Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-05-02
THE INVISIBLE.
BY NJ. Fl. CATHERWOOD.

Three times within year and a half
had that mysterious creature eluded me.
The first time, | expressed polite regrets !;
the second, called her the lost Pleiad out
of that constellation of seven; the third
time, I determined to gee her if had to
intrench myself for the winter in College
town.
They were fascinating bunch Of seven
girls, their fathers scholarly head tower
ing from the midst of them. Kate, to be
sure, was married, aud lived in South
Bend, but she was always counted in.
Through Kate partly I discovered the
rest of the constellation, for 1 was a
South Bender, the literary son Of bank
er, aud guilty of enthusiastic pilgrimages
to the shrine CT native talent. Men east
and west of US cannot understand the
extreme joy Hoosier feels IN whatever
excellent thing his State produces. We
have been ridiculed; our honest pride has
been called gush. But an Indiana man
Will IulSS UulS lOSGCilbS CfCIJ
where else on the face Of the earth.
knOW-for [ have seen-that there is no
such hazs on the Bay of Naples as the blue
light over the Wabash. Last year sat
on one of the Pyramids. and shut my eyes
to call up papaw groves and the blotched
marble trunks Of sycamores. Right beside
me stood a young Connecticut man, who
happened to be hummlng paddle your
own Canoe" and it eased my soul to brag
to him of the pilgrimage I once made to
the lovely old author of it, under her ma
tive Indiana beeches. I told him about
Ben Parker, moreover, whose heart flow
cred out in poetry dark year after dark
year, SO that he appeared to me like
lightning blasted tree all covered with
honeysuckle. We have sweet great people
in our State, and cherish their home per
fume. [ came to Collegetown first to find
for myself some of these people. and in
acquaintance Mrs. Kate paved my way.
Some Of them I met at a reception, and
think they we're inclined to pass rae over
as too sensitive, too womanish, a man.
But Immediately afterward 1 had to make
speech at soldiers reunion, and used
all my thundeVs directly at the Carew
girls. From calling on them with an
elderly friend / was promoted to stopping
at the house as the guest of their father.
That fine old gentleman and talked clas-
sic sentences while thought about the
girls. They all attracted me, even the
youngest, whose mother had died at her
birth eight years before.
From ceiling to floor, and from the
temple-like parlor, into which you opened
the front door, to unexplored regions of
its one-story spread, their house was lined
with books. They had not fury for Gull
ture, but they seemed embodiments Of
high thinking, and their manner of living
put premium On poverty. | despised my
fathers solid mansion when I compared
it with the old cottage, which had been
picturesque and venerable before any of
tho Carew girls we're born in it. The
whole lower part Of one gable was win
dow containing more than hundred lit
tie panes of glass. In other places there
were saslles lying on their sides, to be
opened by hinges, and you went down
two steps into the dining-room, and
crossed yardwide threshold between
shining knobs from every wall, and
there was dimple sort of nook here and
there where you could bestow yourself to
read without having people run against
your feet. They had rare old engraviDgs
| which their student father had picked up,
and old books, and ancient silver-thin
and slight, in spoons, and dumpy and
queerly chased in table service,
Many books could be written about
Miss Carew alone, for you never ex-
| hausted her inylduality. She was swift
| wholesome, lrcisiye woman, and edited
the principal newspaper in Collegetown
Her very feminine hands could pack 3 Va,
lse at the shortest notice for a journey
after interesting materials. and she told
me she considered herself going to school,
to learn journalism, and she grudged &c
pains that would give her hold On the
general public. Besides her newspaper
office she had den in house not fsI
from her home, where she could study
alone, and where the treasures accumula.
ted by her talents smiled around her
Many an evening she burned the night
lamp there over her manuscript; but
many another evening the girls with some
guests, made the den hilarious. Her ia
BILE, rug, and chairs, her waste basket and
curtains, the dogwood 1)wers SIZE haG
painted around the CRATE, and the friezt
Of silhouettes she found time to set be-
meath the ceiling, were all extensions anG
expressions of herself. Miss Carew never
was called anything but Mary Honor BY
her family and set. While had not the
hardihood to address her SO. 1 always be-
slowed her title on the second sister, Mis-: