Madison Whig advocate. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1839-1841, 1839-09-21
Harry Lorrequer,s First Love.

Harry LorTequerss First Love.
When emerging from very b0yhOOd,
half believed myself man, and was
/ fully convinced that | was in love. Per
haps, after all, for the time il lasted
ten days, | think--it was the most sin
cere passion | ever felt | had been
spending some weeks at a small water
ing place in Wales with some relatives
of my mother. There were, as might
be supposed, but few distractions in
such a place, save the scenery. and an
occasional days fishing in the little riy-
er of Dolgelly, which ran near In all
these little rambles which the younger
portion Of the family made together,
frequent mention was ever being made
of visit from a very dear cousin.
and to which all looked forward with
the greatest eagerness - the elder
ones of the party with certain air
of quiet pleasure, as though they knew
more than they said, and the youngest
with all the childish exuberance Of
youthful delight. Clara Mourtray
seemed to be, from all | was hour
ly hearing. the very paragon and pat
tern of every thing If any one was
praised for beauty, Clara was immedi-
ately pronounced much prettier-did
any one sing, Clara's voice and taste
were far superior. In our homeward
walk, should the shadows of the dark
hills fall with picturesque effect upon
the blue lake, some one was sure to say,
SEOhi how Clara would like to sketch
that" In short, there was no charm or
accomplishment ever the gift of woman,
that Clara did not possess; or. what
amounted pretty much to the same thing.
that my relatives did not give her impli-
cit credit for. The constantly recurring
praises of the same person affects US
always differently as we 90 on in life
In youth the prevailing sentiment is an
ardent desire to see the prodigy of whom
we heard so much-in after years, hear
tiIv to detest what hourly hurts our self
love by comparisons. We would take
any steps to avoid meeting what we
have inwardly decreed to be ''bore."
The former was my course; and tho
my curiosity was certainly very great,
had made up my mind TO as great a
disappointment, and half wished for the
longed arrival as a means of criticising
what they could not see fault in
The wished-for evening at length
came, and we all set out upon walk to
meet the carriage which was to bring
the bien aimee Clara among Us. We had
not walked above u mile when the eager
eyes of the foremost detected a cloud Of
dust upon the road at some distance; and.
after few minutes more, four posters
were seen coming along at a tremen-
dous rate. The next moment she was
making the tour of about a dozen uncles,
aunts, cousins, and cOusiues, none of
whom, it appeared to me, felt it any pei
culiar desire 10 surrender the hearty
embrace to the next kin IN succession
At last she came TO me, when, perhaps,
in the confusion of the moment, not ex-
actlv remembering whether nor not she
had seen me before, she stood for mo-
ment silent-a deep blush mantling her
lovely cheek-masses of waving brown
hair disordered and floating upon her
shouIder-her large and liquid blue
eyes beaming upon me. One look was
enough. | was deeply-irretrievably in
love.
.Our cousin Harry-Harry Lorrequer
wild Harry. as we used TO call him,
Clara" said one of the girls, introduce
ing me.
She held out her hand, and said some
thing with smile. What, | know not
nor can tell how replied; but some
thing absurd it must have been, for they
all laughed heartily, and the worthy
papa hinseW appel my shoulder Jest
ingly, adding,
s.Never mind, Harry-you viii DO bet
ter one day, or am much mistaken IN
you"
Whether | was conscious that had
behaved foolishly or not, | cannot say
but the whole of that night ! thought
over plans innumerable how | should
succeed in putting myself forward be-
fore ssCousin Clara and vindicating
myself against any imputation of school
boy mannerism that my first appearance
might have caused.
The next day we remained al home
Clara was too much fatigued to walk
out. and none of US would leave her.
What day of happiness that was. /
knew something of music, and could sing
a second Clara was delighted at this,
for the others had not cultivated singing
much We therefore spen. the whole
morning IN this way Then she Produc-
ed her sketch book, and | brought out
mine, and we had a mutual interchange
OF prisoners What cutting out Of