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Xhhlc Ryan. u p u t just let me stay until morning ma'am It is cold, dreary and dark along the road and, indeed I’ve no place to go but Widdow Yorrow's, and that s miles ff a "so’ spoke a sad, worn-looking woman, standing on the threshold of a well-to-do farmer’s house, just as the last rays of light were fading from the evening sky. '"Xhe person she spoke to, a large woman in a bright, flowered dress and white apron the mistress of the house —turned away to me. and you can go at night, iou don t suit. 1 never saw such shiftless wavs in mv life. And Jane Smith is here, and Ive only one bed for the servant, and I don’t expect a tidy girl like Jane to sleep with well with s’trangcrs. 1 ve paid you for vour three (lavs imui, goodness know s, you’ve worried me out of my senses since you’ve been here, and I can’t keep you another night; and the earlier you go. the sooner you’ll get there, wherever it is.” “ Well, that’s true, anyway. Then, ma.am.” replied the woman, “ and you are mistress in your own house; but God knows, it’s not a dog I’d be drivin’ out at night.” Then she tied her little pittance in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief and walked away out of the gate and up the road, but not looking back once. Her heart was heavy as lead, and she was angry at a world that had been a hard one to her. “Three years since Pat went away.” she said to herself, “never a word from him. He’s dead no doubt; and it’s the last kind word I’ve heard. I wasn’t shift less and good for nothing to him. ‘ Mag gie,’he’d often say, ‘l'd change you for nobody's wife.’ *Och. he was the man; and as good to me when I was faded and worn out with the hard livin’ and rarin' and losin’ the childer, as he was when I was a purty girl, with cheeks like roses, and he was a boy courtin' me. Och, Pat, where did you go at all? You died in a ditch like a dog, maybe ; for all these hard hearted gentle-folk care, we all might.” She turned and shook her fist back at the house she had just left, only a bit of the roof visible over the rising ground now. “ My heart was aching for the childer and for Pat ” she said; “ but you could have no patience if a pertatie was burnt, or a towel not that smooth. You sent me out with the night falling. Had luck to ye and all vour like.” [ Then she plodded on again ; but the wo man she had left was not so bad as she had fancied her. In her thrift and tidiness she could not understand this untidy, care less being. She knew nothing of the mis ery at her heart, or the sorrow that made her forget the pots and pails. She was actually half afraid of her and wanted to Set her out of her house. She had felt it a great mistake to hire a tramp from the road as it were, and she had paid her and was conscious of no cruelty. I The daylight fled apace ; the moon, risen long ago, became visible—a faint streak of new moon that set in a little while—only the stars were left—and Maggie, wandering lon the road with her bundle under her arm jj—a little bundle of rags and odds and ends ’tumbled together in an old flannel petticoat began to loose her knowledge of it. llere and there she saw lights in a window, but they were no promise of hospitality to her. If she could get to the widow Yar row’s, that personage, who took the labor ers on board, would let her lodge while she could pay; but where was the widow’s cottage —to the right or to the left ? She could not tell in the darkness whether she (had taken the proper turning. Hard by was a rushing sound, as of water. Danger there, perhaps. The railroad was some where at hand, and though Maggie felt that the world was a poor place, she did not feel ready to meet death yet. “ I’ll just drop down in the grass somc ■vhere,” said the poor woman. “And .God between me and harm. If I could find a bit of hay now, ’twould be a com fort.” She stretched forward, peering through the darkness, and her foot struck some loose branches that lie upon the ground, with a crackling sound. “ What’s that?” said a voice very near her in a sharp whisper. “ It’s an imp of a squirrel,” said another voice. “Go on with your work Jim : the train will be along in fifteen minutes. Up with that rail. Hi ! We’ll have them this time.” “ Hold your tongue fool,” said the first voice. “ You’re half drunk. I tell you I thought it was a step.” And now Maggie, who had sunk flat upon the ground, knew all. 'lhose who whispered near her were train-wreckers. ■•“ I’ll make no noise,” said she, “It’s none of my business.” But lying in the grass, the sharp strokes of steel smote on her ear; she could not forget them. And suddenly it came upon her that it was neither more nor less than murder that she was waiting there to see— that in lying quiet while it was done she helped to do it. “ God forgive me !” said poor Maggie. “ I'll do it; but what am I to do? llow will I stop them? It's my own death; I’ll Bring about nothing else ” ' And just then the sound of a steam whis tle far away caught the ear. The train was coming. “ Ready for them !” said the voice she had heard before. “ Come into the Itmshes.” She heard them tramp away, and arose to her feet and looked about her. there was no house in sight and no help near. Suddenly a thought struck her. She had matches in her pocket, and her dress was a thin calico —it would burn like tinder. Jn a moment more she had torn it off and had the matches in her hand. As she struck a light she heard a pistol click. [ “They see me,” she said, and held the match against the old calico and as it caught flourished it over her head. She felt a ball Whiz by her shoulder, another struck her, but now the glare was bright, and the train was close at hand—she rushed towards it Waving her burning dress. Thank God ! they saw her. The train slackened its pace—it stopped. Men with lanterns in their hands sprang from it and hurried to wards her. And the old dress burnt to tinder, dropped to the ground, and she sank beside it, the blood flowing from a wound in her arm. They’ve killed me, I belave, she said, as a man bent over her. “ I can t VOL. II—NO. 4. show you the place, but it's—beyond there —the rails—they’ve ripped them up, the villains !” Then she fainted. When she came to herself she was by the roadside, the lights fell over her. and she heard people talking of the hairbreadth es cape they nad had and of her bravery. “ You risked death to save us.” said one woman. “You shall be rewarded. My little children were with me.” “ And I am going to meet my wife,” said a gentleman. “She will not let me forget you if 1 have so ungrateful a heart. You shall be well cared lor now. and when you are well you shall not know want.” “ Indeed, tlien said another voice—one that sounded familiar to her—“indeed, 1 am not rich, but I'd have been loath to be kill ed to-night. I'm just on the road to what I’ve been seeking two years. 1 found out yesterday where my missus is, and I'm goin’ to her—she's breakin' her heart for me. I haven’t much ; but there's a couple of pounds if you'll take ’em good woman, and God’s blessin’, too, for the sake of Maggie Ryan, that you've saved from being a widow.” And a strong hand folded over her weak one, and would have left money in it, but she caught it tight. “It's Pat Ryan!” she cried; “come back at last. Don't you know Maggie, Pat?” And two great arms folded her close ; and the poor soul who had tramped the road, desolate and forsaken, an hour before was happy as angels are in heaven. It might not be “great good luck” to you to be a flagman’s wife, and live in a lit tle cottage on the roadside, but Maggie thinks so. “ And oh, Pat!” she often says, “how little did 1 think when Satan was in my heart, and 1 was willing to lie still and let happen what might to the heartless gentle folk, what I was doing to myself and to you ; and after all, it’s kind hearts they had, and gave you the illigant place, and me the shanty, and the cow, and all. Good luck to them.” <.citing Kcutly lor School. Deli uit Free Frees. “ The cause of education be hanged !” he muttered as he sat down on the curb stone on Shelby street yesterday. lie was a lad of thirteen. He spit through his front teeth, and he spit often. His pants were supported by a piece of wire clothes line girted around his waist, his hat was ancient and greasy, and his big flat feet seemed to be waiting for a thun der shower to wash them clean. “ That’s what ails me !” he went on as he pushed his toes into the wet sand. “ I don’t believe in a feller diffing in and learn ing all there is to learn, and not letting other folks have a chance. There’s lots of other folks in this world besides me, and I ain’t going to be a hog and try to learn all there is to learn.” After a minute he went on : “ Don’t I know ’nuff now? Three times two are six, four times five are twenty, and four and four are eight. That’s as cor rect as I could get 'em if I went to school for a hundred years. And don't I know howto spell! C-a-t is ‘cat’ the world over, and I'll bet on it every time. H-e-n spells ‘hen,’ and I know it as well as if I weighed a ton.” He rose up to throw a stone at a dog across the street, and after resuming his seat he went on : “ Jogerfy kinder wrestles me down, but I don’t go much on jogerfy. W hat do I care whether an island is entirely surround ed by water, or whether there ain’t any water within ten miles of it? S’pose I’m foing to buy and sell islands for a living? don’t care which is the highest mountain or the longest river, do I? I'm going to keep a feed store, and when I'm rolling bales o’ hay around will I care about mountains and rivers ? I’ve heard the boys go on about exports and imports, and straits, and seas, and capes, but what’s them to me ? If a feller wants a bag o’ oats is he going to wait and ask me when the Island of Madagascar was discovered ?” He carefully examined the big toe of his left foot and the heel of his right foot and gloomily observed : “ The old folks are making ready to push me into school, and I’ve got to make ready to keep out. I can’t take to school, some how. I could sit here and study all day, but the minute I git into a school house I’m nervous. Something’s going to hap pen to me this week. I'll be taken home m a wheel-barrow with a big gash in this heel or this toe almost cut off. That will mean four weeks on a crutch, they don't allow lame boys to go to school and crutch up and down the aisle. Or, sposin I go home with palpitation of the heart? The old lady has had it, and I won’t more than get into the house before she'll have me tucked up on the lounge, the camphor bot tle down, currant jelly and sponge cake in the distance, and she’ll call out to the old gent : “ Father, it’s no use to think of sending this boy to school. He looks stout and healthy, but he's a mere shadder. The close atmosphere of the school-room will kill him before snow flies.” The boy rose up. There was a grin all over his face, and he chuckled : “ Palpitation is the key note! A sore toe can be seen—a palpitating heart is hid den away under hide and fat and ribs. Now then —oosh —Woosh, u-m-m-m—hold yer breath, roll yer eyes, kick out yer left leg and make her bob around like a fly on a hot stove-cover.” An officer who commanded artillery du ring the late war informs us of the follow ing simple remedy for colic in horses, which he has tried with perfect success in hundreds of cases : Rub the horse well be tween the fore legs and around the girth with spirits of turpentine. Immediate rolief follows. HARTWELL, GA., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER lit, IS7T. To ICmlmc Wnleria<'lon. Messrs. Editors: I saw some time since n series of questions in your paper concerning raising melons, which 1 will try to answer. Plant in a sedge field, ten feet each way. Put a half bushel of stable manure in each hill. Lay it off each way, and put the manure in the check, but do not dig holes. Dig and stir the manure well with the dirt. The deeper your ground can be broken the better. From the 20th of April to the Ist of May is a good time to plant. Put ten or twelve seed in a hill. When well up, pull up all but four. If they seem healthy, in a week pull up two more ; and just as they begin to run, pull up one more, leaving but one in a hill. Scratch about them often with your fingers, but on no accpunt touch the vines with a hoe, for they are very tender, and a bruise will do them vast injury. Plow them as deeply as you can and keep, the patch clean of foreign growth. Do not top the vines. Plant but one sort in your patch, and be sure to let that sort be the rattlesnake kind, as that is the best, grow ing large and Plant no muskmelons, pumpkins, squashes, gourds, or anything of the kind within a hundred yards of the patch, for if you do they will mix. Ncyer plant two consecu tive years in the same patch, for if you do the melons will be small and of inferior quality. If you doubt this, try it, and you will find that your experience and my as sertion will be the same. You ask, “ How can it be told when melons are ripe with out cutting or plugging?” Very easily. Go by sunrise or before, and take hold of the melon with your hand as though you were trying to lift it, bear upon it gently, and if you hear the heart break it is ripe ; for, unlike mankind, the melon is better when the heart is broken. The writer has raised twelve consecutive crops of melons and has a good patch every year. If you wish to have the very best melons, pull them early in the morning, and lay them in a cool place and let them mellow for a week. This improves the flavor. To save seed, cut your melon into thirds, and save only the seed in the centre, and by all means dry them in the shack*. When the melons are as large as walnuts, stick up stakes around the patch and stretch white thread all around it, or else the crows may ruin it. If you wish to keep thieves out, pierce a hole in the vine two inches from the root, and put a quantity of rat-poison in the hole, but look out for yourself. If the above programme is carried out, rain or shine, your efforts will be crowned with success. A Melon Raiser. Augusta, Ga., Sept. (!, 1877. Interruptvl Table Talk. ISurlington Hank-Eye. The other evening the Rev. Mr. Philac ter sat down at the tea table with a very thoughtful air. and attended to the wants of his brood in a very abstracted manner. Presently he looked up at his wife and said : “The Apostle Paul—” “Got an awful lump on the head this afternoon,” broke in the pastor’s eldest son, “ playing base ball. Bat flew out of the striker’s hands when I was umpire, and cracked me right above the ear, and dropped me. Hurt? Golly !” and the lad shook his head in dismal but expressive pantomime as he tenderly rubbed a lump that looked like a billiard ball with hair on it. The pastor gravely paused for the in terruption, and resumed : “ The Apostle Paul —” “Saw Mrs. O’Gheminie down at Grcen baum’s this afternoon,” said his eldest daughter, addressing her mother. “ She had on that same old everlasting black silk, made over with a vest of tilleul green silk, coat-tail-basque pattern, overskirt made with diagonal folds in front, edged with deep fringe; yellow straw hat, with black velvet facing inside the brim, and pale blue flowers. She’s going to Chicago.” The good minister waited patiently, and then, in tones just a shade louder than be fore, said : “ The Apostle Paul—” “ Went in swimmin last night, with Harry and Ben, pop. and stepped on a clam shell.” exclaimed his youngest son ; “ cut my foot so I can’t wear my shoe; and please, can’t I stay home to-morrow?” The pastor informed his son that he might stay away from the river, and then resumed his topic. He said : “ The Apostle Paul says—” “My teacher is an awful liar,” shouted the second son ; “ he says the world is as round as an orange and it turns round all the time faster than a circus man can ride. I guess he haint got much sense.” The mother lifted a warning finger toward the boy and said—“ sh !” and the father resumed : “ The Apostle Paul says—” “ Don’t bite off twice as much as you can chew,” broke out the eldest son, re proving the assault of his little brother on a piece of cake. The pastor's face showed just a trifle of annoyance as he said, in very firm, decided tones : “ The Apostle Paul says—” “ There’s a fly in the butter !” shrieked the youngest hopeful of the family, and a general laugh followed. When silence was restored the eldest daughter with an air of curiosity, said : “Well, but. pa. I really would like to know what the Apostle Paul said.” “ Pass me the mustard,” said the pastor, absently. ItnrlliiKUm lln\iU T.j clcmn. There hasn't really been very much prophet in the whaling business since Jonah died. Another new city has been laid out in the Rlal'k Hills, and Mr. Sitting Hull says he will come around in a few weeks and lay out the citizens. “ A word with mothers,” says the New Orleans hudgti. All right ; go ahead. We’ll ladle out the nice talk to the daugh ters, while you're nt it. A man down in Arkansas, while camp ing out a few weeks ago, was bit by a skunk, and died in a few days of hydro phobia. We should think he would have Seen glad to have died of anything. A young man who has been finishing his education in Europe writes homo with great joy that he will come home in a few short days, wearing the sheepskin of a graduate. He will wear it over his bones, probably. It is thought that Hrigham Young ought to have recovered from nis cholera morbus, but when it came to lighting with twenty seven women, eacli one with a different kind of mustard plaster for her dear hus band. anti anew kind of herb tea, it was too much for him. Every woman laid her plaster where there was room, and the prophet went down to his grave with a vivid foretaste of the future. A cautious old man out on North Hill is very fond of attending all the base-ball matches. Hut one day a hall from the bat struck him between the eyes, bent his spectacles and disarranged iiis ideas, and knocked him down. Then the catcher ran up and jumped on him and sprang up to catch the ball, and when lie came down he kicked the old gentleman for getting in his way and making him miss that fly. Now, when he goes to the games, he wears an iron pot on his head and carries along a dry goods box to sit in. A Hopeful View. Chronicle if Constitutionalist. The fresh, clear breezes of September] bring with them something even better than cool and pleasant days. On every ] side there is an indication of a good Fail trade. Not a trade, indeed, based upon fictitious values and unsound credit, but a trade that will be substantial in volume, and, avoiding the shoals of undue confi dence, bring us back to the old days of commercial prosperity. The indications are that the turning-point has been reached and that we are now to progress onward to the goal for which all have so earnestly longed. One of the hopeful and signifi cant signs is the enormous shipment of grain, which has not been paralleled in many years. So great, indeed, is it that the Inman, White Star and other lines ; have been compelled to put on extra ships, while the first named line is pushing for ward to speedy completion a vessel as large as the Bothnia. The crop of cereals is almost unprecedented, and, what is bet ter, is finding a ready market abroad. This must, naturally, make a greater in flux of money to this country and put trade in general in healthy circulation. Already the manufacturing towns of New i England echo to the hum of the looms, and in every way there is cause for thank ful j ness for an abundant harvest and a revi i val of the drooping energies of the com mercial body. The lAr.w.utl. [Essay on the Lizzud, read before the Ilawkeye Association for the benefit of cruelty to animals, by a boy of 40.) The Lizzud is a dry land aligator on a small skale. He is a male and female. He has four legs and one tale and two eyes and can climb a tree. His principal business is settin on fense rales and ketchin of flize and skerrin of horses by runnin threw the leves. Wun skoered my horse yistid dy. Lizzuds is principally negative ani mals. They doant go to skule, doant be long to returning bodes, doant set on lec toral commishuns ami doant be presidents. Uv all the beasts that fly in the air, The horse, the cow, the buzzud, The duck, the junny bug, the hare, I’d rather be a Lizzud. Ilopin these few lines may find you all enjoyin the same blessin. A U'cutcrn Woman'* During’. The San Francisco (L’ai.) lice says : Some few days ago, as the Freeport ferry, was taking a load of passengers across the river and when about half way over, the rope which is attached to the bank, and by means of which the boat was towed, broke. Consternation reigned among the passen gers. None of the men could swim ; the boat was drifting down ; there was nothing on board by which it could be paddled or its movements directed. For a few sec onds, silence and inactivity reigned; then a strong and hcalthy-look ing Canadian wo man. seeing that the men could do nothing, proceeded calmly to take off her shoes and stockings. She caught a rope in her teeth, plunged into the muddy current, and swum for shore, while the cheerful faces of the “ lords of creation ” on the boat were beaming on her with eyes of admiration. | She reached the bank, tied the rone to a strong tree, and the men hauled the boat i ashore. ■ s A circuit rider one day rnet a man pray ing in the road. This exhibition of piety j was not only gratifying, but aroused cun- ] osity and begot inquiry. “ What are you J doing ?” asked the preacher. “ Praying for my enemy,” said the man. “Praying! for your enemy !” the astonished divine j replied ; “ what arc you doing that for ?” | “ Don’t the Bible say if you pray for your enemy you can heap coals of fire on his head ?” “ Yes.” “ Then,” said the man.) “ I want to burn this d—n rascal up.’’ WHOLE NO. 50. The new* Constitution is well received throughout the entire State. Some Oglethorpe farmers think that not more than half a cotton crop will be made there. When a man is making love to a widow be always feels as if be bad to begin where the other fellow left off. Gold has reached the lowest point since the war during the pnst week, bringing a fraction more than three cents premium. There hasn’t been a saloon in Starkville, Miss., for the last twenty-five years. Hut listen—sh-h-h—you can get it at the drug store. A colored woman in Milledgeville has lost both legs, hut nevertheless is the mother of two healthy children. This is ahead of Atlanta. “ You’re a smart fellow,” sneered a law yer to a witness the other day, in a ltrook lyn court, “ I’d return the compliment if I wasn't under oath,” replied the witness. In a Philadelphia court the other day a man named Moisten was defended by a lawyer named Goforth. It is no unusual thing to see a lawyer and his client Goforth and Moisten. The following advertisement recently appeared in a New Haven journal : “ Any person having five to fifty toads of manure to dispose of will please send word or drop it through the post-office.” “Can you draw a landscape ?” asked an enthusiastic tourist of a stranger whom he mot in the White mountains. “No,” re plied the other man, who happened to he a dentist, “ hut 1 can draw a tooth.” Take awav your Spartan hoy and his fox. The lad who puts a lighted cigar in his pocket when he meets his father, anti tells what the Sunday school teacher said, while the cigar is burning him, is infinitely more worthy of admiration. Bald headed gentleman in the parquet, to a young lady in the dress circle, during! affecting passage in play : “ 1 respect your' emotion, ma'am, luit you arc shedding tears on mv head.” Lady : “It looked so like an onion 1 thought I’d salt it.” A man living near Jefferson had occa sion the other day to cut down ami split open a large oak tree, and found embedded therein a live scorpion. According to his calculation, hv the grain of the wood, it had been imprisoned eighteen years. The editor of the Cartersvilh* Express saw a note the other day given by a man in 18G0 for seventy dollars. He lias paid eighty dollars on it and yet owes sixty dol lars. It is in a tine stage of preservation, and the man hopes to have it all paid up l>y tin' next centennial. A butcher of some eminence was lately in company with several ladies at a gamo of whist, when, having lost two or three rubbers, one of the ladies, addressing him, asked ; “ Pray. sir. what arc the stakes now?” “Madam the host rump I cannot sell for loss than twenty cents a pound.” A St. Louis paper tells a story of a dis consolate widower, who. on seeing the re mains o( his late wife lowered in the grave, exclaimed, with tears in his eyes. “ Well, I’ve lost gloves. I’ve lost umbrellas—yes, even cows and horses ; but I never—no— never —had anything to cut me like this.” A white lady asked Stevens to go to the store and bring her ten cents’ worth of snuff. Stevens brought the snuff and pro posed to take a kiss in payment. The lady replied, “ Very well, it is for a colored woman, go round to the house and get your pay.” Stevens has been sneezing ever since. A child charmed by a black snake in Jefferson county. Term., fed the snake for over a week. The father discovered the snake coiled up in the child’s lap and killed it, whereupon the little one went into spasms of grief and refused to eat food of any kind. She cries almost con innally, except when asleep, and physicians stato that she will live but a short time. At a Harrison county, Ky., wedding, we nre informed, the bride danced several charming reels within a circle of three feet in diamater. She changed shoes once on account of her new ones not sounding right, against the floor. The prompter gave the very unique commands during the dance, “ Rock to the right, rock to the left, grind coffee, wring the dish rag. rock the cradle,” Ac. At the wind up of the dance the bride showed her agility by kicking the groom’s hat off his head. Can any one tell why it is that the soul of a young and pretty woman is more dear to the average deacon than a squint-eyed woman with a wart on her nose? When we have seen a young and pretty woman go up to the altar, we have noticed half a dozen deacons knocking their heads to gether in their eagerness to whisper conso lation to her bruised sprit. Hut when the squint-eyed woman knelt down only one deacon went near her. and he merely touched her on the shoulder and said: “ Pray fervently sister, and all will be well.” It seems that Bishop Haven, who for many years has been a sort of raving mono maniac, has got a surfeit of Africa at last. While at Liberia recently he caught a ma larial fever, which he thus describes : “ An African forest was growing up with in me, the tops whereof were made visible. When the scrapings from the roots of the tougue were placed under a microscrpe, their roots were in the spleen and liver. Black specks moving swiftly up and down these ferns and gross trunks and branches were probably monkeys leaping from tree to tree in this inward African forest.” When I traveled, in 1871, in Palestine an old servant from the monastery of Ram leh, about fifty miles west from Jerusalem, showed me the supposed place where Sam son killed 1,000 Philistines with the jaw bone of an ass. When I expressed my doubts as to the length and strength of a jawbone, considering the great number of surrounding enemies, the good man ex plained the case in the following manner : “ Well, he took hold of the ass by the tail and swung the animal against the Philis tines in such a manner that only his head, and of this especially the jawbone, struck the Philistines, keeping off in this way the surrounding warriors, and giving the ’blow the necessary force to kill, f affirm that in this manner Samson could have slain a million Philistines, provided the tail of the ass did not break.” —Sacramento Journal.