gcls_courant_011 1

THE COURANT,
A Southern Literary Journal.
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HOWARD H. CALDWELL, EDITOR] "Sic vos non vobis." [WM. W. WALKER, JR., & CO., PROPRIETORS.
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VOLUME I. COLUMBIA, S. C., THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1859. NUMBER 12
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For the Courant
"PIGNORA FORTUNÆ."
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BY HOWARD H. CALDWELL.
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I.
I stole into the darkened room,
Mother and child were sleeping there:
Long, silken lashes closed to rest,
Dear hands upon each swelling breast--
Smiles beaming on both faces fair:
The face that won my heart in youth,
And kept it by her life-long Truth.

II.
And her's--that blessing lately given,
In pain and many an anxious doubt--
In whose blue orbs this dark world seems
To me new-robed in beauteous beams
Descending from a gracious Heaven--
Sweet babe! whose smiles recall again
Each hope that once had beamed in vain!

III.
They sleep, nor dream that humid eyes
Are gazing on them in their slumbers:
The charmed air is faint and still,
Save that the mock-bird loud, and shrill,
Pours his swift-varying numbers--
Delicious silence wraps us round,
Like incense on some hallowed ground.

IV.
Oh Love! this is thy holiest hour--
Oh Joy, the Cross that crowns thy Crown!
See! like a dove when storm-clouds lower,
The angel-babe doth, nestling, cower
To woo the soft caresses down,
And sleeping Nature knows by heart
How to perform that tender part!

V.
A sigh--the tiny eye-lids close,
The dainty hands are folded soft--
And all around that snow-white bed,
A halo bright meseems to spread,
Such as we dream not oft;
A light, that like the Guiding Fire,
Shall lead my soul to region higher:

VI.
Pure regions of the pure in heart,
Where love enjoys for aye the bliss
Of wide expansion in the Best,
The high employment of the blest;
On earth, taught by such scenes as this,
That to our weary hearts hath given
A bright and glorious dream of Heaven!
July, 1859.
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For the Courant.
LITTLE LUCY.
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Conquerimar Natura, Crevis quod gratia florum est.
Ostentata oculis illico dona rapis.--Auson Idyl, XIV. 41.
About a quarter-century ago, in the city of Charleston,
there lived an aged couple, whose declining sun had been
suddenly darkened by severe domestic affliction--the
loss of their only son. Instead of seeking to lose, in
brighter scenes, the remembrance of past bereavement,
they retired, meekly, under the cloud, and resigned
themselves, at once, to their lonely fate. But in the
most bitter cup of affliction there are some alleviating
drops; and Providence had kindly tempered their grief
at the loss of their son, with the satisfaction of possessing
his infant daughter, in whom they saw their descendant
of the second generation.
The young man, whose untimely decease had drawn
such gloom over that hitherto happy household, had just
reached man's estate; was united to one every way
worthy of his manly affection, and enjoyed, in tranquil,
domestic happiness, the fruits of his parents' industry
and economy. But, by an unexpected stroke, he was
cut down. Grief for his loss, preying upon a frail con-
stitution, and aggravating a malady, under which she
had for some time suffered, was too much for the delicate
being whom he left behind; and, after a few months,
his wife lay beside him. Her only concern in death was
for the infant, to which she had, a short time before,
given birth; and commending it, with her last words, to
the kindness of those, who, she said, had been so kind
to her, and under whose roof she had passed the happi-
est and the saddest hours of her life, she imparted her
dying kiss upon its little cheek, and closed her eyes upon
the world forever.
A few months passed away; when the old people,
having sufficiently recovered from the shock to think
about arrangements for the future, resolved to leave the
city, quitting, forever, scenes which were now only the
remembrances of sorrow. Through the intervention of
a friend, a farm was purchased in the up-country, a few
miles from a quiet and thriving village. To this place
they prepared to depart. But, before we conduct them
thither, we must introduce to our readers some of those
who are to accompany them; as they form the principal
dramatis personæ of our story.
Mr. and Mrs. Howard, a maiden sister of the former,
and the orphan child, together with their servants, con-
stituted the entire household. Miss Sally Howard was
a tall, spare woman, of a not very prepossessing appear-
ance. Her voice was loud and shrill; and, if one might
judge from her keen, fiery eye, its pitch may have been
somewhat elevated by a habit of scolding. Of this, how-
ever, the reader will judge better hereafter. She had
reached that time of life at which single ladies, gene-
rally, cease to be pretty, without always ceasing to be
vain. Everything which ingenuity could suggest, or art
contrive, was had in requisition to repair the ravages
that time had made on her person, which, to confess the
truth, had never been peculiarly fascinating. Artificial
teeth supplied the places of their long lost predecessors,
and ringlets, which had derived their growth from other
heads, hung gracefully over her sallow, wrinkled brow;
whilst the mysterious contrivance of that craft, which is
a secret to the sturdier sex, served to disguise the scanty
portion of flesh, which had survived her fretting and
teasing. Miss Sally was not naturally ill-tempered; but
she was nice and prim to a proverb; and a residence of
somewhat more than two-score years, in this dirty and
disordered world, had disturbed, to a considerable degree,
her placidity. Nothing suited her exactly; and not a
day passed without revealing some lamentable source of
disquietude. Our readers will, perhaps, auger unfavor-
ably of the prospects of the little orphan, when we in-
form them that Miss Sally claimed her as her ward, and
resolved to exhibit, in little Lucy, a practical demonstra-
tion of the benefits of her system of training. The child
was to be under her particular direction; and she was to
make a world's wonder of her. So much for Miss Sally
and her ward.
On the day of their departure, Mr. Howard descended
the steps of his residence, supporting his venerable part-
ner on his arm, and, with emotions too strong for utter-
ance, approached the carriage, which Miss Sally, with
her fondling, had preceded them. As soon as they were
seated, he called to the coachman to move on. "Sir?"
responded the boy, who had failed to catch his master's
stifled accents. There was no reply. An old negro
man on the sidewalk waved his hand, and the carriage
moved slowly away.
"Dat's de only way, daddy Toney," said a female ser-
vant, addressing the old man who had given the signal
to the coachman; "when people's heart berry hebby,
you mustn't talk to 'um, as de minister say, toder day,
when he 'scourse' 'bout de friends ob Job."
Old toney did not attempt to reply to this philosophi-
cal commentary upon his pantomimic sympathy, but has-
tened to gather the few things that remained, and fol-
low his master.
Toney had long been the confidential servant of Mr.
Howard, and no one better deserved such a station. He
had been his master's playmate, when they were boys to-
gether; was his constant attendant when away from
home, and exercised a general superintendence over his
domestic affairs. In consideration of his age and station,
public as well as private, (for the old fellow was a sort
of under-shepherd in one of the city churches,) he was
generally saluted as daddy Toney. That he was not un-
apprised of his position in society, was very manifest
from the dignified air which he assumed abroad, and the
authority he exercised at home, not unfrequently making
an ostentatious display of it, by brandishing his stick over
the heads of the little negroes. The old man would
sometimes scold and stamp about among his fellow-ser-
vants; but it was merely to remind them of his place,
and enforce obedience. He was the favorite of all.--
Such was his unaffected kindness and politeness, (for he
greatly affected gentility,) that he was respected, alike,
by white and black. Even the little negroes, who would
be as mute as mice, when the old man raved at them for
"keepin' up sich a clatter in the yard," would play
freely and without restraint about him, as he sat, of a
winter's evening, smoking his pipe, by the kitchen fire.
Toney truly loved, and it is not too much to say, was
beloved by the late Edmund Howard. He was deeply]
affected by his death; and, although he did his best to
conceal his emotions, especially in presence of his fellow-
servants, thinking such weakness not altogether consis-
tent with his official station; yet, whenever the name of
Edmund was accidentally introduced at the kitchen fire,
the old man would have a sudden call out of the room;
or would walk to the door, look out, and draw the back
of his right hand across his face.
The removal from the city was quite unacceptable to
Daddy Toney; for, like most cits, he was much attached
to the comforts and conveniences of the metropolis. He
particularly regretted, he said, "being shut out from his
spiritual privileges," meaning the opportunity of going
to church three times on Sunday, and once or twice du-
ring the week. But notwithstanding the reluctance of
the aged slave, he was too kind and faithful to trouble
his master with objections, and went on with the prepa-
rations for removing as industriously as if it had been
his own proposition.
On the day on which we have introduced Toney to ur
readers, he was dressed in his best Sunday-clothes. A
black suit, somewhat the worse for wear, shrouded his
tall dignified person, whilst a clean white cravat and
shirt-bosom formed an agreeable transition from his sable
garb to his still more sable face. From the right pocket
of his coat, which hung loosely from his shoulders, de-
pended a bandana handkerchief--a luxury which was
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