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Southern Field and Fireside. VOL. 1. [Written for the Southern Field and Flreelde.] 4 REMINISCENCE. J The blissful hour when first we met, V Steals sweetly o'er my mem’ry yet; / Beneath that friendly roof once more, N I live those happy moments o'er. m Our noble host again I sec— A friend most dearly prized by me; V Again, behold—crown of his iife— l That gentle matron, tender wife. * Lovely in feature, pure of mind— In thought and manners most refined! \j Bear, worthy friends, most kind of heart, / Far happiest when ye most impart \ May no sharp thorns your |>athway strew, A But roses fresh with early dew, r Spring as each step through life ye move, y Crowning your days with endless love! L That blissful hour when first we met, * Comes back like sweetest perfume yet; ? 'Twns beauty, wit, and worth combined— Imbuing form ami heart and mind. With every grace of womankind— When this first vision o'er me stole, tL What if I yielded heart and soul! f The memory of that blissful ride, o Through winding roads at eventide— -1 L proudly seated at thy side ; & What beauteous visions throng and glide 3 Now throngh my brain! Thy lightest word, ' I hear it now, as then I heard! 4 The music of thy “light guitar" Steals o’er my fancy from afar 1 V And thy low voice in cadence sweet, p My ravished senses seems to greet. . In bride-like garments neat arrayed, Again I see thee, lovely maid, A Like some fair angel sent to guido jV To Hymen’s altar a fair bride 1 i But mem’ry brings a sadder phase, 'U The ending of those blissful days: Enough! I must avert my gaze! Stanford. P [Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.] ft Entered according to the Act of Cong ret*, die., die., I by Oit Author. f MASTER WILLIAM MITTEN; L 0R " A YOUTH OF BRILLIANT TALENTS, P WHO WAS BUINED BY BAD LUCK. y Er THE AUTHOR OF THE GEORGIA SCENES, ETC. 4 At Augusta, chance threw Captain Thompson and Thomas M. Gilmer in the same room of a \ public house, for two nights. They were made V acquainted, and among various other topics of , conversation, Doctor Waddel’s school camo up on the tapis. “That school,'’ said Mr. Gilmer, 1 “just fills my notion of what a boys’ school y ought to be. Plain dressing, plain eating, hard working, close studying, close watching—and 4 when needful, good whipping.” “You are well acquainted with the school, \ then.” V “ Well, not so much from my own observation * as from what my boys and my neighbors' boys tell me; for I’m so clumsy, as you see, that I C go no where but where I’m obliged to; but ® every body says the same thing about the school—that it is the best school in the United 4 States.” “Mr. Waddel is said to be very severe with \ his pupils..” ? “I reckon not. No doubt, if they don't walk straight he gives them the timber as he ought to do; but all his scholars that I know like him t very much, and they seem to consider all other a schools as very small affairs compared with his.” 4 Captain Thompson after making a sufficient apology for his inquisitiveness, fished out of Mr. I Gilmer, that Governor Mathews had three or y four grandsons at Doctor Waddel's. That Sen , ator Bibb had two brothers-in-law there —that Congressman Early had a brother there—that & Judge Tait had a son there. That Congress- C man Meriwether (David) had a son there. And before the Captain left Augusta, he learned that 4 Senator, Governor Milledgo had a nephew there. And last, (and best known of all, among men, V women, and children, throughout the State,) that V William J. Hobby had a son there. This gen tleman was the editor of the Augusta Herald , and in the use of all the implements of editorial jfi warfare unsurpassed by any journalist of his y day. A story was current about this time, that a lady, expressing a wish to a female friend to 4 have her infant daughter bear the greatest name in the world—“name her,” said the friend, y “ William, J. Hobby." Should the reader be V disposed to enquire how Mr. Gilmer came to know so many of the grandee patrons of Doctor Waddel’s school, we answer, that he was con & nected by blood or marriage with all but two of " them; and one of the two lived in the same county with him, was as intimate with him as a 4 connection, and had rescued his son George and other boys of this very school from a falling v house under which they had taken shelter in v storm; and the other resided in an adjoiriin a f JAMES GARDNER, > ( Proprietor. j county, and was well known to him, and a Judge of the circuit which embraced his county. The Captain, fully charged with these woman cooling facts, wended his way homeward in high spirits, nis exultation was increased upon reaching home by finding a letter waiting him ■from Doctor Waddel. As soon as he reached his dwelling, and had taken refreshment—come, said he, Mary, let’s go over to Anna’s, and have our too long postponed conference about Mr. Waddel’s. “If you are going to talk seriously to your sis ter, to relieve her from her anxiety about her child, I'll go with you ; but if you are going to run on with all that stuff about the whole breed of Ramsays, who seem to have turned your head, I will not go one foot.” “Well, I am going to be serious, and to give Anna a full statement of things at Mr. Waddel’s as they are. I know it will distress her, and I want you to help me reconcile her to them." They went, and after the usual salutations, the Captain l)egan : “ Well, Anna, I have come over to tell you fully how matters stand at Mr. Waddel’s. My reason for postponing the disclosure was, that I wa* ia hopes of receiving a letter from Mr. Wad del that would help to rciwicile you to the state of things at Willington. So brief was my stay at that place, that I really learned but little of the particulars in which you are most inter , estot.; but I saw enough to satisfy me, that to all who Would have their sons removed from vice, well instructed, invigorated in mind and body, and early taught self-reliance, that there was no better school than this. But all things about it are of the very cheapest, plainest, and roughest kiud. There is one framed house in Willing ton, and that is the head teacher’s ; all the rest are of logs, and open at that" (Mrs. M. turned pale.) “William’s study and bed-room are of this kind. He occupies it with young Hay and two others. Its only furniture is two mattrass es, (on the floor,) a table, and four split bottom ed chairs. The boys cut and haill their own wood, and make their own fires.” (Mrs. T. turns pale.) “The fare is very plain—necessarily so, from the price of board. Mr. Waddel is a very rigid disciplinarian," (they both turn paler,) “but not tyrannical. Ilis government is strictly equi table. Among all the boys that Fsaw at New by’s and Waddel’s, I did not see one who was as well dressed as your Tom. Even Doctor Ram however, we’ll pass him over. This is as it should be. Boys who cut wood and car ry lightwood-knots have no use for fine clothes. I need hardly tell you, that your boy, among them, looks like a bird of Paradise among so many crows. I wish you had taken my advice in laying hi his wardrobe, for lam sure his finery will bring upon him the taunts of his school-fel lows. And now I have told you the worst —the very worst. 1 But I have something to brighten this picture a little. And first, read this letter from Mr. Waddel.” “You read it, brother,” said Mrs. Mitten, with swimming eyes and tremulous voice. The Captain reads: “Willington, Ac., Ac. "Dear Sir: On taking leave of me, you re quested mo to give you early information of the standing, conduct, and progress of your nephew; and, as my letter will reach you through the kind ness of Mr. Jones, the bearer, nearly or quite a week sooner than it would by regular—or rather vregular —course of mail, I avail myself of the opportunity to comply with your request. Wil liam has been under my instruction just a week to-day ; and though I would not venture confi dent predictions of him, upon so short an ac quaintance, I will give you my present estimate of him, for what it is worth. If lam not gross ly deceived in him, he is destined to a most bril liant future. He was a little rusty in the prin ciples of construction at first—no, in the applica tion of them —for of the principles themselves, he is master, and he improves in tho application of them with every lesson. His class was a week ahead of him in the Greek grammar when ho entered it. He has already made up the de ficiency, and now stands fully equal to the best in his class in this study—indeed, in all their studies. He is moral, orderly, and studious, and if he will only do half as much for himself as na ture has done for him, he will be the pride of his kindred and tho boast of his country. You will not bo much more delighted at receiving this intelligence, than I am in communicating it. “Yours very respectfully, Moses Waddel.” “There,” said the Captain, bouncing up in transports and throwing the letter in his sister’s lap, “there, sis, what do you think of that ? Now, as you are a good Christian, play Methodist for one time, and go to shouting.” I begin to believe in shouting, if religion is what it is cracked up to be.” “ Brother,” said she,, “ I am just as happy as a mother can be at such tidings; but what do they signify, when my poor child maybe brought home to me in less than a month, a corpse ? William’s constitution can never stand the hard ships to which he is exposed. A hard mattress on the floor, in an open hut, this bitter cold weather 1 Cutting wood!—The boy never raised an axe in his life—Carrying lightwood knots! AUGUSTA. GA., SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1850. He never brought a turn of wood in the house in his life. Taunted by rude school-mates for being decently dressed ! My child is worse off than my negroes.” “ Don’t 3'ou suppose there are fift}- in that school who have been brought up as tenderly as your boy has ?” “No, Ido not. They are all poor boys and country boys who have beeij brought up to hard work. I may have erred in bringing him up so daintily; but it is done, aud he is now unable to bear hard usage.” “Do }'ou reckon General Senator Governor Matthew's grand-children are poor boys ?—that the Honorable Peter Early's brother is a poor boy ?—that Senator Meriwether’s son is a poor boy?—that Senator Bibb’s brothere-m-law are poor boys—that Judge Tait’s son is a ;>oor boy ? “ Is young Hay a poor bo} r ?” “ How do you know that all these men have sons there ?” “ I learned it from a bigger man than any of them, wh6 is kin to them, and knows all about them, and there sons.” “ Well, I suppose all their sons were raised in the country and raised to work.” “Do you suppose that Senator Governor Milledge’s nephew was raised in tlie country aud to work ? that William J. Hobby’s son was raised in the country, and to work?—that Doctor Ramsay’s son was raised in the country and to work ? It is high time your dainty, cake-fed boy was set to work, if 3 r ou expect him to live out half his days. And when a better time than now ? or where a better place, than among bis school-mates of rank who all work ? “He is under your control, brother;” said Mrs. Mitteu, burying her face in her handker chief ; “ but surely, surelg, he is the most unfor tunate child that ever was born.” “Y'es, he is one of tho most unfortunate children ever born, in having a mother whose sympathy for his body makes her forget the interest of his soul—who to save his hide, will ruin his head—However, what’s the use of talk ing to a woman.” “Husband,” said Mrs. Thompson, “3-ou don’t know how to make the proper allowances for a mother’s love. I’ve told you so a hundred times. That is your greatest fault—almost your only fault —that, and refusing your children little in nocent indulgences that every other father al lows to his children. I have been mortified to death to see my children along side of their cousins. Because men have no feelings them selves, they think women have none—or ought to have none—” “ Ph-e-e-e-ew 1 what a gustl what did you come over for, Mrs. Bildad ? “ I came over to comfort sister Anna, who has most as much to bear as Job had." “ I don’t think Sarah suffers much by com parison with Ann and Jane —at least if you’d look at one of Sanford’s bills you’d think she ought not to.” Will, I manage to keep her a little decent by enduring a month’s grumbling at the end of every year; but compare George and William, will you. Till last 3'ear and the year before, when did he ever have a new coat—a decent one—to his back? I’ve been cutting down your old coats and pants for him ever since he was bom ” “He must have gone into pants early.” “ That’s very witty, I confess; but you know that every word I say is true. What pleasure it can be to any one to be always mortifying and cowing their children, I can’t conceive.— You’re always talking about making boys work , work, and giving ’em fine constitutions, and George has done no more work than William has, and his constitution’s no better. Now, hus band, what will the world say to see you send ing off your sister’s child into slavery, and keep ing your own son at home, with all the comforts of life about him ?” “ I thought lie was in a dreadful pickle at home.” Well, so far as his feelings—his sensibilities are concerned he is; but he’s not a mean-fed, mean-clothed, ridiculed slave; he’s not tumbled down on a hard mattress, on the bare floor, in a negro house, this pinching freezing weather.— I wouldn't expose George to such hardships and insults, if he never got an education during ash and oak.” “ I think that very likely." “ Surely, upon the face of the whole earth there can be found some school as good as old Waddel’s, where boys can be taught without being made niggers of.” “Mr. Waddel is not old, precious; and it would distress him mightily if he knew that you didn’t like liis school.” “ I don’t care whether he’s old or young, nor what he likes or dislikes. One thing is certain, and that is that George never goes to him with my consent.” Well, come darling, let’s go home 1 you have comforted Anna more in a few minutes than I could have done in a month; for you have dried up her tears and actually drawn two or three smiles from her. My purpose is fully answered. 'Old as I am, I uever knew how to comfort wo men before. “ Brother, I thought you said Willington was a village!” “So it is, but nobody lives in it but students and one tavern-keeper.” “ I sent my letter there.” Well, maybs it vvi 1 get there. You should have sent it to Vienna. Come, sweetest, let's be going 1” “Go on, sweetest; anil I'll eonie when I’m ready I” CHAPTER XI. Consolations — Explanations — Vindication*—lies olutions— Tribulations. Few men living, have a higher respect for the “American fair” than we have. We regard them as a thousand times better than men, and do not feel that we pay them a very extravagant com pliment at that. Nor are we blind to the vir tues of the men. There are many splendid spe cimens of humanity among them; but, as a class, they do not equal the other sex in any thing, that tends to ennoble the human race. As good as women are, they would be better still, if it were not for the men ; and yet, with this con fession on our lips, we are constrained to say, that after all, woman is a very curious thing. In proof of this assertion, “ let facts be submitted to a candid world I” The reader has seen with what spirit and dig pity Mrs. Thompson reduced her husband to or der as soon as he begau to cast reflections upon wohien generally—how he opened a whole vol ume of family sercets. that the world would have never known hut for his ovor-lutudiuariau out givings—with what independence she spoke of “old Waddel," and his “likes, and his dislikes” —how sweetl-y she dismissed her husband—and how his sister was comforted by all these things. Now, after the Captain had retired, and the two Indies were left alone, what, think you, gentle reader, was the strain in which she continued, to her husband’s sister ? Why, of course : “Sis ter, you are too patient—too weak—too sub missive. Be independent. If we don’t show some spirit, men will make slaves of us. Resume your authority over your child, and take him away from that horrible monster, old Waddel, and his one hundred and fifty white slaves."— You are mistaken, kind reader. After a pause, long enough to let the Captain get out of hear ing, thus it ran : ' “Sister, that is a sweet letter of Mr. Waddel’s. How kind it was in him, to write so soon. How ever severe he may be, my life on it, he is a kind man at heart, and takes great pleasure in seeing the advancement of his scholars. It is very hard for a child raised as William has been to be exposed to such rough usage; but, after all, it may turn out for the best. Every day that I live I become more and more satisfied that after a certain age boys should be subjected en tirely to a father’s government. As you know, husband and I have had many disputes about 'the proper management of George, and I have always found that in the end he was right and I was wrong. We are too apt to let our love get the better of our judgment in the management of our children, especially our sons. I reckon it is a wise arrangement of Providence, tiiat men should not have much love and sympathy —that is, as much as we have—that they may not be led off by their affections into too much indulgence. So much better satisfied am I with David’s judgment, than I am in mine, in ruling boys, that 1 don’t pretend to oppose him in any thing concerning them, except in the little mat ter of dress ; and, besides, you know him well enough to know that when he once sets his head upon a thing, and puts his foot down, you'd just as well undertake to turn over the Court House with your little finger, as to move him. Now, I see he has made up his mind to keep William at Waddel’s, and nowhere but Waddel’s, and hois the more bent upon it, because he wants him to contend with those —what was that biggest man of all, that told him so much about Governor’s, and Senators, and Judges, and all that ?” “Gilmer ?” “ I never heard of him; did you ?” “No.” “Well, it’s very strange that we never heard of him—we’ve heard of all the rest of them. But, as I was saying : David thinks there never was such a bpy born for mind as William. I tell him I think George has quite as good a mind as William —not such a sprightly mind, but more solid. Don’t you think so, sister ?” “ George is a sweet, good boy, sister ; a boy to be proud of, and of tine mind. I’ve no doubt but that he will make a more solid, practical, useful man than William ; but ” “Well, I've told my husband so; buthesaysas for talent, for genuine, native talent, George wont do to be named in the samo year with William. And that’s another very strange thing in men ; have you never noticed it ? They always think every body else’s children smarter and better than their own. What was I saying? Oh— David’s head is set upon showing off William to those great folks, in ’.hat large school, and have his way he will; so I think, my dear Anna, you’d best try to reconcile yourself to it. Don’t let it distress you. Surely, if other people’s children, raised as tenderly as be has been, can live through it, he can.” “ Oh, I could bear it all with becoming forti tude, my dear sister, if I could be sure that j Two Dollars Per Annum, I | Always In Advance. f , William would live through it—that his consti tution would not be undermined by it. But the change is so sudden—in everything! If he lives through it, his spirit w'ill be broken down —he will be cowed—his ambition will be otifled. 1 know William’s disposition better than any body else in the world knows it. He can be led by kindness, stimulated by praise, and won by words; but he cannot bear linrshness, cen sure, and, least of all, chastisement. Now, is it not strange, my dear Mary—is it not unaccount able, that of all the schools in the world that is the one my poor child should be doomed to dt last ? When, and where, will his misfortunes end ? And now, what shall Ido ? What am I to do? I have given my child up to brother David’s control, and I know his inflexibility where he thinks lie’s right. There is one thing I know, and but one thing, that will overcome him, and that is my grief; but Ido not wish to afflict him with my anguish of heart. What trouble have I given him! What brotherly kindness has he shown me! How prophetic has been his forecast! How proud ho is of my son! How rejoiced when he does well! It is cru el in me to pain him. And yet, when I think of my poor boy, how can I help it ? Yes, I will, sister Mary—l will strive to suppress my feel ings ; at least, to hide them from brother David. . 1 am greatly delighted with Mr. Waddel’s letter. I am sure he is not the cruel, merciless man he has been represented to bo.” •‘Well, that is right, sister Anna. You be happy, and husband will be happy, and I will bo liappy, and we’ll all be happy. At least, hope for the nil you hear from William. It will be time enough to grieve when you near that William is tmhappy.” With theso words, and two emphatic kisses, moistened with the tears of both, the sisters parted. Now, wo could moralize as long, and quite as profitably, upoji the character of Mrs. Thompson, as Dickens does upon the characters which he dreams out; but, as we detest the repeated in terruptions of a story by long dry homilies from the author, we will take it for granted that when we faithfully delineate a character, the reader can draw his lessons of morality from it as well as we can; but, as it would be doiDg great in justice to the character of Mrs. Thompson to rest it with the reader upon an occasional inter view with her nearest and dearest friends, we are sure that we will be indulged in a word ex planatory of her seeming inconsistency iu the conversations just detailed. After long and careful observation of human nature, in all its phases, we are strongly im pressed with the idea that there are many wo men in the world—good women, sensible women, good wives, and good mothers, who are a little impulsive—liable, under very trying circum stances,'smell as masculine wit at feminine ex pense, he slurs at she sense, man’s snuffing at woman’s loving, and the like, to become slightly excited; and then, as they feel themselves called upon to extemporize without a moment’s prepara tion, or a moment’s pause, they, of course, do not deliver themselves with a due regard to logi cal precision, or methodical arrangement. Con strained in their hurry to snatch up any imple ment of warfare that presents itself, they have no time to consider its fitness, or unfitness, for the contest; consequently, they sometimes seize a battie-axe, with handle so long, that, while the blade hits the enemy, the handle knocks down two or three friends at the same time. They send oft' a petard so mal-adroitly that, while it only singes the foe, it Wows up whole platoons of allies. It should be remembered, likewise, that they fight only “to restore the equilibri um ” —never for permanent conquest It would be very strange, therefore, i£ under these cir cumstances, they did not at times seem incon sistent in their words and ways. Now, Mrs. Thompson was one of this class, and one of the very best of this class. While upon this head, let me disabuse tho reader’s mind of another false impression that he may, perchance, receive from the scene of consolations which he has just witnessed. He may suppose from the Captain’s sudden ehange of note, as soon as his wife took up the soothing harpsichord, that, except in the matter of George, and upon a few very rare oc casions, when “he put his foot down,” he was under pretty rigid petticoat government Not so. Foot down, or foot up, whenever a material issue occurred between the heads of the family, his judgment was final and conclusive; but in matters of minor import both acted independently. (TO BE CONTINUED.) A beautiful mmle 'is to The female counte nance what the sunbeam is to the landscape. It embellishes an inferior face, and redeems an ugly one. There are many kind of smiles, each having a distinctive character—somo announce good ness and sweetness, others betray sarcasm, bit terness, and pride; somo soften the countenance by their languising tenderness, others brighten it up by their brilliaut and spiritual vivacity. Gazing and poring before a mirror cannot aid in acquiring beautiful smiles half as well as to turn tho gaze inward to watch that the mind continues unsullied, and constantly illuminated by pure, kind, and cheerful thoughts. Southern Homestead. NO. 10.