The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-10-25

"Pslaw!" said Mr.. Bartow, who had
served many years on the whale ships
and rather despised land employment.
In my time the girls would not have q
lover Mt all who had not tonghencd his
hands on the ropes for one voyage, ut
least. Don't pout over that
Nelly agreed to try being braver; but
her pensiveness did not diminish, and
her father began to suspect that there
was some cause for it which she had not
revealed.
And then came the terrible day when
he was murdered by the poor, crazcd
miller.
After that, no one wasted any wonder
over that melancholy expression which
was gradually becoming indeliblc upon
Nelly's face. Her future husbands
father had fallen prey to disaster and
died in madness, while her own father
had been cut off in his hale yigor by
that very hand which should have
welcomed her rs daughter. We're not
these events enough to have wrought a
revolution in her character?
She was terribly overwhelmed when
her fatl er was brought home. after the
shooting.
Those who saw her related that her
grief was almost TOO awful even to
speak OF afterward. She seemed to
consider herself the cause of the ca
lamity.
"Oh, l wish l had never been born !"
she cried. "But for me these griefs
would never have come to us all. MY
poor, poor father-he wondered SO
what made me sad, and / never told
him; and I felt something dreadful
coming but how could tell it was to
be this?'
"Hush!' said one of her friends. 1T
is wrong to talk so. as If you could
make or prevent what Providence has
appointed.
"But l am doomed, I am doomed,
moaned Nelly. "And all who arc near.
est to me are being visited with my
DOOM"
"How do you mean?" asked hel
friend, bewildered.
Then Nelly became quiet at once.
She set herself to care for her mother
and never again gave any outward sign
of her own dreadful suffering; and she
showed such dread when any reference
was made to that one outbreak of wild
grief, that her friends learned not Il
speak Of it again.
| She was SO devoted to her stricker
mother, that every one pointed her ou
as pattern to their children, and pool
Mrs. Barlow often said to her tina
without her she should not have beer
able to live week.
"How different you are, Nelly" shs
would say, "from the thoughtless, fun
loving little thing You used to be.
never thought you would be such
comfort and stay to me-"
"Oh, mother" begged Nelly, "don'
praise me for that. l don't deserve I,
have you think so much of me. ough
| to have been better than am. can
bear to have you call me good"
When she spoke thus it only mad
her seem oil the better for her modesty
But in spite of her tender care, tn
widow gradually fell into decline. an,
ut length she, too, passed away.
This was while Will was absent o.
his first cruise.
At first, when Mr.. Barlow was killed
the gossips had decided that it woul,
be unnatural for Nelly Barlow an,
Will Gurton to become man and wife
But the two young people in question
decided otherwise. Their love was til
one bright thing left to them in til
midst of the gloom that was gathering
over their lives, and they clung to
faithfully. So when Will came hom
and found Nelly left alone in the world
they were married at once.
| They lived in the old mill by tn
grassy hollow, that now occupied tin
place of the pond. Around it som
shabby poplars grew, from behin
which the queer, antique houses, stand
ing at various angles, peered ont in
daZed kind of way, as if they ha
never got over the joke, or the surprise
of having the little stretch of waite
suddenly vanish from before them
Nelly, also, had never gotten over til
shock of that event and all the change
which followed it. But she tried to b
cheerful, for Wills sake, and he wa
proud of his wife. Yet Nelly's mi,
fortunes were not over for, o his secon
cruise, Wills ship was wrecked and h
was lost with number of the crew.
She never would marry again, and $
she was left to live, without children
utterly alone in the old mill. Sh
stunned all companionship, for she In
a secret in her heart which was yer
exacting companion and drove o,
everything else.
By-and-by, as she grew old, she WI
so peculiar that few persons attempte
to have anything to do with her.
She became very poor, but whe
charitable etowns-people went and offere
her help she repulsed them, saying, a
most fercely:
What have to do with you? Yo
are not witches, and don't You know
am an old witch and have brought so
row and suffering on all who have la
, to do with me? Leave me alone"
So the children got to be afraid
her. But, as is often the ease, the
tried to show that they weren't afrai,
by making fun of her and teasing he
They would go to her house and knoc
, Oh the windows and door, and hit
when she came out; or else they woul
| fasten the door on the outside, an
throw things in at the open window.
plague her.
, Peggy Winslow, who was lead,
in these adventures, one day conceiv.
: the idea of placing some flowers, Willie
she had filled with red pepper, on Il
top of the door, SO that they would fa
down on old Dame Gurton las Mel
was now ealled) when she came on
and half choke her with sneezin,
Peggy chose flowers SO that if Dan
Gurton didn't feel the pepper at one
i, would be most likely to take mp Il
flowers and smell them.
The trick succeeded.
Poor old Nelly was brought to Il
= door by a gentle tap which deceiv,
, her into thinking it was some one con
with sewing for her to do. But VIII,
0 the flowers fell down, and she found |
i A.