The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-09-07

Samaritan's. IN seasons OF shlpWreck
or of illness, when sons are lost al
sea. when little children are left faith
erless-in every perennial sorrow OF
our ommon lot, Aunt Hosie's is the
one needed presence, hers the best
consolation. Not a sick person but
rates her nursing powers higher than
tie doctors science-higher, it may be
sometimes feared, than the ghosty
ministrations of parson or Of priest.
Not O dying pillow that her hand can
not smooth or a group of mourners
with whom her tears-in these she IS
rich-do not flow in sympathy.
When Miss Theodore visits amons
her neighbors, it is "a a stf, Official
manner, with appropriate chapter and
verse. satisfactorily bringing back be-
fore her consciousness the day when
her lamented papa commanded forts
and garrisons and it was a>duty fol
his daughter to give moral succor to
such wives and children Of soldiers as
were on the regulation. To enlarge
before suffering sinners upon the JUS
tice of Providence and the r%etributive
nature Of their own pains, is, with the
distribution Of wrath-dealing tracts,
Theodora's honest conception OF doing
good. And as her spiritual encourage
ments are afforded either in Englis.I, OF
which the Q~uernac fishing people IN
derstand little, or in hating, grammar
learnt, "good French" of which they
understood nothing at all, it can scarce
be matter of wonder that the poor re-
gard her visits like wet harvests Of in
fructuous springs, as some mysterious
caprice upon the part Of Heaven, and
submit to rather than solicit their coz
tinuance.
Aunt Hosie talks the island patois-
the French of Froissart you will hear
q Jerseyman call it-With VolubiEty; a
burr of good North Country accent
| clinging to her tongue, and rendering
the speech less musical than character
istic. She spends her life out Of doors;
| owning, and, with the help Of Margot
and Margot's lover, farming an estate
| of, 7 am ashamed to say how few
| acres; and is %sun-tanned and WIND
| dried as a bit Of autumn's vraic.
The smile sounds unfattering, but at
this seabound, isolated point Of exis-
tence one is so surrounded by Hraic
that it interpenetrates the thoughts
tunaWares; vraic strews the shores,
gardens, fields, sends its dense white
smoke through every cottage chimney,
now fresh, now dried, now in ashes,
fills the air Of the whole district with
it's searching 0dor.
A clean cotton gown in summer, a
| serge one in winter, q sun-bonnet
through every season of the year.
| Such is Aunt Hosie's dress. She weeds,
hoes. works in the hay field, at the
vraic harvest, the cider press; and
with it all remains a lady, An extraor-
dinarily contented one!
The two elder sisters, after a quar-
ter of a century spent at Fief-de-la-
RENE. still look back on Bath. Brigh-
ton and Cheltenham with a sigh. Miss
Theodore, notably, who keeps up the
social credit Of the house, and on &C.
casion dimes at the houses Of the abor-
iginal gentility, gets periodical fits of
low spirits, uncertain temper and con-
comitant doctors visits.
Prom all these Affections Aunt Hosie
is free. Her manner is a trife abrupt,
| like the sea wind, that asks no leave
before it salutes your cheek; her
speech wholesomely bitter, like the
simples culled from her own old-fash-
toned herb garden; and for her
face"
"The bloom of ugliness is past" she
will tell you, frankly. Il am a better
looking woman now than I was at
twenty-five, and mean to be a beauty
yet before I die"
And, little though she suspects it,
her homely features do possess a
charm, a loneliness such as many
Washed-out cheeks and Oyerperfect
profles Of a younger generation can
not boast.
"As wine savors Of the cask wherein
it is kept" wrote a quaint author, "as
wine savors of the cask wherein it is
kept, so the soul receives a tincture
from the body through which it
| works"
Hhe conceit returns ever to my mind
when I think Of the brave, weather
freShened old face Of Henrietta Van
sittart.
To-day seems fated to be n of
wild excitement, Aunt Hosie," says
| Daphne, just as the two arrive within
! sight of Fief-de-la Refine. "Jean Marie
and Margot have discovered, after five
years waiting, that they have saved
no linen and spoons enough to fall in
| love, and I, Daphne Chester, have
spoken, actually spoken, to a strang-
or"
AVE, misfortune seldom comes
SINGLE" is Aunt Hosie's answer. Jean
| Marie and Nargot are a pair Of fools.
Fall in love, indeed! AS if two such
heads, put together. will not be a
hundred times thicker than they were
apart! and at this season, too-all
the busiest part of the year before us
AS to strangers, tive-poGnd excursion
ists," says Aunt Hosie, decisiVely, "the
farther they keep themselves from
Fief-de-la-Reine ard from my carna'
tons, the better 1 shall be able to ap'
preciate their virtues.
"F%ive-pound eXcursicnlsts! Human
creatures with cabbage sticks III theil
hands, and pink-and-orange cravats
round their threats! Aunt Ho
sic" cries Mrs. Chester. not without 2