The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-10-15

led her into room where 1ay-merci-
full God, could that stricken, moaning
mass be Selma!
1t was not until long afterward that
she knew how it happened that in
reaching. for more wool while quilting
and waiting for her, Selma had upset
the lamp. How it exploded, and she
rushing madly out calling for help had
fallen down the stairway, where she
| lay unconscious of all save pain, while
| her life fast ebbed itself away. The
/ fire was soon subdued, even before the
fire reached the house, but not before
I'm the Red Days" had been swept up
/ like autumn leaves before the wind.
But little of this rocked Miss Mar
cissa; she only saw her dead Sisters
face, and knew that her sole stay and
comfort in life was gone from her, Up
! October Miss Narcissa Blackboard 5as
again at her desk. her 416am, pinched
| Grape and borAbazine making a sombeT
patch III the sunlit room, where flowers
blessomed in the windows, and beyond
them the fair Potomac glittered
Ivy Dodge sat near her, her voice
little lower, her eyes a trife softer as
she looked at Miss Narcissa, whose
pale hand travelled rapidly over she
| paper before her SO she sat there, day
after day. among them, yet not of
! them, as one who had come back from
the other world, where all her hopes
| were buried. The sister of her love
! lay in Beautiful Oak Hill, her book,
the one child of her brain, was heap
of ashes with only one word deciphera.
BILE, and .that '.Finis." At the begin
ming of the next month. in the list of
/ promotions in her department was the
| name. of Miss Narcissa Blackford. pro-
1 NOTED TO a nine hundred dollar clerk
ship. Oddly enough, in the same
paper was the notice of Colonel Sa=
/ ville's second marriage. Mise Nareissa
read them both, and only smiled
Three months later one dreary Febru-
airy day Miss Narcissa, sitting Mt her
desk, slowly read . letter rGstmarked
in a Western city ana this was what it
! said,
'DeGr NdrciSsa-YOu will wonder
what in the name of goodness has
brought me here; and why [ write 10
you after q silence Of Several years.
Fate, my dear, IS stranger than we,
/ and that IS WHY YOU were suddenly
| brought TO my mind;-not that I'd
I really forgotten Won, Cissa. brt as we
grow older we seem TO drift away
from eiSiisn friends so fast. Well,
first, what am l doing here? Well, !
am keeping house for my, two boys:
YOU know, Of course, thaG my poor
husband e dead. The boys are both
| doing well, ard / am as happy with
them as il is possible for me to be,
now that poor Lawrence is gone he
fore. l hope you viii COME cit some
day and ser ali Tor yourself. Now,
how rio You think I came to hear your
name away out here? Why, from Ttor
Tom SaYille, who he1 Just uied here in
great ,'CfG1ty. 1t seems that after
! ms second marriage (Which took place
only few months agO) he came here
to live, after investing all his little
fortune in what proved to be a gigan-
tic swindle, His wife is a foolish little
pink and white beauty. not over
twenty, whose ene idea seemed to be
TO get back TO her Eastern home. Well,
poor Tom left q little girl, about ten
years old, 1 should think. Florence is
her name, lie was in despair over
what to do with her at his death. /
would have taken her myself but, as
you know, my income is small, and
my sons are yeuuE and viii marry by
and BY one day | was sitting with
Tom while his wife took little rest.
1t was very near the end and | thought
he was in a stupor, but he turned over
suddenly and cried out, 'Narcissa
will do it, Ask Narcissa Black
ford 80 taRG my child. My
dear ] was shocked You know
mover thought he treated YOU just
right, and now to want to burden you
with a child of his, and you with poor
Selma and your literary work to look
after [ thought 1T selfish to ask such
a thing of you. He died that night,
and the last thing he said to me was:
ASK Nafcissa. promise to ask Narcissa.
His wife went into Mysteries, and he
only seemed to think of her after that,
and at the stroke of midnight he died.
/ only write to you because [ promised
the dead. His relatives will of course
take care of the little girl. She is with
me at present. Goodbye. dear Mar
cissa; write when YOU can, and if you
care to come so far to see me, you will
receive a warm welcome from your old
friend, CHARLOTTE"
That night message went speeding
along the wires from Miss Narcissa
! Blackford, Washington. ID. c., to Mrs
Charlotte Fauquier, Kansas City, Mo:
''Am coming for the child And
poor, delicate Miss Narcissa, who in
her sheltered girlhood had never tray
eled twenty miles without an escort,
/ was travelling westward alone. But
though she WAS nan lEl3nleneU AT IIlG
2 thought of attempting what was to her
such a terrible journey, she never once
) regretted her decision to take it.
t When the spring came, and poor
t Selna's grave spoke of resurrection
t in its budding Grass and flowers, Miss
Narcissa went thither on Sunday after
> moons with her fragrant otferings-but
< not alone, for always with her was n
, shy, silent child, who called her
e Aunt" and loved her better than the
e world, beside. Henceforth the old
D maids path is not a lonely one. The
g child goes with her; and in planning
e for her future, this unconscious heroine
I forgets the spent ambition of her own
sad life-content when Florence lifts
b, to hers, in love and gratitude, the eyes
a so like her father s.-EijSG armstrong,
e IN ~ d. TiWcS-DemOcrdt.
I AMERICAN HAIR-PINS.
/ An Industry Which Has Assumed Very
f Promising Proportions.
Il d Il.