The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-10-25
THE PErrIsoNs LINEAGE.
(Exchaaw.l

thing to be vell-born. In thus connsc- ting the mention of my name with posi- tive statement am not unaware that a catastrophe lies coilcd up in the juxta- position. But cannot help writing that am sG,l in favor sf . distinguished family trec. Esso perpetua! To have had somebody for a great-grandfather that was somebody is exciting. To be able to- look back on long lines Of an- oestry that were rich, but respectable, seems decorous and all right. The pre- sent earl of Warwick, I think, must have an idea that strict justice has been done him in the vay of being launched pro- perly into the world. l saw the duke of Newcastle once. and as the farmer in Conway described Mount Washington, I thought the duke felt a propensity to hunch up some" Somehow it is pleas ant to look down on the crowd, and have a conscious right to do so.
 Left an orphan at the tender age of four years, having no brothers or sisters to prop me round with young affections and sympathies, fell into three pair ot hands, excellent in their way, but peculiar Patience, Eunice and Mary Ann Petit bone were my aunts on my fathers side. All my mothers relations kep, shady when the lonely orphan looked about for protection; but Patience P.ttibone, in her stately way. said: "The boy belongs 10 good family, and he shal, never wan; shile his three aunts can support him" l" So went to live with my plain bu. be- nigRant protectors, in the state of New Hampshire.
 During my boyhood the best-drilled lesson that fell to my keeping was this :: Respect yourself. We come of more than ordinary parentage. Superior blood ~as probably concerned :. getting up the pettbones. Hold your head erect, and some .ay you shall have proof of your nigh lineage
 remember once, on being told that I must no, share my juvenile sports with the butchers three little beings, begged to know why not ALat Eunice looked At Patience, and Mary Ann knew what she meant.
 My chlid," slowly murmured the elder sister, our family, no doubt, came of very old stock perhaps we belong to the nobility Our ancestors, i, is thought, came over laden with honors. and no doubt were embarrassed with rlehes. though the latter importation has dwindled in the lapse of years. Respect yourself, and when yeu grow up you will not regret that ,oui cid and careful aunt dld not wish you to play with butchers offspring"
 felt mortified that l had ever had tesire to kauckle up" with any bu, kings' sons or sul;ans' little boys. I 'onged to be among my equals in the arehin-line, and fly my kite with only high-born youngsters
 Thus had lived in a constant scene of self-enohan.ment on the part of the sisters, who assumed all the port and feeling that properly belongs to ladies of qualliy Pa,rimonial splendor to come daroed before their dim eyes and hand somS -elticmen,s, gay equipages, and general grandeur of some sort Ioomed up ia ;hc future for the American branch of the house of Peuibcne.
 IL was life of opulent seIf-delusion, which my aunss were never tired of nurs- 'ng and l was too young to doubt the reality of it. All the members of our little household held up their heads, as if each said, in so many words, "There is no ong'nal sin in our composition. what evG oi that commodity there may be mixed up with the common clay of Snow borough
 Aun, Patience was a star. and dwel, apart. Aunt Eunice looked a, her throuob determined pair of spectacles, and worshiped while she gazed. The young est sister li.ed in dreamy state of hon ors 10 come and had constant geological visions of lions, eriffias and unicorns, drawn and quartered in every possible s9le known to the Hera,ds' college The Reverend Hebrew Bullet, who used 10 drop in quite often and drink several compulsory glasses of home made wine encouraged his three panshioners in their. aristocratic notions, and ex,olIed them for what he called their stoopinp down to everyday life" He differed with the ladies of Ger house only on one point. lie contended that the unicorn of the bible and the rhinoceros of to-day were one and the same animal. My aun,s held different opinion.
 In Inc sleeping-room of my Aunt Pa uence reposed trunk. Often during my childish years longed to lift the lid and spy among its contents the treasures my young fancy conjured up as lying there in state. dared not ask to have the cover raised for my eradication, as had often been told that was too little :" to estimate aright what that armorial box contained. When you grow up you shall see the inside of it" Aunt Mary used to say to me and so l wondered and wished, but all in vain. Imust have the virtue oi years before could view the treasures of past magni6cence SO long entombed in that wooden sarcophagus. Once l saw the faded sisters bending over the trunk together, and, as thought embalming something in camphor. Curiosity impelled me to finger, but, under some pretext, was nodded out of the room.
 Although my kinswomen's means were far from ample, they determined that S~iftmouth college should have the dis ffxzr <>ff aII -E