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most of my likenesses do look unamiable but the very sufficient reason i fancy is because the originals are so |
there is a wonderful insight in heaven's broad and simple sunshine |
while we give it credit only for depicting the merest surface it actually brings out the secret character with a truth that no painter would ever venture upon even could he detect it |
yet the original wears to common eyes a very different expression |
he exhibited a daguerreotype miniature in a morocco case |
phoebe merely glanced at it and gave it back |
i can assure you that this is a modern face and one which you will very probably meet |
the sun as you see tells quite another story and will not be coaxed out of it after half a dozen patient attempts on my part |
here we have the man sly subtle hard imperious and withal cold as ice look at that eye |
and yet if you could only see the benign smile of the original |
well i don't wish to see it any more observed phoebe turning away her eyes it is certainly very like the old portrait |
if the original is still in the world i think he might defy the sun to make him look stern and hard |
is there nothing wild in the eye continued holgrave so earnestly that it embarrassed phoebe as did also the quiet freedom with which he presumed on their so recent acquaintance |
it is nonsense said phoebe a little impatiently for us to talk about a picture which you have never seen |
since you are a friend of my cousin hepzibah's you should ask her to show you the picture |
so we will be fellow laborers somewhat on the community system |
she did not altogether like him |
oh rejoined the daguerreotypist because like an old lady's cup of tea it is water bewitched |
she was indistinctly aware however that the gaunt figure of the old gentlewoman was sitting in one of the straight backed chairs a little withdrawn from the window the faint gleam of which showed the blanched paleness of her cheek turned sideways towards a corner |
but put it on the table in the corner of the passage |
what an instrument is the human voice |
how wonderfully responsive to every emotion of the human soul |
fewer words than before but with the same mysterious music in them |
pray go to bed for i am sure you must need rest |
i will sit in the parlor awhile and collect my thoughts |
while thus dismissing her the maiden lady stept forward kissed phoebe and pressed her to her heart which beat against the girl's bosom with a strong high and tumultuous swell |
at some uncertain period in the depths of night and as it were through the thin veil of a dream she was conscious of a footstep mounting the stairs heavily but not with force and decision |
long ago there lived a merchant who had three daughters |
every year at a certain day of a certain month he went away to a distant city to collect money on an account |
how do you know asked their father i am older and wiser than you are and i know that there are many evils which might come upon you |
when it was evening he led his band into a nearby street and in his disguise approached the merchant's house he knocked at the door |
have pity upon a poor unfortunate one he called out |
let me enter i pray you to pass the night under your roof |
it's surely a terrible storm outside said the merchant's eldest daughter as the wind rattled the tiles of the roof and the rain beat in torrents against the doors and windows |
he is old as well as poor she said |
if we decide to show mercy to this poor beggar it is not for you to oppose it |
bui we should not forget our promise to our father cried the youngest daughter |
however in spite of all she could say the elder sisters opened the door and admitted the beggar |
it is a fearful night to send away a beggar said the eldest sister while they were eating |
while they were talking the beggar had taken the apples which the girls were to eat for dessert and had sprinkled a sleeping powder over them |
the two eldest ate their apples but the youngest could not eat that night she threw the apple away |
she did not stir and he knew that the sleeping powder had thoroughly done its work |
then she heard him go down the stairway and unbolt the heavy doors which led into the store |
it was the youngest one who deceived me cried the robber chieftain |
perhaps you can outwit her yet cried another |
the merchant's daughter at first did not answer but as he kept on calling to her she finally asked him what it was that he wanted |
i promise you i will do you no harm |
you shall not come into my father's house |
pass the charm out to me then said the robber |
when she returned his hand was sticking through the hole in the door |
the cries and curses of the robbers filled the air |
they tried in vain to break down the great doors |
all my worries about you were foolish |
grant was only a few miles away but although commander in chief he knew nothing of the hardest fought battle of the civil war until it was over |
my own regiment was in the advance |
our brigade was fearfully outnumbered |
there were no breastworks yet that one little brigade of hamilton's division stood there in the open and repulsed assault after assault |
not balaklava nor the alma saw such fighting it was a duel to the death |
no battery in the whole four years war lost so many men in so short a time |
one daring rebel was shot down and bayoneted clear behind the line of company b where he had broken through to seize the flag of my regiment |
that night the enemy slipped away leaving hundreds and hundreds of his dead and wounded on the field |
with a few lanterns our men then went about and tried to gather up the wounded the dead were left till morning |
it was not a question who was dead or wounded but who was not |
fifteen officers of our little half regiment were dead or wounded |
i remained awake all night talking with a comrade who shared my blanket with me poor jimmy king |
he survived the war only to be murdered later on a plantation in mississippi |
when morning came the firing opened and for all that day the battle raged fiercely at the left and center left we getting the worst of it too |
that evening an order came for us hamilton's division to assault the enemy's left flank at midnight |
under the same quiet moonlight and only six hundred yards away from us also lay the victorious rebel army |
once in the night i slipped away from the bivouac and hurried to the old tishimingo hotel to see a lieutenant of my company who had been shot through the breast |
i could not help my friend |
go back to the regiment he said smiling all will be needed |
my friend with many others was being carried out to die elsewhere |
i hastened back to the lines |
the cloud of rebels we had seen divided itself into three columns |
a perfect blaze of close range musketry too mowed them down like grass |
they lay in heaps of dozens even close up to the works |
that night i stood guard under an oak tree on the battlefield among the unburied dead |
indeed we of the rank and file had little confidence in grant in those days |
rosecrans protested it was in vain |
it required months and great events to make grant the hero of the army which he afterward became |
for some reason the dead at hatchie bridge were not buried |
a week after the battle my brother rode by there on a cavalry expedition and made the horrible discovery that hogs were eating up the bodies of our dead heroes that too was war |
he had little enough to break or bite and once when there was a great famine in the land he could hardly procure even his daily bread and as he lay thinking in his bed one night he sighed and said to his wife what will become of us |
how can we feed our children when we have no more than we can eat ourselves |
oh you simpleton said she then we must all four die of hunger you had better plane the coffins for us |
but she left him no peace till he consented saying ah but i shall miss the poor children |
and as soon as their parents had gone to sleep he got up put on his coat and unbarring the back door went out |
ah father said hansel i am looking at my white cat sitting upon the roof of the house and trying to say good bye |
but in reality hansel was not looking at a cat but every time he stopped he dropped a pebble out of his pocket upon the path |
but her husband felt heavy at heart and thought it were better to share the last crust with the children |
early in the morning the stepmother came and pulled them out of bed and gave them each a slice of bread which was still smaller than the former piece |
we are going into the forest to hew wood and in the evening when we are ready we will come and fetch you again |
hansel thought the roof tasted very nice and so he tore off a great piece while grethel broke a large round pane out of the window and sat down quite contentedly |
come in and stop with me and no harm shall come to you and so saying she took them both by the hand and led them into her cottage |
the old woman behaved very kindly to them but in reality she was a wicked old witch who way laid children and built the breadhouse in order to entice them in but as soon as they were in her power she killed them cooked and ate them and made a great festival of the day |
then she took up hansel with her rough hand and shut him up in a little cage with a lattice door and although he screamed loudly it was of no use |
grethel began to cry but it was all useless for the old witch made her do as she wanted |
grethel she cried in a passion get some water quickly be hansel fat or lean this morning i will kill and cook him |
dear good god help us now she prayed |
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