Carolina Watchman

              b — «■ « f ___ ••"* nu miii iii ii ___■!■ i iii ■•_■•■■ • •« •— •- • mmmm lhe carolina watchman vol viii third series salisbury ts c april 5 1877 no 24 rough ways transome himself was a | quiet man and never cared to make many friends so we dwelt like strangers among '■ our neighbors up in our thatched cottage which was as different from the new brick houses about it as wc were to the factory people living in them but i never felt j strange with children nor they with me ' so when transonic was laid up for his worl i opened a little dame school j for the lads and hisses living in the houses ! down the dingle they soon flocked to me like chickens tit the cluck-clucking of an old mother hen till i might hare filled my kitchen twice over bul my outside number was thirty and as they paid me threepence a week each transome and i managed to get along what with him working out the unit anil mc taking in line sewing from the ladies of lie town transome was always proud of my learn ing and now he was glad for me to earn money in that way instead of hy washing as many a woman has to do when her man is ailing but he did not like little ones as i did : they pottered him he said ami he uever knew how io manage them so after a while whenever he could not go to work he liked better to lie abed up stairs till the evening school was over than sit in the chimney-nook listening to the ham of their lessons which always sounded in his ears like a score of hives swarming i used to he afraid he would be dreary and sad ia those long days whilst i was as busy as could lie down stairs but he said he had thoughtscome into his head that he could not put into words for he had always heen a man of few words fewer than any i ever met with and as he got older they be came fewer still maybe he'll know how to tell me those thoughts of his when we meet in heaven 11 — a xew scholar i have only one thing to tell you about my little school the only one strange thing that happened to me all the years 1 kept it it had been a sharp frosl in the night so sharp thai the panes in lhe window lutle diamond-panes were frosted over with so many pretty shapes that i almost wished they could stay there always i quite wished thai the children were ihere tpsee them when i opened the door all the great broad sweep of country stretching before me was lightly powdered over with snow and long icicles hung like a ragged fringe io the eaves if the dingle hud been there how sparkling and beautiful every tree and shrub would bave shone in the early light ! but the last lit of the dingle was gone and a new red brick house stood at the end of our garden m?t ill the low bushes about our place wen silvered over and glit red in lhe frosty sunshine which thev caught before it reached tlu houses below i had overslept myself that morning for the night before i'd been poring over a book that had been but me till my can dle burned down in the socket and left me in the dark i could not put that boo down : it stirred my heart so bul now i began to feel as if i'd been wasteful for candles were not plentiful with us nor money to buy them though i was loath to blame myself at any rate i was behind lime and 1 could noi tarry at the door but must hurry more than usual in getting breakfast over and redding up the kitch en in time for school inside the house the place seemed dark and dreary and everything was cold to tin touch of my fingers i began to think of how ailing transome was and how the frosl would bite him lie had not been to woik for a fort-night and the rent was running ou all lhe while the rent was my heaviest care as long as that was paid it did not matter much to me whal 1 had lo eat and drink so ihat we made both ends meet and kept out of every man's debt bul tran some's pains had been very bad all night and i knew well he could not go out in such a bitter frost if the rem was uever paid well i was down-hearted that morn ing : and i felt as if i could not afford to pul more than a spoonful and a half of tea in our little black teapot which stood simmering on the hob i'd been in such a glow over thai book the night before it seemed as if it made me all tiie lower that morning i had wauled to be doing some thing good in the world : trading for the lord so as to offer him something more than my mere day's work which seemed to be all for myself and transome but the glow was gone i felt what a poor old creature i was and that i could do noth ing at all extra for him ally !' i beard transome calling from the room upstairs arc yo asleep again ! aw'ni fair parched wi drought the floor between that room and the kitchen wasnotbing but boards and beams so i could bear if be only turned over in bed i bad no need to stir from the tire to answer him ; i only raised my voice a little coming coming in a minute i called back the tea's in the pot anil's only standing to get the strength out aw niver see such a lass for a book i beard him mutter to himself hoo for ge s all when hoo has a book that was quite true but hearing bim say to himself and him in such pain was ten times worse than if he had rated at me ay ! i'd been selfish all in my glow of wishing to do good in the world what better could i do than attend to the duties the lord had given me lie had given transonic to nurse aud take care of and wait upon and i'd sat np lato in the night and overslept myself in the morn ing while he was parched with thirst and racked with pain then there was the school ; and the clock was pointing to not far from school-time and me nothing like ready if i could not fulfill these little duties how could i ask the lord to set me a greater one ? i poured out transome's tea and car ried it upstairs he did not seem in the best of tempers but i took no notice of his j contrariness for bow could he be cheerful when he could not lift his hand to his mouth and i had to feed him with every morsel and every sup he swallowed at last he smflcrl upon me a very little smile and hade me go down to my breakfast i had hardly time to eat it before my scholars came trooping rip from the dingle the mischievous little urchins bringing with them icicles hidden under thier jackets which soon melted and trickled down in pools on the floor i had need of patience that morning after that water was wiped away i sal down behind my round table in the chim ney-nook with my bible and a catechism a hymn-book and a primer before me there were four benches across the floor besides a small one at the end of the loom where i put my best scholars because they were out of my sight there all were full till there was scarcely elbow room and much care and thought it gave me how to scatter tiie most troublesome of them among the go id ones like the tares and lhe wheat growing together until the harv est not but llmt i could have picked out the tares well enough bui i knew it would never do to let them all congregate to gether maybe the lord knows it is bet ter for the wicked themselves to be scat ti red about among the good ; so i set the tares about side by side with the wheat hut kept them all where i could have my eye upon them the snow was beginning to fail pretty thickly with luge lazy flakes drifting slowly through ihe air for there was no wind when a boy near lhe door at once broke iu upon a spelling-class tliat st 1 in a ring before inc there's somebry knockin at th door he said in a loud voice it mus have been a quiet knock for i had not heard it : but then my hearing was not as quick as it used to be when i could hear the bubbling of the river be low the dingle besides the lads and lasses were all humming their tasks i lold the boy to open the door and he jumped up 1 riskly glad to put down his lesson-book if only for a minute sti when the door was open i could see noth ing hul the large flakes floating in and lhe children catching at ihem eh but he's a gradely little chap!1 cried the boy at the door in a tone of surprise tell liim to come in i called bidding the class make way for our visitor wei well ! i never saw such a beauti ful boy before nm since he was about seven but rather small and delicate for his years his eyes were as blue as the forget-me-nots that used to grow along the river-side ; and his brown hair was sunny as if it had a glory round it some how i thought all in a moment ol'liow the lord lesus christ looked when he was a blessed child on earth the little fellow had on a thin thread-bare sailor's suit of idiie serge — so thin that he was shivering and shaking with cold for the snow had powered him over as well as everything else he looked up in my face half smil ing though the tears were in bis cyc ■ and his little mouth quivered so he could not speak i l_eld out my hand to him and called him to me in my softest voice wishing it was as soft as it used to le when i was young what are you come for my little man i asked i want to come to your school,1 he said almost sobbing ; but i haven't got any money : and mrs brown says you'll not have me without money who is mrs brown ?' i asked feeling my heart strangely drawn to the child she's taking care of me ho answered lill father conies back father 11 have lots of money when he conies home but he's been away a long long while ; and nobody's kind to nic now sometimes mrs brown says i must go to the work house father brought me a parrot last time he came ; but it hew away one night while i was asleep and nobody ever saw it again i fell the tears start in my own old eyes as he spoke and all the scholars looked to mc as if there was a mist in the room poor boy !' i said and where is mother i might bave sparcdhim the question if i had thought a moment his little mouth quivered more than ever and the tears slipped over his eye-lids and ran down his cheeks nevermind i said hastily and draw ing him near to me closer and closer till his curly little head was on my bosom you shall come to school my little lad yet before the words were off my tongue i began to wonder how it could be man aged there was not a 6pare inch of bench not even at the end of the loom where my best scholars sat only the day before i had refused steadily to take in a boy fcr fourpence a week : ay ! six i pence a week his mother offered me if i | would only have him and keep him out ; of mischief besides there was transome . laid up and the rent running on and six pence a week ready for pie if i'd take it stili it would cost me nothing to teach j ihe child and it came across me as if the j lord was saying this is what you can ■ do for me 1 yes this was the extra work : i had set me to do after that if anybody i had offered me five shillings a wi ek to ! send that child away to take another i , could not have done it i'll be sure to pay you some day said . the boy anxiously ; when you've taught me | to write and ask father to come home quickly he went away in the ship a : long while ago ; but he's sure to come i imme if i write him a biter so i want to make haste and barn may i begin i this morning ?' vou shall begin very soon i : nswer ed ready to laugh and cry together at his eager way and his belief that his father would come back if he could oniy wi ite him a letter ; hell me what your name is my father's captain john champion he said lifting his little head proudly and my name's philip ; but father calls me pippin and you may if you like mrs brown calls me all sorts of names . creep in here pippin i said making a place for him close beside mc in the chimucynook there was barely ro tn for me to stir but the little lad kept so stiil and quiet with his shinning cyc lifted up to me and his face all eager with hearkening to what i was teaching the other scholars that i did uot care about being crowded there was a small low chair of willie's my only boy who was dead that was kept trung no lo the hook in tlie strong beam by a bit of rope it was a pretty chair painted green with roses along the back and many a time nty scholars hid admired it but no child had ever sat in it since willie died when morning school was over i climbed up on one of the benches in spite of my stiff limbs and unfastened it tin tears stood again in my eyes for i fancied i could see my boy sitting in ii by the side of the lire-place and watching me while i was busy about my work hut 1 dusted it well and set it down just in willie's own place in the c'dmuey nook where pippin was still quietly squatting on the floor ; for he had not run away the moment school was ov er like the other children there p i said that's your seat now i my little lad it belongs t my willie | who's been iu heaven these twi nty years waiting for mc and father nobody but a good boy ought to sit on a chair that be longs to him now he's an angel i'm going to be a good boy now and an angel some day said the child smiling up in my face the lord help him ami me i said to myself as i put the room to rights after ihe lads and lasses it's not that easy to be good ( to be continued the mystery of a oakey hall his friends believe that lie has ban murdered spe ial dispatch to tl.e i>1 iln times new york march 22 — tbe most thor ough search for some trace of ex-mayor oakeyhall fails to establish the least due there have been all kinds of ru mors afloat concerning him the one find ing most believers being that he was fish ing near islip l i but word has been received from there that he i.s not there ex-congressman meade shows a letter from mr hall written on friday after noon in which hall promises to meet meade on the next day meade thinks that his let ur amply shows that hall had no intention of absenting himself from the cily and he thinks hall i.s dead persons who have taken charge of mr hall's of fice say they have discovered proof that he worked late into the night on friday and among other things wrote a list of questions that were to be propounded to those he mr meade and ex-judge solo mon were to examine for admission to the bar on saturday < n the other hand one mania a printer ays positively that he saw hall in an up-town street on monday and mr sexton a well-known architect says that he rode down town with mr hall in a horse car on tuesday all this simply makes the mystery more mysteri ous mr hall's most intimate friends say they believe he has been murdered the fishing interest in tiie catawba and yadkin rivers his excellency governor vance yes terday addressed a letter to governor wade hampton of south carolina call ing his attention to the act recently pass ed by the general assembly ofthis state in regard to the artificial propagation of lish and asking him to use his endeavors to have the obstructions to the passage of lish removed from the catawba and yad kin rivers after they enter his state he reminds governor hampton that the leg islature of his state some years ago pass ed an act looking to the removal of such obstructions and he uow asks him to have this law enforced and to give him such other co-operation as will enable him to promote the propagation offish in the two streams named the governor states in his letter that it is hoped to have at least a million young fishes shad and salmon placed in these streams be tween this time and the close of the sea son rale h seics oakey hall's disappearance tweed's old friend and puppet buns away or commits suicide special dispatch to tin _•;,;:■,.. times newyojsk march 21 excitement i.s at fever heat in political theatrical aud legal circles this evening over the sudden and unexplained disapperance of oakey hall ex-mayor ex-actor and ex-member of the tammany ring mr ball was last seen in this city by the janitor of the tri bune building iu which he had an office his confidential clerk had left bim half an hour before and mr hall was then in the best of humor he talked with tiie clerk about his law business and made exten sive arrangements for a hard day's work oh saturday when a ease in the court of appeals was to be prepared the clerk says ihat mr hall's manner indicated that lie m s fo be on hand early ou saturday and no one was more astonished at his absence than be and this was increased as hours wore away and no communica tion was received from the absent lawyer his personal friends aud the detectives were immediately informed of this and they have searched ever since but not a clue have they obtained recorder hack ett mr vandcrpoel hall's former law partner and douglass taylor who are probably as intimate friends as mr hall had say lhat they believe he has been foully dealt with it's known that mr hall had seven hundred dollars in cash in his pocket the evening he disappeared that he had taken from bank that day they think that lie was pat out of the way for this money others believe that he has committed suicide thev say thai he has of late been depressed in spirits everything he put his hand to after the downfall of the big ring has failed he said lo ri colder hackett less than a week ago that it seemed impossible for him to win a law case all the judges were against him ami lie had lost them all fe irs nf exposcre the return of ingersoll tweed swee ney and other ex-ring magnets and the belief that prevails that there are to be new developments in tiie ring frauds have unquestionably worried mr hall who as mayor is believed to have wink ed at the rascalities although nothing has bei n proved against him then too there lias been a theatrical scandal freely circulated in which his name is coupled with that ofa fair young actress and this is said to have greatly annoyed him i hese facts are mentioned by those who helieve that mr ball has committed sui cide the actors who were well acquaint ed with him fiske daly brougham and others think tliat in a sudden whim he started for europe charles s spencer thinks he lias gone oil secretly to begin life anew under a new name fudge bra dy thinks he has gone crazy and has flung himself into the river two or three men have been found who say hall said to them tliat he was going out of town for a week but his confidential clerk will hear lo nothing of the kind believing that mr hall has been foully dealt wiih super intendent walling is hall's personal friend lb has put the entire detective force to work none of those who had enjoyed mr hall's fullest confidence can under stand what tiie sudden disappearance means mr hal was on trial three times for neglect of duly as mayor but was not convictied tlie jury twice disagreeing ami the trial once being ended by a juryman's death raising a tempest in a tea-pot we regret to see says the ansonian that numbers of the papers of the state persist in unconscious misrepresentations ofthe bill as passed by the legislature for from the positions taken it is evident that they do not know the law as one of the effects of these false impressions created by misstatements by the papers of our state we note tbe action of the deal ers and manufacturers in baltimore in which tbey propose to advance tin juice of fertilizers 1 inr ton to purchasers in our state to meet the tax the men in that meeting were misled as to the true purport and meaning of the act and it was done by our own people for at the time of their meeting they could not have known what the law is and we venture to assert that there was not a standard fertilizer represented in that inciting if the representative knew what was requir ed by the law it is calculated that the farmers of north carolina paid last year three mil lion dollars for commercial manures and upon reliable data it is estimated that one million dollars was paid for sand we learn that a baltimore linn and we suspect it was represented in that meet ing sold to one of our farmers last year a large lot of fertilizer which upon actu al and careful analysis showed that it contained 5 per cent of pure sand and although the farmer has instituted pro ceedings for damages he will be unable to recover owing to the defect in our laws on that subject no manufacturer can or will object to the law provided he deals in a standard article — he will see that it drives out com petitors in spurious and worthless goods and gives him the amplest protection in the sale of meritorious fertilizers the grange not only requested tlie legistnture to impose this tax but it framed and pre sented to that body all the essential fea tures of that bill and by it tbey are willing to stand or fall aa a curious discovery faf lately been made while repairing thbjupusr formerly occupied by the jaudnn ctab during the great revolution and kmywfc as the hotel de londres in the rne _&*. hyacinth st honoic the club whtt guided the destinies of the revolution dm iug some few year had oftaeo lx_auted of allowing the ambition of rnbespinrne and other leadtis to progress so for atid no farther and the members uy vote had passed a law whic'i entitled the majority to exclude from any partir limid ijft.ii u any particular member whose interest might lead him to sway the opinion of the club robespierre whose ambition had rendered him an ob ject of suspicion had often been voted out of the assembly ; and it has been a mattes of sui prti_e tv-4bjjai<torm of th time lha he could so long maintain his influence in spite of tlie violence of the opposition thus permitted the secret is now revealed v small room a hiding place in th thickness of the wall has just besn discovered opening by a trap door inio the very hall where the deliber ations were being carried on and hence he could listen to the measures to be ta ken against him and thus forearmed have power to defeat them it is evident tliat this hiding-place must have been occupi ed by robespierre and when first enter ed by the workmen tbe tracts of his pres ence were still visible in the journal which lay upon the table and the writing-paper fiom wlich had been torn a small portion as if for the purpose of making a memo randum tiie only book which was found in the i"ac was a volume of florain,open at the second chapter of claudine it was covered with snuff which had evidently been hak n from the readers shirt-frill and bore t stimony to the truth of histo ry which records the simplicity of tin lit erary taste f robespierre bis presence seemed still to hang about that small space as t'lough he had quit d it but the moment before and singular enough the marks of the feet as though he had re cently trodden through tin mud were till risible on the tiles of which tlie floor ing is composed — potter's american montldy this is not the only christian country in which the ashes of the dead are not al ways cherished with reverential interest in the foulest corner ofthe dirty solitude of st paul's convent garden london lies samuel butler the author of hudi bias without stone or mark to distin guish his grave in the same place ly ing under a cake ofthe accumulated filth of half a century covered with old shoes broken bottles and offal flung from neigh boring windows are the graves of sir pe ter lely dr walcot peter pindar car karl of somerset sir robert strange the greatest engraver england has ever seen the dramatists wycherly and southern and the actors haines estcourt and mack lin in st tiiles-in-the-fields all trace of his grave lost lies andrew marvell and crumbling to pieces in the same deso lation i the monument of chapman the translator of homer in st anne's sobo william hazlitt reposes among rubbish and bottles and bis headstone removed to another spot in obi st pancras tombs gape open in a filthy solitude of nettles and elder t ices containing illustrious law yers soldiers statesmen and noble french exiles : ai d near by is tbe stone which marks the graves of william godwin and mary wollstoncroft whose bodies how ever bave been removed in st martins in-the-fields have passed away all traces ofthe graves of nell gwynne john hun ter the gre.it surgeon and mrs centlivre all this were scarcely worse than the fact that over the graves of john milton pope thomson akenside and rolingbroke pews have been built according to vari ous needs and that tbe sites cannot now be recogniztd if such desecration is al lowed the glares of men of national repu tation what can be expected for the rest of mankind . sens ix flames from tie now vork world the catastrophe in the stiller system — llie conflagration of a star — which caused so much commotion — in astronomical cir cles a few mouths ago is made the subject of an article in belgravha march by rich ard a proctor he says that this catas trophe happened probably a hundred years ago -. the messenger which brought the news to us though travelling at a rate sufficient to circle the earth eight times in tbe course ofa second had trav ersed millions upon millions of miles be fore reaching us last november ha sim ilar accident happened to our sun the creatures o:i that side of the earth turned towards him would bedestroyed in an in stant and the rest very quick after wards the heavens would !•<• dissolved and tbe elements would melt with fervent heat the question i asked whether the earth is iu this danger and whether warn ing would be given of the coming destruc tion the answer may be gathered from the facts mentioned in the article there have been other conflagrations before that which was made known last fall the first on record — observed by hipparchus — occurred 2,000 years ago it was seen blazing iu full daylight showiug that it was many times brighter than shins the | blazing dog-star it was call a new star because it hud ever been invisble until ita conflagration made its light temporarily visible the next new star or stellar conflagra tion appeared in the region of the heav ens between ccphet.sand ca.-siopera three times a d.945 icttf ]:>?__. and is expect ed to be seen on fire again before long this star remained burning at its last ap pearance for sixteen months it appear ed larger than jupiter and brighter than sirius it did not attain this lnstre grad ually but shone forth at once in its full size and brightness mtlf 11 had been of in stant citation in lfi9t fobrirhis obser ved a new star in the neck of tiie whale constellation in september 1804 a new one was discovered in ophinchus in 1670 a new star appeared in the constella tion.cyguus remaining visible for nearly two years in 1s4 another was seen which has continued in existence since its apparent creation by the aid ofthe tel espectroscope—an instrument combining the telescope and the spectroscope it was found thai the increase in the star's light rendering the star visible was due to the abnormal heat of the hydrogen sur rounding that remote sun bnt it could not be so easily decided whether tlm hy drogen was aglow with the heat of the star or whether absolute combustion was in process in other words was it as a red-hot piece of iron or like a red-hot coal ? these star conflagrations it is be lieved are caused by contact with other heavenly bodies meteoric flights travel ling on eccentric paths or those in atten dance of the comets the meteors atten dant on a comet continue to follow in its path years after the comet has disappear ed the tail of the comet of 1*4.1 must actually have grazed onr sun newton's comet nearly approached it at any time we might be visited by a comet mightier than either travelling on an orbit inter secting the sun's surface followed by flights of meteoric masses enormous in sizo and many in number which falling upon the sun would excite its whole frame to a degree of heat far exceeding what he now emiis we have evidence of the tremen dous ie at to v hich the sun's boj face would be excited in such a case in 1659 two meteoric masses came into contact with the sun the downfall of these two bod ies only affected the whole frame of the earth at the very time when the sun had been thus disturbed vivid auroras were seen where they had never been seen be fore accompanied by electo-maguetic dis turbances all over the world in many places the telegraph struck work the sig nal-men received severe shocks and at boston a flame of tin followed the pen of bain's electric telegraph which writes the message upon a chemically-prepared pa per this was the effect of two meteors the effect of a comet bearing in its flight many millins of meteoric masses falling upon the sun—should that take place — can be understood our sun seen from some remote star whence ordinarily he is invisible would shine out as a new sun for a few days while till things living on our earth and whatever other members of the solar system are the abode of life would inevitably l»c destroyed if a com et came out of that part of tbe constella tion taurus arriving in such a time as to fall upon the sun in may or june the light ofthe sun would act as a viel and we should be instantly destroyed without knowing anything about it hit fell in november or december we should see it foi weeks and astronomers would l>e able to tell us when it wonklfall upon the sun the disturbance upou the sun would he tem porary . but there would l>c no studentsof science left to record the effects the chances are largely against such an ac cideut our sun is one among millions any one of which would become visible to the eye under su h an accident yet du ring the last i.0oo years less than twen ty such catastrophes have been recorded mr proctor moreover reassures us in an other way he says in effect that all but one of these conflagrations have apj>eared in the zone of the milky way and that one iu a region connected with the milky way by a well-marked stream of stars : that the process of development is still going on in that region but that if there in among the comets travelling in regular attendance upon the sun one whose orbit intersect the sun's globe it must have struck before the era of man and that in our solar system we may fairly believe that all comets of the destructive sort have been eliminated and that for many ages still to come thy sun will continue to discharge his duties as fire light aud life of the solar system a snd sight is w itnesscd every day at the executive mansion in the crowds of poor women who flock the ante-chaniber hoping by personal appeal to president hayes to obtain employment in the pub lic service many of them have in the last few days pushed their way into the rooms where mrs hayes receives and pit eously appealed for her persona interces sion in their behalf it has become so embarassiug that orders have been issued providing for admission to mrs h^yea only by card — washington letter a farmer in rowan county request u to ask some agricultural wrixter for a remedy to kill button wood (?) in meadow he says he has lived 55 years aud always been a fanner and has never been able to kill it although he has tried 6alt lime and unhes char democrat faithful in little by he sb y st rett on author of lost glp c i — oft of my col'xty if it would do anybody good to bear my story they are welcome to it : ay ! kindly welcomr i'm too old now lo be of nny ilfto as a guide : but maybe t ean still be useful as a finger-post that points the way folks should follow i married out of my county ; my people nid out of my station for my father held a small faun and the squire's lady had seen that 1 learned to read and write and o line sewing hut«ny husband wa only a hanilloom weaver from the north a man that could weave and sing righl well but never cared much for lh inside ofa book but he was true and faithful to the backbone till i learned from him something of his faithfulness and knew il was the same as abraham's who was call ed the father of the faithful words that were always on his lips were faithful in little faithful in much ;' and it seems to me now lie is gone those words are now my chief comfort wherever transome ig he is faithful still it was a daring thing to marry so far away from own's people in those days there were no railroads and the coaches were too dear for us even the outside of them where in the summer you were covered w illi dust and parched with thirst and nipped with frost and wind in the winter transome and me did not once think of taking the coach after we were wedded the coach ran ttlniost straight from my village lo his ; and though the journey took us the best part of three days and he was winning no money ii was the cheapest way of travelling it seems to me when 1 shut my eyes and think of it as if it had all been in some nthe world when transome and me were young and the warm sunny days were full of light and brightness such as the nm never gives now-a-days as if the sun itself is growing old the boat floated slowly along the canal whilst we walked together till we were tired gathering the blossoms from tlie grassy banks or we sai on the boat plucking the water-lilies up hj their long roots how gently we were rocked as the water rose beneath ns in the locks i can hear the rush and gurg ling of the water now ! and with my dim old eyes shut i can see transome looking upon me wilh a smile such as i shall nev ermore see again lill i behold his face on the other side of death's dark river smiling down upon me as i reach the shore ah ! there are no times now like those old times ! it was in the cool of the evening he brought me to his house standing on the brow ofa low hill with what he called a dough and i called a dingle full of green trees and underwood running down o a little sparkling river in the valley below wecould see far away from the door and feel the rush ofthe fresh air past us as it came over qelds and meadows and swept away to other fields and meadows the cottage was an old one even then built half of timber with a thatched roof pitch ed very high and pointed and with one window iu it lo light our upstairs room downstairs was one good-sized kitchen with a quarried floor and the loom stand ing on one side not a bit of a parlour or spare chamber such as pd been used to i knew transonic thought often of that ; imi the place grew so dear to me i ceased to care about any parlour as for the garden we worked in it all our span time till many a passer-by would stop to look at the honeysuckle and travellers1 joy climbing up the wall and banging over far window in tin roof and at the posies 111 the garden the hollyhocks and roses and sweetwilliams which made lhe air all with their scent afier a while hen father mid mother were dead i for "'" my old home and it seemed lhat i had never dwelt anywhere else and musl dwell there till the end of my days nothing opened to us nothing save the birth an|l the short short life ofa little child of "':'"-. ur only child who died when he as seven years old and could just read tohis hither at the loom it was thai y'-arth sky began to grow greyer and rewind to hlow more chilly about the mm rrausomc was ten years older 1,au »"'. and he began in some way to eel.his age now the boy was done and j8 time went on things became duller and er;audh_8 rheumatism grew worse n w«i-sc till iu i,;l to give up his h mid at last he could do little more than u.,t therein by being odd man for who knew he could trust """ wi'li untold gold ll this while the country side was nj1 v 4i's,it ll:ul transome and )' tlle railroads had been made and ginnery invented and ali the little vil w were turning into towns as if by jpc there had always been a few mills the course of our little river but thei v°ar in°10 ail(1 more sl,1'i,i1^r,,l»"iii i u smoky chimneys and street s wei e . ''•• and bouses built until the dingle me a row of straggling cottages weal pup tmv:mis our pretty l toan vlllai)sil washocausc belonged n,'v and sh<e in a differ ent hl°n but noneof thecountry folk i w hlew w«c took heartily to me and a.vs felt shy with them and thoir