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ZZ.B' AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. oZnZeT
"Vol. "V. Noav J31ooiiiliolcl, 111., Tuesday, 3Xixrcli 11, lSl. IVo.' 11
Is Published Weekly,
At New liloomflcld, renn'a.
11T
FRANK MORTIMER.
BUBSCIUPTION TEHM8.
ONE DOLL All PEll YEAR I
60 Cents for 6 Months,' 40 Cents
for 3 Months,
A 'Woman's Answer to her Lover.
I am fair and young but tho ruse will (ado
From my soft young cheek ono day
"Will you love me then, 'mid the falling leaves,
As you did 'mid the blossoms of M ay t
Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep
I may launch my all on Its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she becomes a bride.
I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my lifo
To be all you demand of me.
If you cannot be this a laundress and cook
You can hire; and a llttlo to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's lifo
Are not to be won In that way. '
HUSKISSON'S LOVE AFFAIR.
WHEN IT came at last to asking Sam
uel Rowley's coiiKont to pay my ad
dresses to his ward, I know it was all over
with me. I felt that it was all over direct
ly. I was down into the library where
Samuel Rowley sat before tho fire, toasting
his gouty feet, and reading his Timet news
paper. I folt it was so completely all over
with mo that I would very gladly have
backed myself out of tho room without en
toring into any particulars as to tho object
of my visit. I would have cheerfully in
formed him that I was an agent for Boshi
tor's hair-restorer, and had called with a
sauiplo, which might bo returned if not ap
proved after ouo day's rubbing. But he
know mo, and I know him. Ho understood
perfectly well why I had solicited the honor
of an interview with him at 12 o'clock a.
m. ; he was a sharp old gentloman who had
his eyes upon mo for some time, and was
not to bo imposed upon,
"Ho said, "Take a seat, Mr. , I
forget your name ;" and then ho fumbled
with his glasses and referred to my polito
epistlo, which lay on tho tablo near him.
I took a seat and nursed my hat. I por
spirod a little. I had a tremulous motion
of my knees como on, which mado mo look
ridiculous. I waited for him to begin, but
he did not. I bogan myself, after ono or
two secret encounters in my throat, with a
something which felt vory much like a
cork out of a soda-water bottlo.
"You are not aware that is, you cannot
but bo aware that I have long regarded
your ward Clara with . Did you
speak, sir?"
"No, sir. I did not 8oak."
He had given an awful cough of a double
knock character, that was all. Ho kept his
glasses on his nose, and focussod mo, and
the operation w as unpleasant. Ho was not
pleasant in his reception of my statement
either ; he was decidedly unpleasant, not to
say desperately disagreeable. But then ho
was a cross, ill-grainod old follow ; every
body knew it iu Wolvorston, and I have no
particular reason to disguise it here.
I recommenced my statement ; I poured
fortli tho best feelings of my heart, and with
an eloquence that might have melted ada
mant, I confessed to him that Clara was
my one ambition. As I have said already
I know that it was all over with mo, but I
was poctlo even in the midst of my des
pairing consciousness.
Mr. Rowley putasido his newspaper, drew
his chair an inch or two closer to me, put
his great hands rather disposed to bo
gouty, like his feet upou his knees, and
surveyed mo from head to foot contemptu
ously. "May I ask your age, young man'."' lie
said.
This M as my weak point of defence, but
I told him.
'Seventeen."
" And how did you first becomo acquain
ted with my Clara, who is a year your
junior, tho hussy ?"
" Well, Mr. Rowley, it has been a long
attachment j my mushing school at Bees
borough wns situated opposite her finishing
school, and wo saw each other at church j
and I think "
"I think that you both ought to behorso.
whipped 1" ho said, fiercely interrupting
me ; "and as for my consent to Clara's civ
gagement to a uoy iiko you j. win oven
go so far as to say a whipper snapper like
you "
" A whipper-snapper, sir ?"
"I repeat it, a whipper-snapper 1" cried
old Rowley, becoming vory red and apoplec
tic in appearance "Ideclino to listen to
your preposterou a proposal for ono instant,
Clara is only sixteen, and docs not know
her own mind she is a more child."
"But wo shall both grow older, Mr.
Rowley."
"Ah, and more sensible, I hope. Good
morning."
" Good morning, sir."
I did not wait to toll him of my expecta
tions from my grandmother, or to reason
with him on his want of justice and consid
eration. I went away crest-fallen and
heart-broken. I dashed from tho library
in despair, and brought my forehead against
that of my beloved's witli a concussion that
was nearly tho means of stretching our
sonselcss forms outside the tyrant's don,
the victims of his cruel obduracy. Clara,
naturally interested in tho result of my in
terview with her guardian had forced her
pure but anxious soul to listen at tho libra
ry koy-holo. I had retired in hasto and
floored her.
"Oh, my gracious 1" Bhe sobbed forth;
" I did not know you were coming out liko
that ! Oh, my head ! Oh, how dreadful ! Oh.
Alphonso, wo must part forever !"
She rested her head on mv shoulder and
shed many tears. I kissed away her tears ;
I patted her head fondly, keeping clear of
tho bump which I had raised there. I
could scarcely soo her eoldon hair for toars
myself tho water had risen into my eyes
immediately wo had mot each other. I
sought to calm her emotion. I bado her bo
firm, and I recommondod vinegar and
brown paper for her damaged brow. I
said that I should try them mvsolf when T
got homo. I told hor that I would rather
uio man relinquish hor j sho said the same
thing in a burst of uncontrollable emotion :
we renewed our vows of eternal fidelity, and
tore ourselves from each other's arms,
crushed in spirit, but strong yet to resist
unjust oppression.
I told all my troubles to Jack Edwaida.
my bosom friond and adviser. Jack and I
had been school-follows together ; wo wore
going into tho medical profession togother
presently ; my father had resolved that I
should walk tho hospitals instead of tho
rosy path of love. Jack heard my story,
and said that ho would not have stood half
of old Rowley's nonsense ; but what he
would have done under tho circumstances
he did not impart to mo at tho time, and I
lorgot to ask him afterward.
Clara and I mot clandestinely. We we
lovers from our youth ; the flinty hoart of a
guardian who had outlived mortal passion
was not to stand between our fresh young
souls.
I met Clara in tho villace : I scaled tho
park fcuco and met her in tho grcon wood j
and Jack, good fellow, kept watch on tho
door of tho hall, and old Rowley's library
windows, with a telescope, lest wo should
bo surprised at any moment. Clara and
I passed much of our time talking of what
we would do when sho came into hor proper
ty at twenty-ono, and my grandmother
favored mo by departing from this earthlv
sphere ; but it was a sharp winter, and our
tooth chattered over our prospects. Clara
and I usod to arrange our meetings in this
wise ; Clara had a confident in tho tramo-
keoper, Peter Stokes, an invaluable man,
with a weakness for tobacco, aud with a
heart allcharity toward hisfullow-orcatures.
1'oter was always getting up subscrintions
for his fullow-crcaturos in tho village ; and
what with his subscriptions and bis tobacco,
I kept him entirely iu tobacco. mvnoek.
et-moncy know but little rest. Still, ho
nau a good lioart, and was kind to us. Ho
took chargo of our correspondence, which
was carried on by a circumlocutory, but
ura process. viara gave it to her hiaid
Selina, another coufidan, who alas !
proved hersolf a preildious snake, and
Selina intrusted it to Rotor, who took it to
a gnarled monarch of tho forest an oak
tree, in fact, and concealed it from all
human gazo iu a small hollow cavity some
ton feet from tho ground, where, at a late
hour I found it, and deposited my answor
to be convoyod by tho samo process, in to
iny dearest Clara's hands.
Pctor was a lank old man, and very wiry ;
he could climb a tree like a squirrel, and I
wasagilo myself. Tho whole conception
was romantic, if you will, but grand ! I
thought so. Tho idea was from Millais'
picture, which we both carefully studied ;
and if Peter had not generally deposited
his small notes to myself, at tho same timo
asking iny "kind considerashun as a
gontloman born with a warm heart, to an
afflicting kaee in tho parissh," tho romantic
would have been puro and unalloyed.
Clara defied tho obdurato guardian for
two months ; it was February when Selina
Muggins betrayed us. I was advancing in
an innocent and unsuspecting manner to
the secret postofllco in tho wood, half a
milo from Mr. Rowley's house, when I bo
camo conscious of tho wholo perfidy. I
was closo upon tho tree, that bravo old
oak which had held so many secrets,
when voices in another direction filled my
soul.
They wore tho voices of Samuol Rowloy,
Esq., J. P., and Pctor Stokes, my Murcury.
I sank down in tho long grass, there was
a rapid thaw that morning, and tho damp
struck mo at once, I and trembled for my
lovo. I was not an instant too soon ; thoir
footsteps wore upon me, also ; ho shaved
my features by a hair's breadth, and passed
on. Tho harsh tones of his voice rang in
my cars an instant afterward.
" You don't consider yourself an abomi-
nablo scamp, I suppose," Mr. Rowley said,
"an unprincipled old vagabond, to act as
a go-botween to a silly school girl and that
idiot of a boy ? You never thought of tho
harm of encouraging this, did you?"
I'm worry sorry, sir," whimpered Pe
ter.
""fetching my ward to bo deceitful, for
tho sako of a few sixpenscs, I suppose."
" I've never had a ha'penny, your honor,
much more a sixpence."
Neither had ho. They were generally
half crowns ho was in tho habit of receiv
ing from mo.
" You desorvo to bo kicked out of my
service, Stokes drammed out of tho vil
lago, for a wicked old hypocrite !"
"They were vory fond of aeh other, sir,
and Miss Clara used to ask mo so beseech
ing ; and when I told her there was harm
in writing to Master Huskisson without her
dear gardowan's knowing anything about
it, she allcrs said it was for the last timo,
sir really.
" If it was not for your ago, Stokes, I'd
send you about your business this very
day."
" I worry sorry, sir," Stokos said again,
shedding many toars.
"Is this tho tree?"
"Yes, sir, that's tho treo."
"And Clara's last lottor is up there now,
oh? In that hole? Now, no more lies?"
"Yes, sir, in that hole."
"How on earth do you got ut it ?"
"Master Huskisson climbs up there, sir,
for his answor. I'll go up and fetch down
Miss Clara's letter in a minute."
Thore was a small epistle of his own he
wished to obtain as well, perhaps, or it was
possiblo that his noblo mind had suggosted
some schomo to save dear Clara's missive
from sacrilegious eyes. But Mr. Rowley
suspected this old servitor.
" Stop where you are, Stokos 1" he roar
ed forth ; "I'll have no more of your mon
key tricks. Give mo a back."
" Give you a wot, sir ?"
" Bond your back, you rascal, and I'll
jump on it and got tho letter myself."
"Jump on it?" repeated Stokos, with a
look of dismay at Mr. Rowley's portly fig
ure ; " it don't strike me that I can boar
your weight, master."
" It will bo only for a minuto," said Mr.
Rowley quite brutally ; and if I break your
back, it will sorve you right enough. I'm
not an elephant, man, and I will have no
more of this nonsense. "
Mr. Stokos resisted no furthor. Ho bent
his back, as if about to commonuo a gamo
of leapfrog with a justice of tho peace ;
and with more agility than I had given Mr.
Rowloy credit for, tho guardian was aloft,
and within an inch ortwoof our lottor-box.
O, lor 1 shall you bo long, sir ?" asked
Mr. Stokes, groaning softly to himself.
"Raise your shoulder, you rascal, a little
more," cried his employer.
Stokes did so, an d from my hiding place
I saw the hand of Mr. Rowley strive with
somo difficulty for it was a fut, gouty
hand, I havo already said to force itsolf
into that casket, which had contained so
many of my dear Clara's epistles. Sam
uol Rowloy was an excitablo man : but he
swore a little in his efforts, and turned vory
reu, ami moved liis feet restlessly upon
poor Stokos' back.
" I havo got it !' he cried at last. "The
artful jado the cunning plotting little
minx to serve hor own guardian iu this"
" What's the matter, sir?"
" Wait a moment, Stokos don't shako.
O, lor, havo morcy upon us 1 O, hang it !
0 doar, what is to bo done ?"
"Is anything particular tho matter, sir ?
Not a haddor, I opo, or a nest of serpents
or anythiuk ?" and old Stokes hid his head
alittlo more tucked iu his tuponny wo
callod it at school to conceal his laughing
sardonic countenance.
" No Stokes ; it's something much worse,
I'm sorry to say."
"Wus, sir?" said Stokes, who left off
laughing immediately.
" Yes 1 I I can't got my hand out I"
" Tho devil you can't, sir !" cried Stokes,
in dismay.
" It's twisted somehow, or swollen, or
tho wood has gripped mo. Wait a moment,
Stokes. Oli, it's all up with me 1 1 can't !"
" Tako it quiet, sir. Keep cool, or you
will never do it don't agitato yourself
but for God's sake look sharp. I'm crack
ing." "Don't move, Stokos as you aro a man
don't movo I If you were to drop, I can
not imagine what would bocomo of mo.
It will bo all right in a minuto."
"Make it loss if you can," groaned
Stokos ; "all the blood's got into my head,
orfull O, lor, what is to bo dono? Aro
you out, sir?"
"No, I'm not; I'm fixed, Stokes. I'm
a dead man if you move ; I am, indeed."
Stokes burst into tears, and howled with
all his might ; and Mr. Rowley shouted a
great deal, and swore a great doal, too.
Stokes would have run for it probably, for
ho was succumbing fast to the dead weight
above him, had not Mr. Rowley held him
by tho throat with his boots, and fixed him,
too. In another moment, I had sprung to
my feet, and was rushing to tho rescue.
"I am really very sorry, Mr. Rowloy;
can I bo of any assistance?"
" Assistance, you you young devil 1
Yes, you can my doar child. Run for a
ladder, and a saw, or something, quick as
lightning, to the house."
" Hi hi hollow 1" shrieked Stokes, as
1 prepared to obey Mr. Rowley's com
mands; "don't run come hero, and lot
mo run, or bust up I must 1 O, lor, Mas-
tor Huskisson, don't leave mo any longer
do como and tako a turn. He's not so
heavy when you're used to him ho isn't,
indeed."
1 saw tho necessity of advancing to the
rescue at once, and so did Mr. Rowloy. I
was tall for my ago and tolerably strong,
and I hastenod to take tho place of Mr.
Stokes which I did with great caution on
all sides. Behold mo at last bearing tho
guardian of Clara on my shouldors, and
feeling terribly tho weight of my responsi
bility as he stood with his face to tho troo,
still exercising his ingenuity to got his
hand out of tho trap.
"I hopo I,m not too hoavy for you,
Master Huskisson," ho condescended to
say politely for the sight of me was even
not pleasant to witness.
"Not, at all," was my choerful answer.
" You'll make yourself as light as you can
to obligo mo, perhaps ?"
I had not quite dono growing, and man is
fragilo during that process. Mr. Rowley
was very hoavy, and Stokes was wrong in
his assertion wickedly wrong.
" I his is all your fault, mind you.
Huskisson. This might have been my
death," ho said reproachfully.
" l es, Mr. Rowloy, if I hadn't been in
the way," was my happy rejoinder.
Ah I but" he looked around witli dif
ficulty, and found Stokos still there, making
every human effort to straighten his back
before flying on his mission. "Curso it,
Stokes run for yonr life! don't stand
thore you wretched lunatic, another in
stant 1"
Stokos ran away, and I was loft as tho
ono support of Mr. Rowloy. Stokes had
not boon gone a minuto and a half, whon I
wishod that he had remained and shared
tho weight with mo. I tried to koop firm.
but the difficulty was immense.
"Boy, you're giving! Don't shake ,' so.
Koop yourself more against tho treo," Mr.
Rowley called down.
" All right. I'll do it for Clara's sako,
if it's possiblo ; but if I snap " . j
1 hen I remember that he callod mo a
whipporsnappor ; and so did he, too, I
think, and was sorry.
"O, you 11 koop up," jhejsaid, offering
mo every oucouragemont iu his power.
" 1 ou're a big boy for seventeen, and I'm
only nine stone ten not a groat weight.
I've scon poople in a circus do this kind of
thing for hours, you know."
It was a gross exaggeration, and I felt it
to be one. I was getting faint also. I had
undertaken too much ; and his language at
times was still violent, as he eudoavored to
extricate his hand.
''If I should die, sir," I said feebly,
"will you please givo my love to Clara? Tell
her I did all I could to boar up and to
bear you up. O, dear ! Did you say nine
stono ten?"
"I did."
" You're giving !" he roared .'again with
a vohemonco that revived mo. "Keep up
alittlo longer, my doar boy. I can hear
them coming in tho distance"
WHch was another falsehood ; but no
matter. Mr. Rowley was not a truthful
man. I sot myself firmly against the tree,
according to his instructions, but it was of
no avail. My heels, in a fow more minutes,
would slide gracefully away from mo, I was
certain, and the guardian of my Clara
would be swinging about by ono arm, ;iiko
an early Christian martyr. His blood
would bo on my hoad, and so would Ihe, if
ho came down with his wholo weight
perhaps armless on top of me.
"Keep up!" ho cried in a great fright
now. "You shall see Clara, whon you
liko, my boy. I will not say a word against
tho match, any moro. You're a fine, strap
ping, brave follow, that you, are a yountr
horcules !" b
"Thank you, Mr. Rowloy," I answered;
and his words did sustain me a little, and
helped me to sustain him.
But I was sliding, slowly aud surely
from;Under his feet when assistance ar
rived ; men with ladders, and saws, and
chisels i; and Clara, too, wild with fright,
and with toars streaming down hor cheeks.
"O, my poor gardy!" she criod. "O,
you wicked Alphonse ! it's all your dread
ful fault."
This was tho last feather on the camel's
back. I fell back, aud tho grand 'rush of
tho servants at Mr. Rowley's logs only
saved the guardian from summary disloca
tion on the spot. Ho was got down with
difficulty, and odco down, he was not
grateful.
"A pretty .fool you have mado of mo,"
ho said to Clara, as he walked away rub
bing his wrist ; "and a pretty pair of fools
you and that boy are, too."
Still, aftor all, he was not so bad as I ex
pected to find him. Ho was a man who
kept his word, and for that I always re
spected old Rowloy. Clara and I saw
each other in a more rational manner. I
went to the hall onco or twice ; sho was at
my house on my eighteenth birthday, at a
littlo party which mv mamma ahsnrrllv
callod "Juvenile" in tho invitations; and
there Jack Ldwards was too attentive to
Clara, and raised a jealous demon in my
breast.
I wont to London shortly aftorward.
Clara and I were to be engaged when I
"passed;" and if both were of the same
mind, her guardian said. But we were not.
While I wag walking the hospitals a follow
in the tallow-trado walked off with Clara
aud I do not think she resisted in the least.
It was an excellent match, though he
was forty-seven, and very stout. I 'want.
down to the wedding, and returned thanks
at tne breakfast for the bridesmaids, one of
whom has promised to bo mine whon I set
up iu business for myself.
C2T Y our husband has been eating oys
ters," said a doctor to a woman, whoso
husband ho was visiting and prescribing
tor.'
" Doctor, you are a witch," replied tho
woman.
A student had accompanied the physician,
and asked him on tho way out. how ho as
certained this fact of the patient.
"I looked under the bod," said tho doc
tor, "and thore lay the shells."
A day or two after the student visited
tho patient alone, and making his report
to his master, declared tho patient beyond
medical skill.
" Ho has caton a horse," said he.
"Impossible."
"But it is certainly true."
"How do you make that out?"
I looked under the bed, as you did,"
pleaded tho student, "and thore lay a sad
dle and bridle."
tZ0" A magistrate of Waukesha, Wis.,
rtiio was callod upon to perform tho mar
riage coromony, found, on arriving at tho
house, that it was situated in tho adjoin
ing county, and consequently beyond his
jurisdiction. Tho candidates for ruatri-'
niony were, however, equal to the occasion.
They crossed the road into Waukesha
county, sloshed around iu tho snow, and
there, to use tho fervid language of tho lo
cal chronicler, "in tho starlight, and iu tho
light of loves shining orb, were joined iu
marriage Charles Sanders, only 74 years of
ago, to the sprightly Mrs. Deborah Van
Notrick, who lias just turned the blooming
age of 09.",