Newspapers / Fisherman & Farmer (Edenton, … / Jan. 20, 1893, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE SONG OF THE ICE. Sing ho! sinj ho! for the skater, oh ! , For the flying feet and the winds that blow J For the blood that runs to the cheek, to glow 9 u Like the western 6ky ! Sing ho! once more for the flying ghore! And the great lonss crag3 in our icy floor! And the tree-tops that wail of the sad no more Of the days gone by ! Sing ho! sing ho! as we glide and go Where the pines on the edge of the shore bend low, Orer the ice and tha stream's still flow As in times gone by ! 8ing ho ! once more while the pine-tops roar With a song that they sing to us o'er and o'er. As the old sun walks through the eneat red door Of the western sky! Charles Gordon Rogers, in Outing. CAP AND RINGLETS. OW, Miss Frost, where's that 'ere soap to be put and the eggs to be got now, and ain't that 'ere pudding most done?" screamed tkp the bound girl from the wash- house, quite re gardless of com mas. "I say, moth er, I can't find a single shirt!" bawled Tommy, the sec ond son of Reuben aud llachel fcro3t. "Ma, tell Susia to let me be!" screamed, six-year-old Mary from an inner room. "Rachel, where on earth have you locked up them 'ere tools?" queried the farmer himself, tilling the doorway sud ienly with his substantial form. Mrs. Frost, who was dashing about her kitchen like a wild northeaster in ap and petticoats, brought herself up thort by the dresser and put down the iitcher in her bauds with an emphasis ihat made the tins and pudding dishes lance. 4 'Good gracious! is everybody gono cad, or do they want to make me so? Soap, eggs, pudding, shirt, Susie, tools 1 kny one would think there was only one !air of hands and eyes in the house, and ihem was mine. Yell, yell, yell after ne wherever I go. I can't have a mo ment's rest. I declare to goodness if I don't have somebody here to help me before next week, Reuben Frost. I won't be worried and drove to death mere!" Mrs. Frost talked but little, seldom coldcd and only on great occasions "de clared to goodness." When she did the matter was settled. So in due time ;ame "help" in the shape ofthe Widow Patty. ' Now the excellent Rachel, upon writing to her sister in the city on the subject, had stipulate! expressly for a widow. "Girls," she said, "are forever higgling and would all the time be stick ing up their hemis when George was round; and the dear knew she'd had trouble enough already about him, and that poor, proud, stuck up, soft dawder of a Lucy Ellis, to make her sick of billing and cooing for the rest of her lii'e; and she didn't want no old maids, because they v. as always so despepit they might marry George in spite of himself; but if Ann could find her a widow now a respectable sort of per son, and the more forlorn the better, be cause then she'd be contented to stay, peihaps." But not one syllable bad Mrs. Frost breathed on the item of "looks;" and Patty, though a widow, was abominably pretty. Rosy and soft eyed, with black hair that continually reveled in waves and ripples, and here and there mutinied into an actual curl, spite of combs and a widow's cap, and lovely, pouting lins that occasionally parted as if to show the world what handsome teeth there could be in a woman's mouth. It must be confessed that Mrs. Frost looked aghast, as, with the long, cool shadows of evening, and the fresh, rippling breeze, and the dying glow in the sky. and all the other good things of twilight, Father Daniels rattled up in his patriarchal carrjall and set down on her doorstep thi3 trim, smiling, self possessed importation, just as if she had been a barrel of sugar, or a bag of corn, or a firkin of butter, instead of the un . developed motive power that was to overturn and annihilate those venerable institutions, the family prejudices. "Mtrcy? What could Ann have been thinking about?" parenthesized Rachel to her husband. "Why, she's worse than a doen old maids. I know she-'s as artful as Delilah herself." "You might be civil to the woman, anyhow?" growled the former, as the Yankee Delilah stood in the doorway, hesitating and looking as uncomforta ble as a butterfly would coming out in Jacuarj always supposing a butterfly capable of such aa indiscretion. Rachel bridled uUil her very cap a triumph and a wonder of clear starch ing se?med to inflate itself and be filled with doubt about those rebellious little curls in the doorway. 'Waik in, mum." said Rachel. "Probably you are the Widow Pattyi" Tee curis assented with a timid cod, as if hiU doubtful whether it were not a n to be that individual. mi ' r I. . Tij imjCs J "Take off your hat, mum," went on the cap. "Is'poseyoa know what you are to do? Jest make yourself bandy about the house. Dear knows there's need of somebody's being handy!" Alas ! for the inexorable and bristling virtue of a clear starched cap, with a handsome son! Alas! for those mutin ous ripples and ringlets that, being on a head at once poor and widowed, should have been straight and were not! Father and children stood aghast as they heard Rachel Frost one of the kindliest women that ever made puddings or darzed stockings tell that poor lit tle, scared, weary woman to take off her hat and make herself handy about the hcuse! Patty herself, in whose mind was still fresh Sister Ann's verbal photograph of her new home, was half inclined to cry; only that three years of matrimony had taught her that tears can't mend a spoiled dinner, torn clothes or a brute of a husband; and, as they brought noth ing but red eyes, swelled nose and a headache, were luxuries to be sparingly indulged in. Besides, she was a plucky little soul and not disposed to cry "quarter" even to a clear-starched cap. So, while untying her bonnet strings she took an observation. Due north that is to say exactly in front of the fire sat father and George, both in a Btate of temporary idiocy, from excess of as tonishment at the unaccountable gyra tions of "mother," who,since her digni fied reception of the "help," was revolv ing around the kitchen very red in the face and in an aimless way that half distracted the bound girl, who was try ing to set the table. Due east was the hopeful Tommy, whistling in an exas perative manner and staring at the widow, as though she was the "What is It?" and he had just paid his twenty-five cents to Barnum in person; while, op posite, Jule and Susie were quarreling about a book and practically giving dear old Dr. Watts the lie direct about the object for which "little hands" were made. Patty smoothed out the last crease in her shawl, and walked up to the combatants. "Are you sisters?" she asked quietly. The children hung their heads and dropped at once the book and each oth er's hair. Then Patty tooK cne iuue golden head on her lap and nestled the brown head in her arm, and in five min ute's led them off to Fairydom, where she kept them till they were safely in Dreamland. Master Tommy stopped his shrill whistle to listen. Mrs. Frost's nervous system beirg relieved, her senses came back to her, and three of her short sentences put father and George out ot the way and restored the bound girl to her normal condition. In half an hour that kitchen was so quiet that pussy got up from before the fire and walked around, mewing uneasily, thinking she had made a mistake and got into the house next door, where nobody lived but prim old Miss Gillett. But the cap never relaxed an atom of its severity. "Just as I told you," insisted the pre judiced piece of muslin. "She is an artful littie hussy. Never come across one of them low-spoken women with curls in my life that wasn't. She'll be making eyes at George soon. See if she don't!" Fate, who seems to have a special spite against widows, obstructed her ringlets on the notice of another pair of unfriendly eyes, belonging to Lucy .Ellis, George s first love. Lucy, who was older than George and had no roses and some freckles, saw the dear little woman one day running after the children, laughing, panting and rosy with health and fun and took the alarm. "What a bold, vulgar, disagreeable woman that is who lives at your moth er's!" she said to George. "Disagreeable!" echoed the astonished young man. "Why, she's one of the nicest little woman 1 ever saw in my life ; and as for being bold and vulgar, I don't see how you can say so, Lucy.!' "Oh, of course not!" answered she. "You men always do like those horrid, brazen things. She's painted, if ever I saw paint! I'm sure she's thirty, and I'll bet anything her teeth and hair are false. If you like her, however, it's all the same to me. I'm sure I don't care if you make her Mrs. George Frost!" Oh, foolish Lucy! When the simple youth didn't so much as see that forbid den tree, what ailed you to bump his head against it, because you fancied he had a hankering after the apples. If you did not wis i him to watch the riot ous blood that was continually deepen ing from reach bloom into the flush of l the rosiest sea shell and fading back ! a-ain in the widow's fair cheeks, why did you hint at paint? And, oh, idiotic muslin cap! that catching him in one of his secret eye inquisitions must needs read him a lecture three times a week on the folly of falling in love, the vanity of the things called widows and the utter frivolity and worthlessness of this widow in particular. Under such circumstances, even if she had been as ugly as Hecate, what could the poor man do but fall in love with her? There was no help for him. He was only obeying a law that governs our sex. Winter had mergea into spring, gray and gloomy with mists and storms still, but with fresh odors in the air and occa sional faint twitters from the orchard, aud everywhere sounds of trickling water and the glad sight of the fresh Teen grass peering timidly up from patches of snow and mud. Without all was bustle, father, George and the men o-etting ready to start for the upper dam, that was hourly expected "to go" in the freshet; within, Widow Patty going around in her usual sunshiny fashion and Mrs. Frost a little more northeasterly in her movements than ever and furiously out of patience with the "freshet," George, the widow, herself and every thing about her. The widow being handy, and happening to look more pro vokingly pretty than usual, on her wa3 poured out the vials of her wrath. "Don't want to interrupt" (with im mense stateliness), "but if you've done looking after the men (withering em phasis), "I'll thank you for them eggs. The peddin's waiting." Widow Patty, who had stopped a mo ment in the doorway to glance after the retreating wagons, started to cross the kitchen, but half way was almost knocked out of existence by the bound girl, who rushed in, breathless and com maless, as usual, exclaiming: "Oh! Miss Frost! hurry! hurry! hurry! Be as quick as yon can. Old Dan the creek bags mill flour men why don't you run?" all the time dancing about the kitchen and snatch ing down pots and pans of all descrip tions, apparently with a vague intention of making herself useful in some inex plicable way. Mrs. Frost turned up her nose and went on with her pudding. "She was always simple and the bustle has set her crazy, and no wonder," said she. But Widow Patty thought differ ent, and in the course of half an hour put the girl's half-uttered sentences to gether, thus: "Tne mill, then, was in danger, and if they wanted to save any thing out of it no time was to be lost." It was Mrs. Frost's turn now to ex claim : a"The mill going! My goodness! and all them things stored in the loft there; and them great, lazy men off to the upper dam, like a parcel of foois, in stead of staying to home and minding their business!" Here, you, Sally but what's the use of talking to her? You (turning to Patty) come along with me. I'm going to save what I can, if only to shame the men. ji . "But the freshet the daageri" ex- claimed Patty. "The" "Oh, stay at home, if you like!" terrupted Rachel, contemptuously. m "I want no cowards or lazybones along with me. If anything happens to me it won't be of much account, anyhow. Reuben can soon get a new wife, and if you're safe I s'pose George would think it all the betfer if I was out of the way." Patty flushed deeply, bur, she was not the woman to let Rachel Frost go alone on such an errand, and the muslin cap had scarcely reached the first turn ing when the obnoxious ringlets were beside her. As may be imagined, they had littie disposition to converse, but even if they had the roar of the creek, now a black, swollen torrent, and the grinding, crackling and crashing of the huge masses of logs and ice rushing by would have drowned anything softer than a speaking trumpet. A few mo ments of quick walking brought them to the mill (one of the red, shaky struc tures, perched on almost every respectable brook in the State), and Patty's heart beat fast, as they entered it, partly at the thought of danger and partly with the conviction that the gauntlet had, at length, been thrown down and was com menced between herself and George's mother. The goods of which Rachel had snokeu were in the upper loft and con- sisted of clothing and furniture for wmcn nacuei iiau no room in me uome stead hardly worth, Patty thought, all this peril of life and limb; but she made no comment, obeying in silence the brief directions of her mistress, who worked with furious zeal, apparently careless or insensible of the fact that the whole building was quivering and trembling from base to summit. Suddenly came a rush and a gurgle. Patty started. "Gracious! what is what? The stream is rising! "Stuff I" panted Rachel, as with her cap off, her hair down, her face covered with dust, she tugged at the huge chest in the corner. The stream won't raise this half hour. Come here and help me. I want to get out " She was interrupted by a second ter rific roar. Then caoie a gurgling and heavy thuds, as it logs striking against the building, and a shiver and tremble aud then a curious swaying motion all the time the roaring, and grinding, and gurgling growing louder. a3 though in some inexplicable way they had come closer to It. Patty left the trunk and ran to the window. "What is it?" asked Rachel, still tug inn:! at the brass handle. ; No answer, only a bowed head and a fijrure standing motionless, as if turned to stone. Rachel got up and went toward her. "What is it? Has the " then as she glanced out of the window "Oh, my God!" The mill was moving down the stream. Down sank Rachel Frost. All her cour age gone, every thought swallowed up in fear, wailing, moaning, groveling on the floor. Then life came back to the still figure by the window, and stooping down Patty wound her : arms about Rachel's neck, and all her soft wealth of curls, escaping from the comb, fell down like a veil around her who had so long made them a taunt and sin. "God is here!" whispered Patty. "So is death!" shuddered Rachel. "Hear it thundering and rushing out side. How shall I meet God? Will He have mercy? I had none. I came here full of wrath and bitterness against yon, who had never injured me." "Hark!" exclaimed Patty, and, still in the very beating of their hearts, the two women listened breathlessly. Once more above the dash, and the gurgle, and the grinding and cracking and thun dering came that faint, shrill sound. Patty sprang to the window and threw "Saved! saved! They see us. They have boats they are coming. On your knees on your knees! 1 say, and thank God for His mercy !" And there, in the outpouring of that solemn thanks giving, old prejudices melted away, old grievances were forgotten, and, clinging together, the women watched as with one heart and soul, the frail boat strug gling to their rescue through huge float ing masses that a hundred times would have crushed it into atoms had it not been for the skill and nerve of those who guided her. But when, after an agony of suspense vthat seemed a lifetime, they were at last within hearinrjr distance of the anxious watchers a new difficulty arose. How was it possible to transfer the women to the boat? To arrest the progress of the building drifting with that mad current was, of course, not to be thought of; to fasten the boat and let it drift, even for a moment, at the mercy of floating ice, equally impracticable. Precious mo ments were being wasted in discu'sion, when with one bold stroke George brought the boat close under the window at which the women stood. "Jump!" he shouted. "It is your only chance." "Jump!" echoed Patty, pushing Rachel forward. "Be quick the boat is swinging round already. Rachel glanced fearfully dark heaving mass of water back. "No; do you go first, to be lost let it be mine. I out and on the shrank life is If a have but a few yeare more. What does it mat- ter?" Patty hesitated. Argument was use less with Rachel, whose terror was so extreme that if left to herself she would have perished in the mill rather than make the required exertion; and even the seconds were precious, fraught as they were with the chances of life. "Jump!" shouted George once more. Patty was a little woman, but now she seized Rachel around the waist and pushed her through the window as if she had been a child, following herself with the quickness of thought. Rachel fell into her husband's arm3 Patty lighted like a bird on one of the benches, and then what a shout went up from those who had crowded to the shore and witnessed the scene, breathless and motionless with anxiety! Not one word spoke Rachel Frost in all the toilsome row homeward net a syllable of reply did she vouchsafe to all congratulations of friends or neighbors ; not once did she open her mouth till fairly within her own doors. Then she suddenly walked up to the astonished Patty and dropped on her knees before her. "Here, where I have sinned," said she, solemnly, "I ask pardon of God first, then of you. For all my injustice and unreasonable prejudice, you good, noble, true hearted little woman, for- t give me. Just fancy how the neighbors, who had accompanied them home, and the bound girl stared! and how the story spread through the village with as many ver sions as there were narrators. Mrs. Frost kneeled down and asked the Widow Pat- j tys pard0n, and the widow had boxed her ears. Mrs. Frost had gone on her knees to the Widow Patty not to marry her son George, and she had vowed she would marry mm in spue ot ner; jjirs. Frost had begged the Widow Patty on her knees, to marry George, and Patty had said she would die first. Only on j one point were they all clear and unani mous; that Mrs. Fro&j; haa kneeled to Patty. Of another point they were equally sure a week afterward; that the Vidow Patty had become Mrs. Frost but it was reserved for the present day and for your humble servant to give the true and authentic version of the feud of j the Cap and Ringlets. New York Mer cury. Why We La-igh. The theory of Herbert Spencer as to the reason why we laugh when pleased or amused is the one usually adopted. He argues that all highly wrought feel ing, being nervous excitement, haa to spend itself somewhere, and does, in lact, spend itself in muscular action. Thus, an angry person, frequently clenches his fist, or stamps his foot, as if to beat his adversary or tread him un- j dcrfoot; but when, as in the case of the j feeling produced by anything pleasing or ludicrous, no appropriate muscular j action is pointed out, the pent up ex citement vents itself through the readiest : and easiest muscular channels. Yankee ! Blade. t An Old L&ifA Way. A happy and vigorous old lady in New Hampshire gives these rules for the secret of the success of eighty years living on this planet, which brings so much care and worry to many of her sisters: "I never allow myself to fret over things I cannot help. I take a nap, and some times two, every day of my life. I never 1 take my washing, ironing or baking to j bed with me, and I try to oil all the vari j ous wheels of a busy life with an im ; plicit belief that there are a brai'and a ! heart to this great universe, and tha I can trust them both." St. Louis Re : public Latin Races in Sooth America. If North America is the adopted homo of the Teutonic races, not less so is South America the goal for which the Latin peoples make. The great pre ponderance of English, Irish and Ger mans which we see in the northern con tinent has no existence in the southern. It is to Italy, Portugal and Spain that countries south of the equator look for their reinforcements. Twenty years ago the foreign-born Portuguese in Brazil were 49. S per cent, of the whole, the Germans 1S.8, but of late year the rela tive numbers have undergone a change. The overflowing population of Italy has chosen Brazil for its settlements. From 1SS3 to 1SS7 the Italian immi grants were 33.5 per cent, of the whole number; the Portuguese come next, with 29.9, and the Germans have dropped to 5.9 per cent., being almost equalled by the Spaniards, with 4.7. In Argentine the Italian ascendency is eves more marked. From 1S79 to 1SSS, G7.4 percent, ot the immigrants were Italian, 13.2 were Spaniards, 8.9 Frenchmen ami but 1.7 Englishmen. In 1S07 the popu lation of 000,000 in round figures cor., tained no less than 3S0,000 Italians, and in 1890 alone 39,122 were added to it. Edinburgh Review. FOOD MADE ME SICK 4 "First I had pains in my hat kamlclut. tl. n Cv 1 (L11IL iH.ll li-' V - eat, the iirt taste would make me deathly sick. Of coum I ran down rapidly, and lost i" lbs. My wife and family were much alarmed and 1 ex pected my tftvon earth would te short. Hut a friend advised me to take Hood's Sarsaparilla and soon my appetite came back, I ate heartily with out distress, sained two pounds a week. I took eight Ixittles of II. !' arsaparil!a and never felt better in my lif.-, Hood'sXCures To-day I am cured and I give to Hood's Sar-,i- parilla the whole praise of it." C. C. grocer, Canisteo, N. V. Vim i! HOOD'S 1'IIjI.S eure Nausea, Sick Ilea. hi. Indigestion, Biliousness. Soll by all druggists. WIFT'S SPECIFIC For renovatincr the entire svstpm Jti C. C. Abel. .1 .i:.: .1 n ' Il in th 1 VI us nr L ejual ( ' lilood, whether of scrofuh mal rial origin, this preparation haa no vL PJH Ji W MARK "For eiphteen mon.'hs I had an eating sore on my tongue. I wa treated hv lest local physician. but obtained no relief ; the sore gradually crew worse. I finally took S. S. S., and was entirely cured after using a few bottles." c li. McLEMOBE, Henderson, Tex. Treatise on Rlood and Skin Dis eases mailed free. The Swift Specific? Co., Atlanta, (ia. N Y N U '2 OR. K I LMCR'S fCidney, Liver and Bladder Cure. Rheumatism, Lumbago, pain in joints or back, brick dutia urine, frequent calls, irritation, inflamiiriun, gravel, ulceration or catarrh of bladder. Disordered Liver, Impaired digestion, gout, bilJioiH-hefi'iache. SWA !IP-UOOT cures kidm-y hfhu;tiel, L,aGrijpCi urinary trouble, bright's dwaA Impure Blood, Scrofula, maiaria, gen'l weakness or d'-hi;!ty Ouurnnter - Ue content of One Bottle, ii ri". efited, Irugfn.-its will roluiKl to you the pri' t- tiii. At DrnsrgletN, 50c. Size, $1.00 Slz "Invalids' Gtilde to Health"free-ConFu!t..t! .n fre Dr. Kilmeb Sc Co., Dingfi amton, N. i " I am Post Master here and kee; a Store. I have kept August Flows' for sale for some time. I think u -a splendid medicine." E. A. Bond T) f t : i : -v -v t it. a., jravinon centre, in. FVi f n 1. mr-rxCi'Z If it fails, evervthino- fails. t'A heart, the head th hlnnH the nerve3! all go wrong. If you feel wrong look to the stomach first. Put tj right at once by using Aug, riower. it assures a good ay-. a uuu ingestion. , , . I, mini . i T") SHILOH'S XURE. !i CnrM Crmmnmnti nn ronphJ. Cronp. - Throat- RnM W H Tf w w a r' "i1 UUI I fit J. N, KI.EIN, Hellev ill'-. 'August Flower" i j A r f I
Fisherman & Farmer (Edenton, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 20, 1893, edition 1
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