Sweet Cicely

pected. His niece Cicely and her little boy was goin' to pass through Jonesville the next day on her way to vi

egraf ten minutes, was out killin' a hen. The plumpest one in the flock was

n she was a girl. Sweet Cicely is a plant that has a pretty white posy. And our niece Cicely was pr

ns will. Their mother died when they wus both of 'em babies; and they wus adopted by a rich aunt, who brought 'em up elega

oman; and Cicely wus her only child. And the two wus bound up in each

cely wus about ten; and how we did love that girl! Her mother couldn't bear to have her out of her sight; and I declare, we all of us wus jest about as bad. And from that time they used to spend mos

her, and wonder if the Lord could have made a prettier, sweeter girl if

her seem older and more thoughtful than girls usially are. It seemed as if her great dark eyes wus full of wisdom beyend-

ad a gentle, tender mouth, rose-pink; and her cheeks wuz, when she would get rousted up and excited about any thing; and then it would all sort o' die out again into that pure white. And over all her face, as sweet and womanly as it was, there was a look of

he loved. You could see that in her face before you

And she wus a little body, slender, and sort o' plump too; and

at us for callin' her after the posy Sweet Cicely; for sh

said she couldn't liv

oor little cre

licate, and couldn't live no longer: so she died. And Josiah and

he night; many's the times I have gone in, and took her in my arms, and held her there, and cried with her, and soothed her, and got her to sleep, and held her in my arms like a baby till mornin'. Wa

d got into the habit at college, where his mate wus wild, and had his turns. But he wus very

with him, only jest his chin. And I told Josiah, that how C

"What is the matt

dly," says I. "The place where his chin ort to be is nothin' but a holler place all filled

ourse, the very first time in our two lives-Josiah called me a fool, a "dumb fool," or j

a battle-field, I grew stronger for the

ee if you live, Josia

love with him under a fur collar. It wus on a slay-ride. And he wuz very handsome from his mouth up, very: his mouth wuz ruther w

he'd had, but didn't care for 'em. But I knew, with her temperament and nater, that love, i

why, she can't help herself, chin or no chin. When a woman has once throwed herself in front of her idol, it hain't so mu

od deal easier for her than to unlove, as she found out afterwards. For twice before her ma

unlove him, tri

ke out of it her love for him: it had become a part of her. And he told her she could s

ed him-believed that she could love him so well, throw her inf

enough in the sublime martyrdom of the idee, to make angels smile; and vain enough, and foolish enough

-when he is on probation, as you may say,-to stop and turn round in his downward course,

lled, I could see by the look in her eyes, though she didn't say much, that it wusn't no use for me to talk; for she wus one of the constant nature

would say, "What a fool she wus to have him!"-I'd say to 'em, "Wall, when a woman sees the man she loves goin' down to ruination, and tries to unlo

n my way, when he had come a courtin' me so far gone with liquor that he could hardly stand up-why, I should have told him pla

ed to abstain, and could, and did, f

in (why, he hadn't no chin at all, as you may say; and his lips was weak and waverin' as ever lips was, though sort o' amiable and fascinating),-and I got to forebodin' so about that chin, and my

d too. And I says to

he ruin of

n by his hand, than to be crowned by a

so earnest and solemn, with tears in them pretty brown eyes, there

rchief, and couldn't help it, and coul

id he will break y

I am with him. I am afraid of noth

r then and there, how much misery I could have saved her from! But I couldn't: I had the rheumatiz. And I had to give up, and go hom

tand temptation if it came in his way. At the same time, his love for Cicely was such, and his good heart and his natural g

out runnin' right into 'em, it would have got along. That chin, and them waverin'-lookin', amiable lips, would

p' out of their way; and Cicely was happy,-radiently happy, as only such a nature as hern can b

I almost forgot to forebode about the lower part of hi

perty to him, and the other third to his ma, which wus more than she could eve

the village was built on, and had built most all the village himself, and rented

humbed by a pole, before he had ever gone there). He had lost his property, and come down in the world,

he was bright, witty, generous in a way, unprincipled, dissipated. And he wanted Paul's company,

e he wus down in the world. He wouldn't have much to do with him, but it wouldn't do to not notice him at all. How curius, that out of good com

again. He didn't mean to. He hadn't no idee

he old, smooth track worn by millions of jest such weak feet, towards ruin. And Cicel

teous: everybody was to Cicely. But in a polite way he told her that Paul wus his best customer, and he shouldn't offend him by refusing

y, wouldn't he have mer

e her to understand that h

ay, "that he had the law on his side: he had a lic

and further down the road that has but one ending. Lower and lower

to find him, tremblin' at every little heap of snow that wus tumbled up in the path in front of 'em; tremblin' and sick at heart with the agony and dread that wus rackin' their souls, as they would look over the cold fields of snow stretching on each side of the road, and thinkin' how th

nd there they found him,-there he lay,

rted wife, with the tears running down their white cheeks,

ou did not tempt him, entice him here, he wo

k his hat off while he told 'em, so I hearn, "that he couldn't go against hi

our hearts?" c

?" sobbed out Cicely, her big, sorrowful eyes l

in a pleasant to

United States had sold him, for a few dollars, the right to do just what he was doing. The law, and all the respectability that the laws of our great and glorious Repu

ove him so, and who are forced to stand by powerless, and see him going to rui

e gid 'em the cruel sneer he did at the last,-thoug

law; and I see no other way for you ladies who fee

haired mother, with her solemn eyes lifted

omised to cherish her, and comfort her, and protect her, layin' there at her feet, a mark for jeers an

power in this matter, but they had none. They had intellectual power enough, which, added to their utter helplessness, only made their burden more unendurable; for they compr

but they lacked the tacklin'-power that was wanted to grip holt of him, and draw him back. What they needed was the justice of the law to tackle the injustice; and they hadn't got it, and couldn't get holt of it:

ne, he left Cicely with her pretty baby asleep on her bosom, went down to the saloon, got into a quarrel with that very friend of hisen, the saloon-keeper, over a game of billia

children when they was a cryin' over it; no worse, I told my own heart when the tears wus a runnin' down my fac

s, jest such disgrace, caused by the same cause;-as I told Josiah,

and woe; he believed in makin' it respectable, and wrappin' round it the mantilly of the law, to keep it in a warm, healthy, flo

in' his bandana hard, and sayin', in

Cicely!

her; 'poor girl'-has killed her; for she won't live through

n't bear to see him squirm voyalently, as much as I blamed h

linen handkerchief, and he cried into his

his mother,-she a brokenhearted woman too. Her heart broke, too, by the United States; and so I told Josiah, that little villain that got killed was only one of his agents. Yes, her heart was b

e. And so I wrote to Josiah that I guessed she wo

that used to brighten up our home for us. She was our sweet Cicely still. But she looked

't seem as if she had any interest at all in life, or care for any thing that was a goin' on in the world, till the boy wus about four years old; and th

ers, made as alluring as private avarice could make them, and made as respectable as dignified legal enactments could make them,-all to draw her boy down the pathway his poor father descended." For one of the curius things about Cicely wuz, she didn't seem to b

or feelin' so when I thought of Paul's chin and lips. Why, anybody that had them on 'em, and was made up inside and outside accordin', as folks be that have them

ortrait of him at Paul's old home: I stopped there on my way home from Cicely's one time. And for all the world he looked most exactly like Paul,-the same sort of a irresolute, handsome, weak, fascinating look to him. And all through them portraits I

that face had traits accordin'; and most eve

with no further trouble than the loss of the chin, and the feelin' they must

know as I can blame Cicely for feelin' as she did. If temptation hadn't stood right in the road in front of hi

rn, and begun to get all worked up and excited by turns a worryin' about

her husband's death. She seemed to make an effort almost like that of a dead man throwin' off the icy stupor of death, and risin' up wit

ry to throw some safeguards around his future. What could she do

ike a wounded animal, she had wanted to crawl away, and hide her cruel woe and di

cieties,-helped push 'em forward with her money and her influence. With other white-souled wimmen, gentle and refined as she was, she went into rough bar-rooms, and knelt on their floors, and prayed what he

ge property, but it wus all in the hands of an executor until the boy wus of age. He wus to give Cic

r a bargain, and sot, awful sot. And though he wus dretful polite, and made a stiddy pract

wus invested in these buildings. At that time they wus rented for dry-goods stores, and groceries. But the business of the manufactories had increased greatly; and there wus three times the population now there wus when she went there to live, and more saloons wus needed;

t which, of course, wus ruinous to themselves and families, and, of course, rendered them incapable of all labor for

nfine the madmen the whiskey had made, and poorhouse-doors for the idiots it had breeded, to l

r too deep, for a woman's mind to comprehend

lves, in the first place, in direct taxation, why, that wouldn't have been statesmanshi

h of a horse-hair, and he a smilin' all the time at her, and polite. He liked Cicely: nobody could help likin'

or-traffic, and ruin men and wimmen; and she a feelin' like death about it, and her hands tied up, and

kin' that her property wus a bein' used every day and every hour in ruinin' other mothers' boys. And the boy's face almost breakin' her heart every time she looked at it; for, though he wus jest as pretty as a child could be, the pretty rosy lips had the same good-tempered, irresolute curve to 'em that the bo

ome at him through my specks. Cicely see it, see that dubersome look, though I tried to turn it off by kissin' him jest as hearty as I

deepest of mournin', and

in there for the boy; and I went right up to her room with her. And when we had got there, I took her right in

nes under 'em), and pulled a stand forward, and lit a lamp,-it wus sundown,-the room looked cheerful enough for anybody, and it seemed as if Cicely looked a little less white and brokenhearted. She wus glad to be with me, and said she wuz. But right th

polite and troublesome (Cicely wus a perfect lady, inside and out), she would talk to me about what she wanted to do for the boy, to have the law

band died; but I want to live now. Why, I must live; I cannot die, I dare no

rin' only for them she loved. Lovin' little creeter, good little

h and me did, in Thomas Jefferson's little high-chair. I had n

e after we went to bed, Josiah and me did,-that the boy asked 3 thousand and 85 questions ab

d to use Cicely first-rate, and we loved the boy too. But, oh!

t in a cross tone, but amiable, and almost winnin'. Josiah thought they went up into the trillions. But I am one that never li

gan pretty soon, to see a daughter who wus out of health,-had been out of it for some time,-and she wanted a vi

kin' beautiful, by the side of me on the back seat of the Democrat; his uncle Josiah sot in front; and Ury drove. Ury Henzy, he's our hired

dlin' powerful sermon; and the boy sot up between Josiah and me, and we wus proud enough of him. He had on a little green velvet suit and a deep linen collar; and he sot considerable still for him, with his eyes on

boy asked on our way home, about the creation, how the world wus made, and the ark-oh, how he harressed my poo

says

nakes, and snakes, and bears, and tig

s,

es? and mud-turkles? and bumble-bees? and muskeeter

'pos

ey drive in t

up your little mouth," says Josiah in

, uncle Josiah, but I c

le he wus a sithin', the boy

siah sweat, and offered to let the boy come back, and set with me. He had insisted, when we

and eat a sweet apple. I don't think it is wrong

ff of? Did he fall ou

fell because

ght on, in a tone o

all a walking right along. He

, after a minute

m's leg, I could kep' him from fallin' off;-and say, where

can do an

en, why d

groan

ldn't have fell, would I?-n

s'pos

paid to kept Adam up?

else," says my poor Josiah.

all of us to fall down because Adam did? And how did I sin just because a man eat an apple, and fell out of an apple-tree, when I never saw the

broke out kinder a singin' in a tone full of fag,

fell out of an apple-tree? Say, is it right, uncle Josiah, for you and me, and everybody that is on the earth, to keep a falling, and keep

they hain

e ground, and got up agin? And if anybody falls, why, why, mustn't they come to the bottom some

ed dreamier than they ha

ut of dirt, u

e all made

o us? Was it His own self, His own

ged voice than he had used durin'

losing His own self? And how could God lose Himself? And what did H

er on the seat with me, and took the lines out of Ury's hands, and drove the