Perennial summer reigned that
autumn day in that reunited family.
1t rtigned the next day, and the next.
1t would have reigned till now if the
Belmontes and the other things had
lasted as long as the advertisements
declared.
Twas up in the cedar closet one day
looking for an old parade cap of mine,
which, l thought, though it was my
third best, might look better than my
second best, which l had worn ever
since my best was lost at Seven Pines.
say | was standing on the lower shelf
OF the cedar closet, when, as | stepped
along in the darkness, my right foot
caught in bit of wire, my left did not
give way in time, and l fell with q
small wooden hat box in my hand full
on the floor. The corner of the hat box
struck me just below the second frontal
sinus, and tainted away.
When | came to myself / was in the
blue chamber: had vinegar on brown
paper on my forehead; the room was
dark, and found mother sitting by me,
glad enough indeed to hear my voice
and to know that ! knew her. 1t was
sometime before fully understood
what had happened. Then she brought
ME cup OF tea, and l, quite refreshed,
said | must go to my Office.
"Ofice, my child! ~ said She "Your
leg i broken above the ankle; you will
not move these six weeks. Where do
you suppose you areP'
Till then l had no notion that it was
five minutes since went into the closet
When she told me the time-fve in the
atternoon-I groaned in the lowest
depths. For in my breast pocket in
that innocent coat, which could now
see Sing on the window-sill, were the
duplicate dispatches to Mr.. Maso1. for
which, late the night before, bad got
the secretary's signature. They were
to go at ten that morning TO Whining
ton, by the navy departments special
messenger. / had taken them to insure
care and certainty. l had worked on
them till midnight, and they had not
been signed till near one o'clock
Heavens an earth, and there it was
five o'clock! The man must be half way
to Wilmington by this time. | sent the
doctor for Lefarge, my clerk. Lefarge
did his prettiest in rushing to the tele-
graph. But no! A freshet On the
Chowan river, or raid by Foster, Or
something, or nothing, has smashed
the telegraph wire for that night. And
before that dispatch ever reached Will
mington the navy agent was in the of1ing
in the Sea Maid.
"But perhaps the duplicate got
through" No, breathless reader, the
duplicate did not get through. The du-
plicate was taken by Faucon in the Ino.
| saw it last week in DR.. Lieber's hands
in Washington. Well, all 1 know is
that if the duplicate had got through
the Confederate government would
have had in March a chance at S3,2ll
muskets, which, as it was, never left
Belgium. So much for my treading
into that blessed piece of wire ON the
oACll VI le.Ceual ClOStb upstairs.
"What was the bit of wirep"
Well, it was not telegraph wire. If it
had been it would have broken when it
was not wanted to. Don't you know
what it WASP Go up in your own cedar
closets and step about in the dark, and
see what brings up about your ankles.
Julia. poor child, cried her eyes out
about it. When got well enough to
get up, and as soon as l could talk and
plan with her, she brought down seven
of these old things-Belmontes, simplex
elliptics and horrors without name
and she made pile of them in the bed
room, and she asked me in the most
penitent way what she should do with
them.
"You can't burn them," she said,
fire won't touch them. If you bury
them in the garden they come up at the
second raking. If you give them to the
servants they say, Thank-e, missus,
and throw them in the back passage. II
you give them to the poor, they throw
them into the street in front, and do not
say 'Thank-e.' Sarah sent seventeen
over to the sword factory, and the fore
man swore at the boy, and told him he
would fog him within an inch of his
life if he brought any more of his sauce
there; and so-and So" sobbed the poor
Il =