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For the Reporter.
PASSED ON.
BY W. ti. S.
lae house is still, dear sister,
And a line of care has passed
Vcross your pure white forehead, *
Siiiß I have kissed it last;
ever as evening shadows creep
.rt ! Lie hail, you sit and weep—
iv's a pain in your heart, my sister,
V thought that is sad as the sorrow deep.
You smile no more, dear sister,
The day goes darkly by,
For the i yes that made your sunlight
Xi ath the myrtle blossoms lie ;
The spring buds break and the roses bloom,
And you hear the lark l'rom your lonely room,
And YOU loved them all, my sister,
Bat vou cannot smile with a soul of gloom.
You sing no more, dear sister,
The rose-red lips that made
Suit prattle-music near you,
With your other loves is laid ;
Where the oak trees sigh and the violets hide,
Arc three little graves ranged side by side,
And you loved them so, my sister,
That you cannot sing since your treasures died.
0 weep no more, my sister,
But sing me the sweet refrain
That your Granville and Frank and Walter,
May never hear again ;
When the tempests rage and the whirlwinds moan,
Think not that they are under the cold, gray stone,
Three cherubs have passed on, my sister,
To welcome you up to God's throne!
Sfclrcted ItoU.
THE MINISTER'S SANDY AND JESS.
I. —WHAT SANDY WAS TO BE.
Sandy, Mr. Stewart the minister of Clo
v nbird's only son, was to be a minister |
ke iiis father and grandfather, who had ,
• itli wagged their heads in the pulpits be-.
liv liirn. Second-sight had seen him in m j
Geneva gown and pair of bands from the
liiijc lie wore long-clothes and bibs.
With the great end in view, many a day
Sandy came in fear and trembling from
Making hour-tree mills on the Hare Water,
a:; 1 playing shinty with his sister Jess and
tin- neighboring farmers' sons on the coun
ty mads, to construe his Cfesar or his Sal
.;-t in the minister's little brown bed-;
r "M.
Fifty years ago, Mr. Stewart was a Tory 1
uu autocrat in rusty black, walking j
"ver his parish, not unlike Dr. Johnson, in
•V utV-brown, taking a turn down Fleet j
Street. Mrs. Stewart had been an orphan,
with a very slender patrimony, —a parlor
ar.l rof the Miss Allardyces, the old la
dies who from time immemorial had kept
I boarding-school in the neighboring
town of Woodend. Mr. Stewart had met
his fate at a Woodend subscription ball,
when it was customary for ministers to
tiry to balls their white neckcloths and
-.very shoe-buckles as a testimony in fa
v <r of innocent enjoyment, and as a protest
against Dissent aud Jacobinism. There he
succumbed in a single evening to Miss
■h an Clephane's dancing, though he did
no y dance a step himself.
The marriage was a happy oue. Mrs.
•newart paid the minister loving homage
as the greatest and best of men. and called
an lord and master to the extent of keep
g her bedroom scrupulously free for his
' iy. and spending the choicest of her ac
-1 iDjilislunents in needlework on the plaited
is of his shirts and the open-work of his
•nils. In his turn, Mr. Stewart was ten
( 11 Ins wife, brought home what he sup
S' d her taste in gaudy caps and speu
rs. as connubial gifts, on the striking of
liars and the meetings of Presbytery,
sfuud, and Assembly ; took notice of her
i*. her (lowers, her work, —for Mrs Stew
4ri was almost as great in knitting bed
-'jvers, tent-stitch-worked chairs, and cam
' flowers, as Mrs. Delany ; humored her
-her habits, squiring her three evenings
I " week in summer, when she walked with
r shawl over her head to the Karnes, to
the sun set behind the Beld Law, until
servants and the country-people called
'• !f ' beaten footpaths through the corn and
U\ c ' over " ie Minister and the Leddy's
'"he mause children consisted of Sandy
I!i 4 Jesse ; aud it was a common remark
T ''-h regard to the two, that Sandy should
•we been Jess, and Jess Sandy.
>andy was not a scapegrace and a num
ill. He was a bonnie laddie, very like
s mother both in her sweet, fair, sunshi
— face, and her sanguine, sensitive, im
aginative temperament. He was a shade
1 nghtless as regarded a divinity student
prospective, with a greater bent for
'wing on the margins of his books and
pies, and every scrap of paper that he
!|| l come by, wonderfully faithful trau
- ripts of " the hills, and woods, and
"'• earns around" Cloveuford, and clever
' -meal likenesses of the master, his
e-iool-fellows, and his acquaintances, than
r severe reading.
, lj ut his father was persuaded that se
ntences aud application would come to
'inly with riper years ; and except in one
-stance, when he punished the lad with
'"sterity for depicting the manse cat with
pair of bands round its neck, holding
' 1 from a water-stoup to the cocks and
"' H and the rats peeping from the stacks
. utlie glebe yard, calling the sketch a pro
(Jand scurrilous jest, he did not trouble
much about Sandy's shortcomings,
s, ' v w:ts *' ,e a Pph- of the Minister's eye,
r ' tly j while openly, the father address
,4 ' 8011 by the comprehensively dispar-
Vng corruption "ruin," a term which, in
E. O. GOODRICH, Iublisher.
VOLUME XXVI.
Scotland, with the alteration of one letter,
converts the honorable appellation " man "
into an ostentatiously condescending and
slightly contemptuous soubriquet. "O,
miu, is that all you're good for ?" " There
was more lost at Flodden, miu." And it
was true Sandy would have worked a more
wonderful sampler, and proved a meeker
and more gracious woman than Jess, for
whom, with a spice of chivalry, all Mr.
Stewart's outward favor was reserved.
As for Jess Stewart, she would have re
sponded splendidly to her father's wishes
but for the trifling accident of having been
born a girl, coupled with the Apostle Paul's
prohibition to a woman. She would have
made a fine minister, frank, straight-for
ward, imperative, with a passionate tongue
when she was roused ; having a real rel
ish for the solid study of history and ge
ography, in opposition to the practice of
the spinnet and the execution of satin
pieces in the Miss Allardyces' course of in
struction
But there was nothing unwomanly or re
pulsive in Jess ; on the contrary, as she
outgrew the boisterousness of her child
hood, —when she distressed her mother by
playing more uniformly at boys' games
(Sandy in his tender years took up with an
old-fashioned, hard-featured doll, Jess's re
jected property), and destroying three
times as many clothes as Sandy, there was
the prospect of her growing up a woman of
noble proportions. There was a charm in
Jess's fresh, candid, intelligent face —her
short, thick black curls in a crop about her
brow and neck ; her tall, broad-shouldered,
firm, erect figure—at least equal to that of
Sandy's bright blue eyes, sauguire com
plexion, and slight, but active, long ele
gant limbs.
Jess was the young queen of the parish,
and the position lent her an ease, a power,
an air of born authority and command
which became the girl, and which did not
leave her when she passed from the yeo
men's houses to those of the gentry, where
she could claim no precedence of birth and
breeding, and where, on the other hand,
her best cloth mantle and white muslin
frock were homely and out of date. Y'oung
Adam Spottiswoode, of Birkholm, his own
master, who opened the balls at Woodend,
would rather dance a reel with the minis
ter's than a minuet with the member's
daughter. Jess could dance minuets, too ;
a little French dancing-master, a poor emi
gre, had imported the true Minuets de la
Cour at the service of the public of Wood
end, but Jess's reels were something inspir-
ing.
Again, Jess, with the few old and ailing
men and women, who were '' on the box "
(that is, parish paupers), with bairns, with
her mother's endless train of calves, chick
ens, dogs, cats, pigeons, laverocks, linties,
was also " beyond compare." Jess, carry
ing a stray lamb in her arms, or a broken
winged bird in her bosom, showed unmis
takably whether she was womanly—that
is, motherly—or no.
Clovenford kirk and manse, with moss,
lichen, and weather-stain, doing some
thing to redeem the born and bothy order
of architecture, lay in a nest of wooded and
bare hills. The parish did not have the
grander and more peculiar features of
Scottisn landscape,—neither the height nor
the breadth of savage mountains and
moors, where the eagle rears her bloody
beaked young, and "the whaup cries drea
ry." Hut it had the Fir Tap and the Held
Law, the Hare Water and the Den of
blackthorn and whitethorn, crabs and geans,
ending in the feathery birks and stiff, dark
green boxes and hollies round the old white
house of Hirkholm. The fields were all
heights and hollows, sunshine and shade,
like dimpled faces. There were hedges
tedded with dogroses and honeysuckles ;
water-courses yellow witth kingcups; leal
dykes nodding with harebells, and twitter
ing with the swallows nestling beneath
their eaves. At Clovenford manse the ser
vant lasses still span and sang hallants
every afternoon, on the bink by the kitch
en-fire in winter, and at the back-door in
summer. Audio Cornfoot, the minister's
man, lived with his deaf wife and his cat
echeesed laddie, the minister's herd, in the
thatched cottage at the manse office, came
to the house every evening and was pres
ent with the family at "the worship," when
the minister commended in house, people,
kirk, county, and the world to the care of
the Great Creator. Andro came again at
sunrise to waken the las es, and to speak
in at the minister's window and tell him
what the weather was like, never thinking
to avert his light gray-green fishy eyes
from the night-cap, broad-boarded, and with
a large bow right over the forehead, which
bore the picturesque Kimarnock cowl lov
ing company on the pillow.
The cloud, the size of a man's hand, in
the Clovenford sky began with the expense
of Sandy's college term ; notwithstanding
they were met without flinching, bravely
borne, and every member of the family
took a part in defraying them.
The minister trudged many a long and
weary mile to do duty at neighboring kirks
and canonical meetings, in place of hiring
a gig from the Crown in Wooden. Mrs.
Stewart gave up much of her visiting, for
the reason that she was delicate and un
able to accompany the minister in his long
walks. Jess could walk with the best,and
thought nothing of crossing the parish, six
miles from one end to the other, and danc
ing half the night afterwards ; but Jess
was called on to resign all the little advan
tages and enjoyments such as even the far
mers' daughters could enjoy. These were
her going to Edinburg and lodging with
her Aunt Peggy, the writer to the signet's
widow, in the High Street, and there learn
ing to bake pastry and cut out patterns for
her gowns ; and her attending the dancing
and singing classes for grown-up ladies
and gentlemen, opened every winter in
Woodeud. The very table at the manse
was rendered plainer and more frugal on
Sandy's account. The box which travelled
every fortnight with the carrier to Edin
burg seemed to carry away all the dainties.
Mrs. Stewart relinquished her little cup of
tea in the morning, protesting she found it
bad for her nerves, and made a fashion of
supping porridge along with the minister
and Jess. The minister denied himself his
bit of Stilton cheese and glass of Edinburg
ale after dinner, pretending they made him
sleepy. Jess had to be more sparing in
preserving the fruit, though it was hang
ing in abundance in the garden, and the
whole cost was the sugar ; and to substi
tute for the old home-brewed wines, the
currant, ginger, elder-flower, and elder
berry—welcome cordials to the sick of nar
row meanß, who knew no better—the still
humbler beverage of treacle beer.
At first all these sacrifices, regarded as
temporary in their nature, were made light
bf. But as sessions came and went, and
Sandy brought home no honors, got no bur
sary to ease the burden, no private teach
ing, except once a summer tutorship, they
pressed more heavily.
The fact was, that young Sandy Stew
art, in the most critical years of his life, in
place of settling down to hard head-work,
was flightier and more prone to trifling—
as it was regarded at Clovenford—than
ever. He showed himself addicted to com
pany ; not bad company,—a true son of the
manse could not at once have degraded
himself so far without great moral corrup
tion, — but to free mixed company,—the
company at harvest-homes, fairs, and the
clubs, in which Woodend aped more fa
mous places. Gentlemen of higher degree
than the minister's Sandy, —the young
Laird of Birkholm, for instance, —and even
ladies, the eccentric old dowagers and spin
sters of the period, frequented these scenes
blamlcssly ; but no one of them was to be
a minister, a P. esbyterian divine, whom a
single breath of scandal was sufficient to
blast
The word was not widely applied then ;
but Sandy was tainted with Bohemanism.
And the lad was still fonder of making fac
similes of the rural and genial life, inani
mate and animated, he loved, —the very
materials a waste of money, and the prac
tice, which might have been amusing
enough to his family in other circumstan
ces, miserable child's play in a lacking di
vinity student.
Lines of care began to be drawn on Mr.
Stewart's full massive face. He left off,
with scornful magnanimity, inquiring into
his son's progress in his classes, when the
result was invariably disappointment; but
he suffered his tongue to scoff bitterly at
the degeneracy of the times, and the effe
minate puppyism of "birkies," who put
their pride in tying up their heir with rib
bands, and sporting tights and silk stock
ings.
The ribbons at least were cheap, and the
stockings were the fond transfer of the last
pair of six-andthirty snillings' worth, —a
present to Mrs. Stewart, in handsome dis
count from the gallant old bachelor, the
true kirk man, in his snuff-brown wig and
purple rig and fur stockings, whom she
called genteelly ber "merchant" in Wood
en. Mrs. Stewart would ten times rather
see the stockings on Sandy's legs than her
own, that for once she might have the
pleasure of looking on her bonnie laddie in
the guise of a fine gentleman, as gentle
men at the Queen's levees and state foot
men still figure. It was neither just nor
generous in Mr. Stewart to taunt Sandy
with bis mother's silk stockings, and to
add the gratuitous reflection that puppies
neither cared where their indulgences came
from nor to what they led ; but the minis
ter's big heart was sore.
On the other side, Sandy had a hasty as
well as an affectionate temper, and was in
constant danger of rebutting unfair asper
sions, and speaking back to his father words
ill-considered and unjustifiable in the cir
cumstances.
Mrs. Stewart, moving gently about in
her little apple-green shawl, filled in with
what manufacturers and women call
"pines," and the cap of her own netting as
fine as gossamer, a light cloud about a face
still fair and delicate—too fair and delicate
for her years—was kept with both body
and mind on the rack, acting as a piteous
mediator between the two sovreigns.
Yet Mr. Stewart had not swerved for a
moment from his purpose, and never sup
posed that Sandy had committed any grave
offence to forfeit what was in a sort of in
heritance. Mr. Stewart knew full well
that many a distinguished divine and good
man had begun life by sowing a crop of
wild oats. Could the minister have been
aware of it, his heart might have been com
forted by the seeming coincidence that
gray old St. Segulus was ringing at that
moment with the characteristic exploits of
" Mad Tarn L'liaumers," as Scotland wa9
yet to ring with the virtues and renown of
her great orator and philanthropist. And
the minister would spare his bread as well
as his cheese ; he would take off his coat,
and break stones by a dike side for day's
wages, if the laws of the kirk and his par
ishioners would suffer it, sooner than Sandy
should miss his natural call to do his fam
ily, his parish, it might be his country and
the world, credit.
It was Jess who came to a different con
clusion. It was Jess who declared plainly
in her secret chamber: " I don't believe
our Sandy will ever be a minister. Better
he should not if he do not put more heart
into his work, or he will cover himself and
us with disgrace, and bring down his fath
er's and mother's gray hairs with sorrow
to the grave. It is not long since Mr.
Home was put out of the kirk for writing
a play ; and Sandy has songs, though he
has no sermons, flying loose about his
room when I go in to make up his bed ; it
is well it is not one of the lasses who sees
them. He brags of going every night to
the theatre when Mrs. Siddons is in Embro'
(I wonder where the price of his tickets
comes from); and I am sure, if the Assem
bly put out one man for writing a play,
they could not in honesty keep in another
whose pencil is never out of his hand. I
catched him drawing the bethel and Miss
Mysie Wedderburn below the book-board
at the very summing up of the "heads" last
Sabbath ; and his excuse was, he must
have their heads out of his head to be at
peace to listen. He cares a deal more for
the glint of a sunny shower, or the gloom
of a thunder-storm, or the crook of a scrag
of a tree, or the red of a gypsy's torn cloak l
than ever I could see he cared for the
bearing of a doctrine. What about the
minister of Duddingstone ? I would like
anybody to tell me wuether he was not li
censed, presented, called, and placed, be
fore he was known, to be gentle and simple,
as a drawing-master ? If Saudy would but
mind his own business. I have no faith in
a man, however quick, who does not mind
his own business. There is Birkholm, as
good a judge of a straight rig, or a round
stack, or a head of nowt, as ever a farmer
in the country ; yet he kept his term at an
English university, and he is a member of
the Hunt, and well his red coat sets him."
I was Jess who grew to grudge, almost
fiercely, every shilling spent on Sandy.
REGARDI.ES3 OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER.
TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., MAY 17, 1866.
Yet deal gently with Jess's memory, for
she was no miser, and she was the chief
sufferer. She had her father's sense of jus
tice outraged without any of the blindness
which accompanies a besetting desire; and
Jess was sensible that Sandy's idleness
and extravagance were fatally depressing
the balance in which hung the fortunes of
her life.
Adam Spottiswoode of Birkholm liked
Jess, and there wan no constraint on his
will beyond the influence of his three sis
ters, whom he could shake off or bring
round to submission at his pleasure. Jess
Stewart would be poor, but not an unsuit
able mate for the Laird of Birkholm ; and
far beyond tho consideration of the white
house at Birkholm being a grand down-set
ting for a portionless bride, Jess liked the
comely, courteous, frank young man, not
hall so clever as Jess herself, or Sandy,
but attractive by the goodly glamour of his
superior birth and breeding, with the man
ly, honorable character corresponding to
j it. Adam Spottiswoode and Jess Stewart
| had a kindness for each other ; but so long
| as it was no more than a kindness, or ten
i der iancy, it was no stigma on their liking
j to say that, if the couple had no opportu
| nity of meeting, it would die the death of
j starvation, gradually on the woman's part,
j more rapidly on the man's. There should
; be a middle ground for the liking to wax
; unto love. There was no middle ground
I left to the couple ; for the kirk, where
Birkholm took his seat in the Birkholm loft,
i fronting the minister's bueht, and where he
j and Jess were not always so engrossed
■ with the sermon, (in spite of Jess's despot
| ism to other people with regard to their
( treatment of the "heads") as they should
i have been, was not a middle ground.
I'oor Jess had no longer gloves, shoes,
sashes, to go to the subscription balls in
j the Woodend and the parties in the coun
! try-houses ; and when the manse family
had to dismiss one of the servants, and
| Jess's hands red and her face blowsy with
continued houswork and garden-work, she
.felt more and more that, without the com
j monest finishes to her toilette, she was no
longer fit to appear in refined society and
be Birkholm's chosen partner.
Birkholm attempted one great advance.
Spas wete then the height of fashion, not
foreign spas, but native, and not so much
as fountains of health, but as favorite re
sorts, where men and women saw the
world, met, every morning in the pump
room, drove together every afternoon, two
by two, in high-pitched gigs, to all the
show-houses and breezy views in the
neighborhood, and danced together a couple
of long country-dances without sitting
down, under the countenance of a master of
the ceremonies in puinps, and with the
powder in his hair not blown away by the
| tempest of the French Revolution. Birk
holm bribed an accommodating married
cousin and one of his sisters, by their share
of the gayety, to invite Jess Stewart to ac
company them for a fortnight to one of the
Wells. The excursion would have been
like an admission to the Elysian fields,with
the temple of Hymen at the end of the prin
cipal vista, to Jess. It would have been
the gala of the girl's life, and she would
assuredly have come home from it engaged
to Birkholm, and counting herself, with
reason, the happiest woman in the world.
But noblecae oblige in all noble ranks.
The project had become simply out of the
question. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, and Jess
herself, would not submit to Birkholm's
paying Jess's share of the travelling ex
penses, which, in the days of travelling
post, were a serious calculation to families
with moderate incomes. But the Stewarts
could and would have made a push to af
ford the necessary sum, had uot Sandy's
delay at college and want of success ren
dered it impossible And Mr. and Mrs.
Stewart were deficient in their duty to
their daughter,and madeno account of Birk
holm's attention to her, because they hail
forgotten similar passages in their youth
in the trouble of their middle age.
Jess said to herself she did not want
anybody's regrets, and told the world she
did not care for jaunting, she found too
much to do among the spring calves and
chickens at the manse, and carried her
high head as high, and looked as strong,
stately, and blooming as ever. And the
worst of it was, Birkholm believed her, and
was as much piqued as the slightness of
the relation between them permitted. The
prosperous young laird could not altogeth
er comprehend the straitness of the manse
finances, and draw his inferences from
them. He went off in a huff to enjoy him
self at the Wells without the hard-hearted
mistress for whose sake he had planned
the holiday, not so much to enjoy himself
either, as to prove to Jess that he could be
foolish to the top of his bent without her.
So Jess was cut to the heart by hearing
rumors presently, now that Birkholm was
on the eve of his marriage with a beauty
and fortune he had been introduced to at
the Wells ; now that he and other young
men had indulged in frolics for which the
license of the time offered some apology,
but which were far more culpable than any
follies of Sandy's, and, to put the matter
on the lowest footing, were far from be
coming in the young man who aspired to
the honor of being the minister's son-in
law.
And is Birkholm were utterly lost to
Jess, or if he should turn out wild and
come to grief, would not Jess lay that to
Sandy's charge as the heaviest portion of
the debt he owed her ?
ll. WHAT SANDY WAS.
"To desert his post and renounce the
highest commission a man can carry,—to
starve, or feed off the great as a painter of
false faces, an idolater of stocks and stones,
—give me patience."
The minister had need of patience when
he received the letter with the tidings that
Sandy, after passing through four of his
years at college, with what effort the fami
ly knew, had abandoned the ministry and
adopted the profession of a painter.
Mrs. Stewart and Jess were auiazeff and
appalled beyond presuming to say a word.
It is difficult to measure at present the
headlong dowu'all of Sandy in those good
people's estimation. Though they were
familiar with his passion from his earliest
years, they had not once contemplated the
probability of his taking to painting as a
calling.
It was not that Mr. Stewart hail any pur
itanical scruples as to the lawfulness of
art. But Mr. Stewart had no scruple as to
the lawfulness of dancing, and that would
not have reconciled him greatly to Sandy's
becoming a dancing-master. Actually, old
M. Le Roy, the dancing-master, had a far
more accredited and dignified position, both
socially and morally, at Woodend than any
of the poor portrait painters who had found
their way there. And it was not the pov
erty of the trade that was its crowning
drawback.
The minister, like all wise, honest men
—Scotchmen particularly—had a due res
pect for wealth and its power ; but the
ministers of the Kirk of Scotland had also
need to be disinterested, and their hardy
habits of mind and dody were not much
affected by the prospect of poverty. But
though the minister had little doubt that
Sandy would starve, or lead a life of miser
able dependence, perhaps vicious comprom
ise, it would not have made a material diff
erence in this case had the minister been
acquainted with the changes in the world
which put a moderate competence within
Sandy's reach, and caused the step he had
taken to he within the bounds of right
reason. Sandy was right that, in the Ed
inburgh of the day, not only was there a
wonderful and glorious maiden literature
among "the writer lads," whom the minis
ter classed together rather contemptuous
ly, but painting, as an art, for the first
time coyly blushed and smiled as a true
sister of the belles lettres, which Mr. Stew
art's cloth did not altogether despise when
Robertson wrote history and Blair rhetor
ic. Runcimau's painting of the Clerks of
Penicuik's house seemed to promise a new
era never attained, such as prevailed at
Venice when Tintoretto and Paul Veronese
painted marble palaces both within and
without. Better still, a national academy
was really to confer status and impart in
struction where youthful genius was con
cerned. But what was the struggling in
fancy of art to the minister, who indulged
iu the pictorial faculty in his own way, and
quite another way, by drawing Sandy, as
he had fondly hoped, standing np severe
in youthful beauty, not unlike one of Mil
ton's archangels, swaying by the breatli of
his mouth, for their salvation, multitudes
in simple country kirks, or in what the
Reformation had spared of rich abbeys and
cathedrals in towns and cities ; and again,
Sandy, haggard, and sordid, and soiled,
haggling with Jewish dealers, whom Mr.
Stewart. confounded with pawn-brokers ;
or journeying wearily from town to town, |
taking in scanty orders, and flattering ob- J
sequiously the owners of the puffed-up, vnl- j
gular, mean faces, which he copied with ;
secret disgust?
Mr. Stewart did not absolutely forbid j
Sandy his course, or threaten him with ut- j
ter reprobation if he pursued it,
the minister's reasonable sul, in the middle |
of his wrath and mortification, revolted at \
violence. He wrote to his son in stern re- j
proach and rebuke. Sandy defended him- j
self like a creature at bay, and* refused to
force himself into the priesthood, for which !
Providence could not have designed him, j
since he had not the necessary qualifica-}
tions.
Mr. Stewart, beside himself, accused
Sandy of going nigh to blaspheming,—-of
proposing to take Providence into his own
hands. Afterwards, Sandy came home for
a few days ; a wretched visit, when his
father never addressed him directly beyond
helping him at table, and his mother "look
it in his face" as if her gaze would melt
stone. Sandy was now as stone to his
father ; for the sweet temper of the lad
had been goaded and driven to the point
wheu sweet tempers steel themselves to
doggeduess, less hopeful and tractable in
its despair, than any amount of original
arrogance and perversity.
Sandy saw that he had broken the fami
ly circle and rendered himself an alien from
it. lie said to his mother and Jess that he
had better go away and tight his battle for
himself, and it would be best that they
should not hear the accounts, because these
would only cause fresh strife and condem
nation. Some day they might see he had
not been so far wrong.
Sandy watched his opportunity ; and one
fine harvest-day, when the minister, the
servants, and Andro Cornfoot, who had
borne "the young min : ster" on his back
many a sunny morning laug-syne, were all
abroad engaged in the ingathering of the
glebe corn, he kissed his mother aud shook
hands with Jess, and departed without
other leave-taking or blessing out into the
world, which is generally cold enough for
a penniless painter, taking no more with
him than the stick and the wallet of one of
the wandering apprentices ol the kindly
land of Wilhelm Meister.
When the minister returned and found
his son's place vacant, he must have guess
ed that Sandy was gone ; but he made no
sign. Wandering apprentices are gener
ally good pedestrians, and wonderfully en
dowed with friends ; but when the first
touch of frost nipped Mrs. Stewart's gilly
flowers that night, Sandy's mother dreamt
of him lying down like Jacob, with a stone
for a pillow, but unlike Jacob, the heir of
the promises, under the serene sky of Pal
estine, rather unlike an Esau, getting his
death of cold, shivering under the gray
clouds and the bleak wind, by the bare
Scottish roadside.
The door of the manse was thenceforth
shut against Sandy ; his name became a
forbidden sound, not only as that of "a
stickit minister," —and the Scotch, with
grim humor, deride a failure in proportion
as they applaud an achievement it a fa
vorite line, —but as au ill-doer. Neighbors
carefully avoid mentioning Sandy to his
family, while they talked loudly among
themselves, aud pitied the poor Stewarts
for the sore hearts they had got from the
prodigality and ingratitude of their only
son. The minister strove manfully not to
visit his pain on the blameless women-folk.
Peace was restored to Clovenford, but
the heart-achc there was acute and inces
sant. Almost the only event—and it was
never spoken of—was the arrival of one or
two foreign newspapers, with foreign post
marks, addressed to Mrs. Stewart, in San
dy's handwriting, which proved that San
dy had managed to go abroad to follow his
studies, possibly as a travelling tutor ; but
his family knew nothing about him.
Mr. Stewart could not have interdicted
the newspapers, and he did not throw them
into the fire; but he never looked at
though he alone could have read any part
of their contents.
To Airs. Stewart and Jess the newspa
pers were a dead letter ; but the moment
the minister had gone to his books, Mrs.
#3 per Annum, in Advance.
Stewart unfolded them, spread them out
on her knee, regarded them wistfully, as if
their hieroglyphics could tell her something
of Sandy ; and had they only anticipated
modern improvements, and conveyed to
her woodcuts, they might have spoken to
her in appropriate language of her boy.
At last she folded them up, and deposited
them carefully where they were all found
one day, in the drawer with her best gown,
and the silk stockings, as if she waited for
the arrival of a scholar at Clovenford, who
would bring the key and unlock the mys
tery occcasioned by the confusion of
tongues.
Sandy went away in the harvest, and to
wards the close ot the next spring Birk
holm, who had been in Edinburgh all the
winter with his sisters, came back to his
own house, and called afterwards at the
manse to announce the marriage of his el
dest sister to a gallant naval captain, who
had been fortunate in obtaining prize mon
ey, was on shore only for a short time, and
as he was already posted to another ship,
and had no time to lose, had so expedited
matters, that he wanted Mr. Stewart to tie
the knot at once at Birkholm.
It is said that one marriage lightly turu.s
a roving fancy to the thought of another ;
and with more shyness to cover his anxiety,
the young laird alluded to his sister's ex
pectation that Miss Stewart would pay her
the compliment of being present at the cer
emony, and would remain a few days at
Birkholm as company for his youngest sis
ter Nancy, because Efiie was to accompany
Betsy, the bride, in the capacity of brides
maid.
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were altogether
propitious, and very glad that Jess, who
had lived a dull life for a long time, should
have the grand entertainment, when to
their astonishment Jess declined the invi
tation for herself with the greatest prompt
ness and decision, wished Miss Spottis
woode every happiness, hoped to see her
before she left the country, but regretted
that she had engagements at home which
wuu'd prevent her having the honor and
pleasure of being one of the company at
the wedding, and staying behind the other
guests to console Miss Nancy, thus send
ing off the laird with another Ilea in his ear,
and vowing vehemently to have nothing
more to say to "a haughty hizzie," though
she was his early flame, Jess Stewart, ten
times over.
"Jess, my woman, why did you give
Birkholm the cold shoulder when he came
or. so kind an errand ? If it is for the pur
pose of making yourself of consequence,
and if the lad be of my mind, he will not
put himself in your power again, madam,"
observed tbe minister, with affected light
ness.
"He need not try it," answered Jess,
| shortly.
| " And you are not like your mother,"
persisted the minister, chunking his cue ;
"for if I know her, she would be wild to
this day to dance at a wedding, and have
the chance of walking every day in Birk
holm Den, when the birks are shaking out
their buds and smelling like balm, and there
j are more primroses on a single bank than
in the whole of her garden beds."
"My dancing days are over, minister,"
Mrs. Stewart told him, with a shake of (he
head, but a smile ; " still a wedding is a
bonnie sight, and I should like very well to
walk down to Den again and fill my lap
full of primroses, and sit aud rest, and get
a drink, and gather the hyacinths round
the Lady Well, and listen to the throstle in
the thorn, if I were as good a walker as I
have been. I cannot think what has come
over our Jess "
(CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK.)
How MEN " BUST UP." —Men with unas
suming wives never fail. It is the hus
bands of such ladies as Mrs. Dash and
Lady Bril'iant, who find themselves face
to face witli the Sheriff, and certain mys
terious documents adorned with red tape
and a wafer big enough for target exercise.
The desire of a New York feminine is to
outshine her neighbors, not in mental ac
quirements, but in gingerbread ornaments
and gold edged shutters. If Mrs. Dash
gets up a game supper—woodcocks stuff
ed with gold dust—Lady Brilliant takes
the wind out of her sails by getting up an
other in which the prevailng dish will be
birds of paradise swimming in gravy made
of melted pearls. It is this rivalry, and
not the dabbling in railroad stock, that
brings ruination to the fast men of Wall
street. The "ill-fortune" of which they so
much complain, is no more nor less than a
brainless wife. If they would come back
to happiness, they must direct their atten
tion, not to the fluctuations of the stock
market, but the ruinous absurdities of their
own firesides. Thousand dollar repasts
dont pay ; while the merchaut who pur
chases one hundred dollar handkerchiefs
for a "duck of a wife," should not wonder
if the time eventually comes when a "goose
of a husband" will lack shirts, or be but ill
supplied with them.
DOMESTIC HADITS OF OUR ANCESTORS—
Erasmus, who visited England in the early
part of the sixteenth century, gives curious
description of an English interior of the bet
ter class :
The furniture was rough ; the walls un
plastereil, but sometimes waiuscotted or
hung with tapestry ; and floors covered
with rushes, which were not changed for
months, the dogs and cats had free access
to the eating rooms, and fragments of meat
and bones were thrown to them,which they
devoured among the rushes, leaving what
they could not eat to rot there, with the
draining of beer-vessels, and all manner of
unmentionable abominations. There was
nothing like refinement of elegauce in the
luxury of the higher ranks ; the indulgen
ces which their wealth permitted, consisted
of rough and wasteful profusion. Salt beef
and strong ale constitued the principal part
of Queen Elizabeth's breakfast, and similar
refreshments, were served to her in bed for
supper. At a series of entertainments giv
en in York by the nobility in 1560, where
each exhausted his invention to outdo the
others, it was universally admitted that
Lord Goring won the palm for the magnifi
cence of his fancy. A description of this
supper will give us a good idea of what
was at that time thought magnificent: it
consisted of four huge brawny pigs, piping
hot, bitted and harnessed with ropes of sau
sages to a huge pudding in a bag, which
served for a chariot.— The Silent Revela
tion.
MARRIAGE AND HOUSEKEEPING. —There are
a great many persons that are just begin
ning life, that are newly married, and that
are just turning, I trust, away from the
hotel and the boarding-houe to keep house
--for I think that next to virtue, housekeep
ing is the most desirable thing for newly
married persons. You will perhaps wonder
what I have to say upon this. I have this
to say ; that to any young person's life this
is a change so marked, it is a step so differ
ent from*any other, that if you know how,
with the peculiar and critical step of your
life, to take also one other, it will not be
alone marrying for time—it will be love for
eternity. Is there anything more beautiful
than true love ? No flowers show such col
ors or exhale such fragrance as does a true
love, that makes one's life a sacrifice for
and a service of another. Is there any thing
more beautiful, this side of God's throne,
than two right-minded and purely loving
souls beginning to live together, each one
servant in love to the other. Now, just
beginning a virtuous wedded life is not re
ligion ; but if you make this the first step
in a series, it will do more to lead to a
Christian course of life, than perhaps any
thing possibly could.— Beecher.
NUMBER 51.
TELI. YOUR MOTHER. —I wonder how many
girls tell their mothers everything ? Not
these "young ladies" who, going and from
school, smile, bow, and exchange notes and
• cartes de visite with young men who make
fun of you and your "pictures speaking
in away that would make your cheeks
burn with shame, if you heard it. All this,
■ most credulous and romantic young ladies,
they will do, although they gaze at your
' fresh young faces admiringly, and send or
give you charming verses and boquets.—
No matter what "other girls do," don't j ou
do it. School girl flirtation may end disas
; trously, as many a foolish, wretched young
girl could tell you. Your yearning for
some one to love, is a great need of every
woman's heart. But there is time for every
; thing. Don't let the bloom and freshness
of your heart be brushed off in silly flirta
tions. Render yourself truly intelligent.—
And, above all tell your mother everything.
'Tun," in your dictionary would be indes
! cretion in hers. It will do you no harm to
look and see. Never be ashamed of her,
who should be your best friend and confi
dant, all you think and feel. It is very
strange, that so many young girls will tell
every person before "mother" that which is
most important that she should know. It
is very sad that different persons should
know more about her own fair young daugh
ter than she herself.— Fanny hern.
FIVE O'CLOCK IX THE MORNING.
The dew lay glittering on the grass,
A mist lay over the brook,
At the earliest beam of the golden sun
The swallow her nest forsook.
The snowy blooms of the hawthorn tree
Lay thickly the ground adorning,
The birds were singing in every bush
At five o'clock in the morning.
Bessie, the milkmaid, merrily sang,
For the meadows were fresh and fair—
The breeze of the morning kissed her brow,
And play'd with her nut-brown hair ;
But 'ft she turn'd and look'd around,
As if the silence scorning ;
'Twas time for the mower to whet his scythe,
At five o'clock in the morning.
Over the meadows the mowers came,
And merry their voices rang,
And one among them wended hi.; way
To where the milkmaid sang ;
And as he linger'd by her side,
Despite his comrades' warning,
The old, old story was told again
At five o'clock in the morning.
FUN, FACTS AND FACETIiE.
i T . ; •
; hv is a doll like jelly ?- Because it is
made with eyes in glass.
A man who was boasting that there uev
j er was any rope or cord, whether made of hemp,
1 wire, or any thing else, in which he could not tie
a double bow knot, was summarily put down by
: being requested to tie a knot in a cord of wood.
A Michigander, who was arrested for
stealing a goose, said he found the bird hissing at
the American fiag. and arrested it for treason.
" Pat, can ye tell mo why winter is like a
j dog?" "Faith, Mick, I can't." "Well, thin, it's
| bekase of the coldness of its nose (its snows)."
When is a blow from a lady welcome?—
| When she strikes yon agreeably.
REAL ENTHUSIASM. —Pumps is such a
thorough teetotaller thbt be declares lie would
| rather prefer a watery grave than be preserved in
| spirits.
A COVERT MEANING. —What is the differ
| ence between a bunt and a hot breakfast?—ln the
latter case you come to the cover before the meat,
in the former to the meet before the cover.
WHEN is a sailor most like a thief?—
When he takes a messmate's watch.
A minister having preached the same
discourse io his people three times, one of his
constant hearers said to him after service ; " Doc
tor. the sermon you gave us this morning having
had three several readings, I move that it now be
passed."
MILITARY DEFINITION FOR A KlSS. —Report
at head-quarters.
AN Irishman being in a church where the
collection apparatus resembled elec. ion boxes, i n
its being handed to him, whisoered in the carrier's
ear that he was not naturalized and couid not
vote.
" William, my sou, how came you to
muddy your dress so?"
Willie stopped a moment, ehen, looking his fa
ther in the eye, very soberly asked :
" Father, what am I made of?"
" Dust. The Bible says, 'Dust thou art, and
unto dust thou shall return.' "
•' Well, lather, if I'm dust, how can I help being
muddy when it rains on me?"
A little keen, bright eyed girl of four
years, on a visit one evening, was being helped to
the knee of a gentleman friend, and on being told
by her mother that she was too large a baby to
hold, retorted almost immediately, accompanying
her words wtth an emphatic gesture, "Why, girls
nineteen years old sit on laps, and you wouldn't
call them babies, would you ?"
"Your whiskers are unprofessional," said
a client to his legal adviser. "Why so?" "Be
cause a lawyer can never be too barefaced."
A NEW INVENTION. —The latest invention
is a "palpitating bosom" for the Indies, which is
set in motion by a concealed spring when an extra
display of "emotion" is required.
THE RULING PASSION.—A great financial
reformer is so devoted to figures that when he has
nothing else to do he casts up his eyes.
A railway accident lately occurred,caused
by the axle of a tender giving way, detainiug the
train several hours. A lady inquired of a gentle
man passenger why it was so delayed ; he gravely
replied, "Madam, it was occasioned by what is
often followed by serious consequences—the sud
den breaking of a tender attachment."
WHEN are soldiers like blacksmiths ?
When they are drilling and filing.
A gentleman, talking to another on the
subject of marriage, made the following observa
tion : "I first saw my wife in a storm ; carried
her to a ball in a storm ; courted her in a storm;
married her in a storm ; lived in a storm all her
life ; but, thank heaven, 1 buried her in pleasant
weather."
Why is the James River like a keg of
lager beer?— Because it flows into the Dutch (rap.
" Are them all Bibles ?" asked a country
man the other day in the registrar's office, pointing
to the big volumes of wills upon the shelves. "No
sir," answered one of the clerks, " those are testa
ments."