ways, spent like a child on cakes and gingerbread. People may become accustomed even to that sad nickname an authoress. In process of time the imputed culprit ceased to be shocked at the sound, seemed to have made up her mind to bear the accusation, and even to find some amusement in its truth or its falsity. There was an arch and humorous conscious be construed either way, and left it an even wager whether our little lame girl were a poetess or not. There was no fear of the source failing: for gentle, placid, grateful and humble, considerate beyond her years, and skilful far beyond her opportunities, every one liked to employ Olive Hathaway. The very sound of her crutch in the court, and her modest tap at the door, in-ness in her eyes, on such occasions, that might spired a kindly, almost a tender feeling for the afflicted and defenceless young creature, whom ¦ patience and industry were floating so gently down the rough stream of life. Her person, when seated, was far from unpleasant, though shrunken and thin from delicacy of habit, and slightly leaning to one side from the constant use of the crutch. Her face was interesting from feature and expression, in spite of the dark and perfectly colourless complexion, which gave her the appearance of being much older than she really was. Her eyes, especially, were full of sweetness and power; and her long straight hair, parted on the forehead and twisted into a thick knot behind, gave a statue-like grace to her head, that accorded ill with the coarse straw bonnet, and brown stuff gown, of which her dress was usually composed. There was, in truth, a something elegant and refined in her countenance; and the taste that she displayed, even in the homeliest branches of her own homely art, fully sustained the impression produced by her appearance. If any of our pretty damsels wanted a pretty gown, she had only to say to Olive, "Make it according to your own fancy ;" and she was sure to be arrayed, not only in the very best fashion, (for our little mantua-maker had an instinct which led her at once to the right model, and could distinguish at a glance between the elegance of a countess and the finery of her maid,) but with the nicest attention to the becoming in colour and in form. Her taste was equally just in all things. She would select, in a moment, the most beautiful flower in a garden, and the finest picture in a room and going about, as she did, all over the village, hearing new songs and new stories from the young, and old tales and old ballads from the aged, it was remarkable that Olive, whose memory was singularly tenacious for what she liked, retained only the pretty lines or the striking incidents. For the bad or the indifferent she literally had no memory: they passed by her "as the idle wind that she regarded not." Her fondness for poetry, and the justness of taste which she displayed in it, exposed poor Olive to one serious inconvenience; she was challenged as being a poetess herself; and although she denied the accusation earnestly, blushingly, even tearfully, and her accusers could bring neither living witness nor written document to support their assertion, yet so difficult is it to disprove that particular calumny, that in spite of her reiterated denial, the charge passes for true to this very hour. Habit, however, reconciles all things. Such was, and such is Olive Hathaway, the humble and gentle village mantua-maker; and such she is likely to continue: for too refined for the youths of her own station, and too unpretty to attract those above her, it is very clear to me that my friend Olive will be an old maid. There are certain indications of character, too, which point to that as her destiny; a particularity respecting her tools of office, which renders the misplacing a needle, the loss of a pin, or the unwinding half an inch of cotton, an evil of no small magnitude; a fidgety exactness as to plaits and gathers; a counting of threads and comparing of patterns, which our notable housewives, who must complain of something, grumble at as waste of time; a horror of shreds and litter, which distinguishes her from all other mantua-makers that ever sewed a seam; and, lastly, a love of animals, which has procured for her the friendship and acquaintance of every four-footed creature in the neighbourhood. This is the most suspicious symptom of all. Not only is she followed and idolized by the poor old cur which Rachel Strong keeps to guard her house, and the still more aged donkey that carries home her linen, but every cat, dog, or bird, every variety of domestic pet that she finds in the different houses where she works, immediately following the strange instinct by which animals, as well as children, discover who likes them, makes up to, and courts Olive Hathaway. For her doth farmer Brookes's mastiff-surliest of watch-dogs! — pretermit his incessant bark; for her, and for her only, will dame Wheeler's tabby cease to spit and erect her bristles, and become, as nearly as a spiteful cat can become so, gentle and amiable; even the magpie at the Rose, most accomplished and most capricious of all talking birds, will say, "Very well, ma'am," in answer to Olive's "How d'ye do?" and whistle an accompaniment to her "God save the King," after having persevered in a dumb resentment for a whole afternoon. There's a magic about her placid smile and her sweet low voice: no sulkiness of bird or beast can resist their influence. And Olive hath abundance of pets in return, from my greyhound Mayflower, downward; and indeed takes the whole animal world under her protection, whether pets or no; begs off condemned kittens, nurses sick ducklings, will give her last penny to prevent an unlucky urchin from taking a bird's nest; and is cheated and laughed at for her tender-heartedness, as is the way of the world in such cases. Yes, Olive will certainly be an old maid, and a happy one,-content and humble, and cheerful and beloved! What can woman desire more? A CHRISTMAS PARTY. ing, the whole cortége, bride and bride-groom, lame ostler, red-haired lass, grey mare, and black sheep-dog, adorned exactly as on the preceding Monday, made their appearance at church; Jacob looking, as aforetime, very knowing-Hester, as usual, very demure. After the service there was a grand assemblage of Master Frost's acquaintances; for, between his customers and his playmates, Jacob was on intimate terms with half the parish-and many jokes were prepared on his smuggled marriage and subsequent desertion; but he of the brown jerkin evaded them all, by handing his fair lady into the cart, lifting the poor parish girl beside her, and even lending a friendly hoist to the lame ostler; after which he drove off, with a knowing nod, in total silence; being thereunto prompted partly by his wife's entreaties, partly by a sound more powerful over his associations-an impatient neigh from the old grey mare, who never having attended church before, had begun to weary of the length of the service, and to wonder on what new course of duty she and her master were entering. THE wedding of Jacob Frost and Hester Hewit took place on a Monday morning; and, on the next day (Tuesday), as I was walking along the common-blown along, would be the properer phrase, for it was a wind that impelled one onward like a steam-enginewhat should I see but the well-known fish-cart sailing in the teeth of that raging gale, and Jacob and his old companions, the grey mare and the black sheep-dog, breasting, as well as they might, the fury of the tempest. As we neared, I caught occasional sounds of "herrings-oysters!-oysters-herrings!" al- By this dispatch, our new-married couple though the words, being as it were blown certainly contrived to evade the main broadaway, came scatteringly and feebly on the ear; side of jokes prepared for their reception; but and when we at last met, and he began in his a few random jests, flung after them at a venold way to recommend, as was his wont, these ture, hit notwithstanding; and one amongst oysters of a week old (note, that the rogue them, containing an insinuation that Jacob had was journeying coast-wise, outward bound), stolen a match to avoid keeping the wedding, with a profusion of praises and asseverations touched our bridegroom, a man of mettle in which he never vented on them when fresh, his way, on the very point of honour-the and when I also perceived that Jacob had more especially as it proceeded from a bluff donned his old garments, and that his company old bachelor of his own standing-honest had doffed their bridal favours, -it became George Bridgwater, of the Lea-at whose clear that our man of oysters did not intend to hospitable gate he had discussed many a jug retire yet awhile to the landlordship of the of ale and knoll of bacon, whilst hearing and Bell; and it was soon equally certain that the telling the news of the country side. George fair bride, thus deserted in the very outset of Bridgwater to suspect him of stinginess!the honey-moon, intended to maintain a full the thought was insupportable. Before he and undisputed dominion over her own terri- reached the Bell he had formed, and commutories-she herself, and her whole establish- nicated to Hester, the spirited resolution of ment-the lame ostler, who still called her giving a splendid party in the Christmas week Mistress Hester-the red-haired charity-girl, a sort of wedding-feast or house-warming; and the tabby cat, still remaining in full activity; whilst the very inscription of her maiden days, "Hester Hewit's home-brewed," still continued to figure above the door of that respectable hostelry. Two days after the wedding, that happy event seemed to be most com-with. fortably forgotten by all the parties concerned Sooth to say, such are the sad contradictions -the only persons who took any note of the of poor human nature, that Mrs. Frost's disaffair being precisely those who had nothing pleasure, albeit a bride in the honey-moon, not to do with the matter; that is to say, all the only entirely failed in persuading Master Frost gossips of the neighbourhood, male and female to change his plan, but even seemed to render -who did, it must be confessed, lift up their him more confirmed and resolute in his purhands, and shake their heads, and bless them-pose. Hester was a thrifty housewife; and selves, and wonder what this world would come to. On the succeeding Saturday, however, his regular day, Jacob re-appeared on the road, and, after a pretty long traffic in the village, took his way to the Bell; and, the next morn consisting of smoking and cards for the old, dancing and singing for the young, and eating and drinking for all ages; and, in spite of Hester's decided disapprobation, invitations were given and preparations entered on forth although Jacob was apparently, after his fashion, a very gallant and affectionate husband, and although her interest had now become his and of his own interest none had ever suspected him to be careless-yet he did certainly take a certain sly pleasure in making an attack at once on her hoards and her habits, and forcing her into a gaiety and an outlay, which made the poor bride start back aghast. The full extent of Hester's misfortune in this ball, did not, however, come upon her at once. She had been accustomed to the speculating hospitality of the Christmas parties at the Rose, whose host was wont at tide-times to give a supper to his customers, that is to say, to furnish the eatables thereof-the leg of mutton and turnips, the fat goose and the applesauce, and the huge plum-puddings-of which light viands that meal usually consisted, on an understanding that the aforesaid customers were to pay for the drinkables therewith consumed; and, from the length of the sittings, as well as the reports current on such occasions, Hester was pretty well assured that the expenditure had been most judicious, and that the leg of mutton and trimmings had been paid for over and over. She herself being, as she expressed it, "a lone woman, and apt to be put upon," had never gone farther in these matters than a cup of hyson and muffins, and a glass of hot elder-wine, to some of her cronies in the neighbourhood; but, having considerable confidence both in the extent of Jacob's connexions and their tippling propensities, as well as in that faculty of getting tipsy and making tipsy in Jacob himself, which she regarded "with one auspicious and one dropping eye," as good and bad for her trade, she had at first no very great objection to try for once the experiment of a Christmas party; nor was she so much startled at the idea of a dance-dancing, as she observed, being a mighty provoker of thirst; neither did she very greatly object to her husband's engaging old Timothy, the fiddler, to officiate for the evening, on condition of giving him as much ale as he chose to drink, although she perfectly well knew what that promise implied; Timothy's example being valuable on such an occasion. But when the dreadful truth stared her in the face, that this entertainment was to be a bona fide treat-that not only the leg of mutton, the fat goose, and the plum-puddings, but the ale, wine, spirits and tobacco, were to come out of her coffers, then party, dancing, and fiddler became nuisances past endurance, the latter above all. fortable prospect that his good-humour, his good-fellowship and his fiddle, would in process of time be missed and wanted, and that he might return to his old haunts and run up a fresh score. When half tipsy, which happened nearly every day in the week, and at all hours, he would ramble up and down the village, playing snatches of tunes at every corner, and collecting about him a never-failing audience of eight and ten-year-old urchins of either sex, amongst which small mob old Timothy, with his jokes, his songs, and his antics, was incredibly popular. Against justice and constable, treadmill and stocks, the sabre-cut was a protection, although, I must candidly confess, that I do not think the crack in the crown ever made itself visible in his demeanour until a sufficient quantity of ale had gone down his throat, to account for any aberration of conduct, supposing the broadsword in question never to have approached his skull. That weapon served, however, as a most useful shield to our modern Timotheus, who, when detected in any outrageous fit of drunkenness, would immediately summon sufficient recollection to sigh and look pitiful, and put his poor, shaking, withered hand to the seam which the wound had left, with an air of appeal, which even I, with all my skepticism, felt to be irresistible. In short, old Timothy was a privileged person; and, terrible sot though he were, he almost deserved to be so, for his good-humour, his contentedness, his constant festivity of temper, and his good-will towards every living thing-a good-will which met with its usual reward in being heartily and universally returned. Every body liked old Timothy, with the solitary exception of the hostess of the Bell, who, having once had him as an inmate during three weeks, had been so scandalized by his disorderly habits, that, after having with some difficulty turned him out of her house, she had never admitted him into it again, having actually resorted to the expedient of buying off her intended customer, even when he presented himself pence in hand, by the gift of a pint of home-brewed at the door, rather than suffer him to effect a lodgment in her tap-room-a mode of dismissal so much to Timothy's taste, that his incursions had become more and more frequent, insomuch that "to get rid of the fiddler and other scapegraces, who were apt to put upon a lone woman," formed a main article in the catalogue of reasons assigned by Hester to herself and the world, for her marriage with Jacob Frost. Old Timothy was a person of some note in our parish, known to every man, woman, and child in the place, of which, indeed, he was a native. He had been a soldier in his youth, and having had the good luck to receive a sabre wound on his skull, had been discharged from the service as infirm of mind, and passed Accordingly, the moment she heard that to his parish accordingly; where he had led a Timothy's irregularities and ill example were wandering pleasant sort of life, sometimes in likely to prove altogether unprofitable, she reone public-house, sometimes in another-toler-vived her old objection to the poor fiddler's ated, as Hester said, for his bad example, until he ran up a score that became intolerable, at which times he was turned out, with the workhouse to go to, for a pis aller, and a com morals, rescinded her consent to his admission, and insisted so vehemently on his being unordered, that her astonished husband, fairly out-talked and out-scolded, was fain to pur chase a quiet evening by a promise of obedience. Having carried this point, she forthwith, according to the example of all prudent wives, began an attack on another, and, having compassed the unordering of Timothy, began to bargain for uninviting her next neigh bour, the widow Glen. Frazer by name, who travelled the country with muslins and cottons, and for whom certain malicious gossips asserted both ladies to entertain a lurking penchant, and whose insensibility towards the maiden was said to have been the real origin of her match with Jacob Frost, whose proffer she had accepted out of spite. For my own part, I disbelieve all and each of these stories, and hold it very hard that an innocent woman cannot entertain a little harmless aversion towards her next neighbour without being called to account for so natural a feeling. It seems that Jacob thought so too-for on Hester's conditioning that Mrs. Glen should be excluded from the party, he just gave himself a wink and a nod, twisted his mouth a little more on one side than usual, and assented without a word; and with the same facility did he relinquish the bough of misletoe which he had purposed to suspend from the bacon-rack-the ancient misletoe bough, on passing under which our village lads are apt to snatch a kiss from the village maidens; a ceremony which offended Hester's nicety, and which Jacob promised to abrogate; and, pacified by these concessions, the bride promised to make due preparation for the ball, whilst the bridegroom departed on his usual expedition to the coast. Of the unrest of that week of bustling preparation, words can give but a faint imageOh, the scourings, the cleanings, the sandings, the dustings, the scoldings of that disastrous week! The lame ostler and the redhaired parish girl were worked off their feet"even Sunday shone no Sabbath-day to them" Mrs. Martha Glen kept a baker's and chandler's shop in a wide lane, known by the name of the Broadway, and adorned with a noble avenue of oaks, terminating in the green whereon stood the Bell, which, by dint of two or three cottages peeping out from amongst the trees, and two or three farm-houses, the smoke from whose chimneys sailed curlingly amongst them, might, in comparison with that lonely nook, pass for inhabited. Martha was a buxom widow, of about the same standing with Mistress Frost. She had had her share of this world's changes, being the happy relict of three several spouses; and was now a comely rosy dame, with a laughing eye and a merry tongue. Why Hester should hate Martha Glen was one of the puzzles of the parish.Hate her she did, with that venomous and deadly hatred that never comes to words; and Martha repaid the obligation in kind, as much as a naturally genial and relenting temper would allow, although certainly the balance of aversion was much in favour of Mrs. Frost. An exceedingly smooth, genteel, and civil hatred it was on both sides; such an one as would have done honour to a more polished society. They dealt with each other, curtsied to each other, sate in the same pew at church, and employed the same charwoman-which last accordance, by the way, may partly acfor then did the lame ostler trudge eight count for the long duration of discord between miles to the church of a neighbouring parish, the parties. Betty Clarke, the help in ques- to procure the attendance of a celebrated bastion, being a sharp, shrewish, vixenish wo-soon-player to officiate in lieu of Timothy; man, with a positive taste for quarrels, who regularly reported every cool innuendo uttered by the slow and soft-spoken Mrs. Frost, and every hot retort elicited from the rash and hasty Martha, and contrived to infuse her own spirit into each. With such an auxiliary on either side, there could be no great wonder at the continuance of this animosity; how it began was still undecided. There were, indeed, rumours of an early rivalry between the fair dames for the heart of a certain gay shepherd, the first husband of Martha; other reports assigned as a reason the unlucky tricks of Tom Higgs, the only son of Mrs. Glen by her penultimate spouse, and the greatest pickle within twenty miles; a third party had, since the marriage, discovered the jealousy of Jacob to be the proximate cause, Martha Glen having been long his constant customer, dealing with him in all sorts of fishery and fruitery for herself and her shop, from red herrings to golden pippins; whilst a fourth party, still more scandalous, placed the jealousy, to which they also attributed the aversion, to the score of a young and strapping Scotch pedlar, Sandy - whilst the poor little maid was sent nearly as far to the next town, in quest of an itinerant show-woman, of whom report had spoken at the Bell, to beat the tambourine. The showwoman proved undiscoverable; but the bassoon-player having promised to come, and to bring with him a clarionet, Mrs. Frost was at ease as to her music; and having provided more victuals than the whole village could have discussed at a sitting, and having moreover adorned her house with berried holly, china roses and chrysanthemums after the most tasteful manner, began to enter into the spirit of the thing, and to wish for the return of her husband, to admire and to praise. Late on the great day Jacob arrived, his cart laden with marine stores for his share of the festival. Never had our goodly village witnessed such a display of oysters, mussels, perriwinkles and cockles, to say nothing of apples and nuts, and two little kegs, snugly covered up, which looked exceedingly as if they had cheated the revenue, a packet of green tea, which had something of the same air, and a new silk gown, of a flaming salmon colour, straight from Paris, which he insisted on Hester's retiring to assume, whilst he remained to arrange the table and receive the company, who, it being now about four o'clock, P. M.-our good rustics can never have enough of a good thing-were beginning to assemble for the ball. A QUIET GENTLEWOMAN. We were intimate accordingly; dined with her once a year, drank tea with her occasionally, and called on her every time that the carriage went into W-; visits which she returned in the lump, by a sojourn of at least a month every summer with us at the Lodge. How my dear mother endured this last inflic tion, I cannot imagine: I most undutifully contrived to evade it, by so timing an annual visit, which I was accustomed to pay, as to leave home on the day before her arrival, and return to it the day after her departure, quite content with the share of ennui which the morning calls and the tea-drinkings (evils which generally fell to my lot) entailed upon My present reminiscence will hardly be of the tenderest sort, since I am about to commemorate one of the oldest bores of my acquaintance, one of the few grievances of my happy The afternoon was fair and cold, and dry youth. The person in question, my worthy and frosty; and Matthews's, Bridgwater, friend Mrs. Aubrey, was a respectable widow Whites, and Jones's, in short the whole far- lady, whose daughter having married a relamerage and shop-keepery of the place, with a tion of my father's, just at the time that she goodly proportion of wives and daughters, herself came to settle in the town near which came pouring in apace. Jacob received them we resided, constituted exactly that mixture with much gallantry, uncloaking and unbon- of juxtaposition and family connexion, which neting the ladies, assisted by his two staring must of necessity lead to a certain degree of and awkward auxiliaries, welcoming their hus-intimacy, whatever discrepancies might exist bands and fathers, and apologising, as he best in the habits and characters of the parties. might, for the absence of his helpmate; who, "perplexed in the extreme" by her new finery, which happening to button down the back, she was fain to put on hind side before, did not make her appearance till the greater part of the company had arrived, and the music had struck up a country dance. An evil moment, alas! did poor Hester choose for her entry! for the first sound that met her ear was Timothy's fiddle, forming a strange trio with the bassoon and the clarionet: and the first persons whom she saw were Tom Higgs cracking walnuts at the chimney-side, and Sandy Frazer saluting the widow Glen under the misletoe. How she survived such sights and sounds does appear wonderful-but sur-me. vive them she did for at three o'clock, A. M., when our reporter left the party, she was engaged in a sociable game at cards, which, by the description, seems to have been long whist, with the identical widow Glen, Sandy Frazer and William Ford, and had actually won fivepence-halfpenny of Martha's money; the young folks were still dancing gaily, to the sound of Timothy's fiddle, which fiddle had the good quality of going on almost as well drunk as sober, and it was now playing solo, the clarionet being hors-de-combat and the bassoon under the table. Tom Higgs, after showing off more tricks than a monkey, amongst the rest sewing the whole card-party together by the skirts, to the probable damage of Mrs. Frost's gay gown, had returned to his old post by the fire, and his old amusement of cracking walnuts, with the shells of which he was pelting the little parish girl, who sate fast asleep on the other side; and Jacob Frost in all his glory, sate in a cloud of tobacco smoke, roaring out catches with his old friend George Bridgwater, and half a dozen other "drowthy cronies," whilst "aye the ale was growing better," and the Christmas party went merrily on. This grievance was the more grievous, inasmuch as it was one of those calamities which do not admit the great solace and consolation to be derived from complaint. Mrs. Aubrey, although the most tiresome person under the sun, without an idea, without a word, a mere inert mass of matter,-was yet in the fullest sense of those "words of fear" a good sort of woman, well-born, well-bred, well-jointured, and well-conducted, a perfectly unexceptionable acquaintance. There were some who even envied me my intimacy with this human automaton, this most extraordinary specimen of still life. In her youth she had been accounted pretty, a fair sleepy blue-eyed beauty, languid and languishing, and was much followed by that class of admirers, who like a woman the better the nearer she approaches to a picture in demeanour as well as in looks.* She had, however, with the disparity that so often attends upon matrimony, fallen to the lot of a most vivacious and mercurial country squire, tude in the fair sex, adventured on a gentle admoniOne of her lovers, not quite so devoted to quietion. He presented to her a superb copy of the "Castle of Indolence," and requested her to read it. A few days after, he inquired of her sister if his fair mistress had condescended to look into the book. "No," was the answer, "No, but I read it to her as she lay on the sofa." The gentleman was a man of sense. He shrugged his shoulders, and six months after married this identical sister. |