University of Virginia Library

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120

ANTIQUITY IN A SHOWER.

[ILLUSTRATION] [Description: 677EAF. Page 120. In-line Illustration. Image of a man, an old woman, and a young boy. The old woman is holding something unknown up in front of her.]

MRS. Partington attended the
dedication of Mount Hope
Cemetery, in Dorchester, and
got wet with the rain. No
sheltering umbrella was there
to hold its broad surface above
her venerable head; and the
rain, all regardless of her
august presence, poured down
relentlessly. But we will let
her tell the story in her own
way.

“The seminary would have been dictated, but, by an
imposition of divine Providence, the bottles of heaven
were uncorked and the rains fell as if another delusion
was agoing to destroy the world. The lightning blazed
horridly, and everybody was filled with constipation.
Not a shelter to be had! I tried to lean over and get
my bonnet under a gentleman's umbrel, in front of me,
and the water all run down into my back like a spout,
till I was satiated through and through like an old boot.
Cold chills run over me as if I had an ager, and, O
dear! look at that bonnet.”

Certainly the faded remnant had wilted, the pasteboard
that formed the crown had relaxed and shook flabbily
as we held it, and irreparable decay seemed written
upon it.

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121

“It never will be fit to be seen again!” said she,
and we fancied a tone of deeper sorrow in her words, as
she looked straight up at the stiff old corporal on the
wall, whom this antique crape commemorated. Heaven
bless thee, Mrs. Partington! we thought, and felt round
our capacious pocket for a dollar to leave with her, but,
as it usually happens when our benevolence comes on,
we found none, and came away with a paper pinned to
our coat-tail by that “everlasting Ike.”