The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-09-27
PROvlDENTIAL Pics.

sob. missus, missus! Somefn's
done happened.
Blank horror and dismay were de-
picted upon the face of my small
African, as she stood upon my threshold
with appraised hands and eyeballs that
seemed starting from their sockets.
Her pause was one of preparation, for
with the innate consideration of her
race she sought to break the news
gently to me, but the burden of it was
too great for her, and with the next
breath she exclaimed:
Dem pigs done chawed up Miss
Lyddy's weddin' gown"
"Glory," exclaimed (she had been
piously christened Gloriana), Glory,
how did it happen?"
"Dunnop said Glory. Pears to me
dem pigs has got Satan in 'em. Guess
dey's seconded from de ole lot what run
down a steep place into the sea. I'll go
an fetch we piece"
She sped out and instantly returned
with tattered shred of India null that
had once been white, and still bore
some resemblance to gown. Poor
Miss Lyddy! This was all that re-
manned of her dream of wedding
splendors. 1t was too pitiful l felt
at once that the bonds of good neigh
borhood had been irretrievably broken,
and that Maj. Hawthorne must De
made aware of this last and worst dep
relation of his unseemly pigs.
But who would break the news to
Miss Lyddy?
Glory said /; where is she?"
"Gone over to de buryin' place oh
her ancestors, answered Glory.
Poor, faithful soul even in those last
days of her maidenhood, with the
vague terrors of matrimony and the
still more appalling responsibility of
unsaved heather souls hanging over
her, she did not forget the ancestors.
Long lines of Ludkinses lay buried in
little sunken hillocks in the family bury
ing-place which lay just in sight of her
sitting-room window. She herself was
the last her race, and until within three
weeks it had seemed that tho only fate
which awaited her was to live out her
little space under the ancestral roof
tree. and then take her place III the silent
ranks of those who had gone before.
But change had come. 1t came in
the person of returned missionary from
the Micronesian Islands, who had bur-
led the first and second partners of his
joys and sorrows somewhere under the
palm trees of those tropical lands and
had come back to the scenes of his
youth TO recruit his health. serve his
cause, and look up partner No. 3. He
met Miss Lyddy at woman's mission
airy meeting. He called the next after
moon and was invited to stay TO tea. He
accepted the invitation, and next morn
f, ing Miss Lyddy came into my room
for /, too, domiciled under the Lud-
kins roof-tree, for consideration-and,
with much hesitation and many faint
and delicate bushes, informed me that
she had promised to share the future
lot Of the Rev. Nehemiah Applebloom,
to take care of his six children, and to
support him in his arduous labors
among the heather of the Micronesian
Islands.
I was struck dumb with amazement.
"Miss Lyddy," 1 said at length, shave
you duly considered this project?"
Her thin figure quivered, and her
white face, that had yet a delicate re-
mSihbian VI JOuOh Al AZ, ShS" 0ShNOA
with feeling.
"Yes," she said; 81 think have. 1
have always had presentiment that L
should marry O minister or a mission
ary." Admirable and prophetic faith (!
"And Mr.. Applebloom says he knew
the moment he set eyes upon me that /
was ordained to be his wife; SO you see
it is not the surprise to either of us
that it is likely to be to our friends.
| knew that her mind was fully made
up. 1 demurred no longer, but lent
myself at once to discussion of the
wedding. which plainly saw was what
Miss Lyddy desired of me.
"You will be married in church,
supposeG'
"Oh, no." said Miss Lyddy, with
gentle decision. Il am the last of the
Ludkinses. All the Ludkinses have
been married at home. / will go out
from under my own roof-tree. If
must seem to forsake the ancestors,
she paused to regulate little choking
in her throat, Il will ut least not for
sake their traditions. L shall leave O
little money with the Parish Clerk,
that he may see that the graves of my
dead are kept in proper order, rs / al.
ways have loved to keep them; but
shall at least go as a Ludkins should
II is my desire to be married in my
grandmother's wedding gown"
Miss Lyddy's voice trembled, and
there was a humidity in her eyes, a.
which 1 did not wonder, for il was much
like funeral, after all.
al thought, perhaps" went on Miss
Lyddy, "if brought the venerated reli,
to you, You would tell me il anything
were necessary TO be done TO fit it t.
me. i don't care for the fashions, yol
know, and my grandmother, as 1 re
member her, was about my height
but still, you Observation-Disclosures
changes might be advisable"