Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1855-07-14

| stranger, starting lOf EUROPE, cNci 'ooh '
the number of "wearables' that |, in my SIM
plicity, deemed by far too limited. But tho
great gala day came, and with its departure
| left my home for the wilderness oil Ne"
York.
at was late when / arrived at my cousins
house. handsome brick dwelling, which
with some little land adjoining. he had inner
tied. | had never seen it before, and to me
it was as beautiful as palace. An old Qua
ker aunt kept house for him. and by her was
welcomed with cold ormality | did not un-
derstand vet weared as | was, j did not
give much thought about the subject. but ate
my supper in silence, cheered by the news
that my cousin had gone to Oiliclate ut we'd
ding, and might not be home until eleven.
ALREADY it was nearing ten, and /, unused
to such late hours, begged to be shown to a
bedroom. | shall never forget how icy cold
the room was to which ] was attended,
Large and cherries, filed with sombre furni-
ture, il was SO different from my snug little
chamber at home. where the sun laid all day
and where water seldom froze The sheets as
touched them, seemed like ice had not
dared 70 approach my feet to the polished
stove hearth below stairs, and | suffered eX-
ceedingly. However, soon forgot all com
| fort in dreams, in which the old farm house
and caring fire were the chiefest objects Of
| interest.
"In the morning. and bitter cold it was,
found my way TO the hall. On the rack in
the corner laid an ample cloth cloak, which
supposed my cousin must have thrown of in
hurry. Surprised at the unusual Stiffness
! tried the door from which had cgress the
proceeding night 1t was locked fast. Sue
ccssively | tried every door within my range ;
nj ,,nit hon, ina, ot lot
the front entrance was also fastened in such
a manner that it defed all my enGeavors to
move the lock. 1t seems that my cousins
house-keeper was one of the old fashioned
sort, and never retired without fastening up
everything in the house; | question some
what whether she did not lock her bed cur
tains.
"Three mortal hours did stay shivering
i'll my room on that eventual morning, sOia-
cling myself with doelul chances at the brick
walls of a distillery, and running over the
pages of Greek Lexicon, which assuredly was
all Greek to me-and nothing else.
"At length, O. welcome sound; the bell
rang, and /, blue with cold, descended to the
breakfast room There met my cousin and
for the first time in my life witnessed sham
welcome. l did not understand it then, do
understand such things better now
My cousin tried his best to be agreeable
but | saw that disappointment stood out all
over his actions, particularly when l men,
toned that ! had come for a long visit. But
| soon got over the unpleasant feeling conse-
quent on this discovery, and determined to
brave it out. Had he not stopped summer
after summer on my fathers farm ? Did we
not every six months send him some favor in
the shape of the best winter greetings, rus
sets or Baldwins SO ! pnt myself on my
dignity, awkward though it was, and appeared
as if observed nothing unpleasant.
wherever | went, l could see that my
relative was ashamed Of his tall cousin. Now
knew in my soul that | was good for some
thing. had consciousness of intellect, no
way inferior to his OWE. AT home / was fa-
nous as Yankee story teller, but having
fear of the minister's superior attalnmentS al
ways before my eyes, | had never allowed
him to see what | could do. This false tim
idity was, however, slowly wearing away. /
began to feel anxious to resent my conSin'S
oilcousness and daily grew stronger in my
determination to do so. | noticed his de
pertinent when he little thought il; his quick
step ahead 50 as to seem alone when he met
some fashionable lady his little man9uvres
to slip in and out of church by himself; his
careful avoidance of all mention of my name
TO others and | thought TO myself, zone day
III teach you a lesson, young man, II you are
minister
How it was know not, bat by some mis-
management, | suppose, invitations were sent
to us to attend large dinner party gwen IN
honor Of some distinguished divine, then ere
ating quite an excitement in the city. My
relative looked astounded when he found that
| had resolved to go, and tried to intlmidate
me by limiting at the fashionable character of
the entertainment. At last finding me reso-
lutte, he said with a bland smile:
"You had better let me introduce you as
"my cousin from the country" and as you
are not initiated into the arts and mysteries,
it will help you wonderfully; they will sup
pose you ignorant Of etiquette and therefore
excuse your greenness."
! Thank you for nothing" thought /, and
consented
IL went to the party There is no mistake
about it, was at first abashed in the compa-
ny of so much dignity and beauty; | trembled
for myself. My cousin sat opposite me, and
by his side lovely girl rObed in blue, who
looked to me the nearest 10 an angel that il
possible to imagine. | soon saw that my
cousins heart had been travelling in that di-
rection he was devoted to her, although he
kept an eye on poor me, to see that his cou-
sin from the country did him no glaring dis
credit.
al heard him address her as Miss Harriet
and once in filling her glass from the crystal
pitcher near by, he overran it, and the fluid
mingled with meat and gravy on the young
lady's plate.
"Ahar ? thought |, glancing at him slyly
"cousin from the countryw
Presently noticed another mishap. A
reverend and absent-mnded looking gentle
man at my right, undertook to carve chick
en-. BY some awkwardness, small bone
flew from the edge of his knife, and slap il
went against the nose of lady opposite
spattering her face with the gravy, The lady
turned red-the gentleman apologized, the
company seemed more than usually serious
as company always does when it restrains
itself from hearty laugh, and ! looked
straight at my friend acaoss the table, saying
as plain as eyes could say it, "aha" cousin
from the country ~
"And that was not the end Of the chapter
for my cousin, in attempting to cut butter
which, as it was an unusually warm winter
day had ice upon it, unfortunately knocked
the frozen element on the table; and of al
the efforts ! ever saw put forth to catch q
slippery article, those he made in the matter
OF securing that ice were the most ridiculous
First he laid siege with knife and fork
but it danced about like ice bewitched polka
| waltz and raAoVva stan hnnninO now aGainst