The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-12-18
4 Leap Year Incident.
On a STORY WITH AM>end AND a point TO IT

bad enough to play the c~oquette, without publishin
the story and then, too, think of a married ma
boast1ng how he missed a pretty maiden.
The other evening, as my friend Albert and [ sa
in my study, with our heels elevated on the backs c
two chairs, and two glorious Havanas elevated iron
our lips, looking around through the cloud of smoke,
espled the evening paper lying on the table. which
Tom in his usual quiet manner, had deposited there
Without in the least disturbing our dreamy cogita-
tons, [ picked it up, and began languidly to dOz'
over its columns, when my eye lighted on the follow,
ing paragraph, which, old bachelor like, L felt quite
enough interest in to read aloud to my compan-
ions
sTAKE THE LoT-The young ladies Of Aurora
Illinois, have resolved that if they didn't get married
this year-leap year-somebody would be to blame
The senior class in Williams college, have sent a
communication to the Aurora paper offering to take
the lot. They say that now, having been four years
under college discipline, exiled from almost all inter-
course with the fac SimiIeS of Adams rib, we think
with Shakespeare, that there is a tied in the affairs
of men, and that the time for that Knot has come to
us.'
No sooner had I finished than Albert, with a merry
chuckle-nobody can chuckle like him when he
chuckles he chuckles all over-tapped me on the
shoulder and exclaimed
Jupiter thereby hangs a tale.''
All, all % said |.
Would you like to hear it, Seth 20
&C course, if there is an end to it, and any point
to the end -
"Well, there are both, according to my way Of
thinking. Any how, with permission I'll tell the
yarn. OF course you know where Aurora is-one of
the smartest towns in the West 1t lies just below
Geneva, ON the Fox river, and is in Kane county.
Whether the county was named after or for the North
Pole Kane, and the town called Aurora because the
Aurora Borealis shines brighter at said Pole than
anywhere else, is a question that some future no
menclators may discuss but one little item you may
bet your life on-they raise the prettiest girls that
ever made a fellows mouth water"
"How do you know 20
How do / know Wasn't l at Geneva this last
HTptap onn UIol a~AI ~ ncSno OIL -a- l.
Aurora every day, to see our old friend Jack Spaul-
ding, who has just hung out his shingle there and
gone into the practice of the laW-Or, rather intends
to, when he gets a case? Of course [ was and as
Jack is death among the ladies, he trotted me all
around. All, Seth, you ought to go to Aurora-you
OUGHT
But the tale.''
"Why, you see, one glorious afternoon, when it
was just cold enough out doors to make it comfortable
by Jacks old Franklin, while he was doing away
over-somebody, | forgot who, no matter-on con-
tracts, and [ engaged in my usual occupation, read
ing Dickens, Suddenly there came a tapping, as of
some one gently rapping at the office door, Jack,
while visions of a fair client who wanted to get a
divorce, or get rid of a testy guardian, filled his mind,
cried come in = and in walked two special consta-
bles of Cupid
Gone was a noble looking girl-eyes as dark as
the future to a fellow who doesn't know where his
next meal is coming from, and cheeks as deeply red
as a Cambridge professor. All, Seth, she was q per-
feet goddess: the other-well, [ won't say anything
dOOuC Liz Otnef, u sue udSH L HIuCu u 10 WlIn my
stOry.''
"But how came they there 20
"Why, up the stairs and through the door, to be
sure but their o~bject?'
eyes,, their object %
"Why, that was to invite us-yes, Jack and me,
to Il leap year ride-bal-supper and all of that
"You?''
eyes, me ; and she of the black eyes, too, was
the identical one who would be very happy to have
my company on a little sleigh ride to Geneva, to wind
up with a little warm flip, a hop at IS and a slide
home by starlight :-=.
Did you go? ,"
=" Did [ 90? Jack went, and could I back out ?
Besides it isn't every day that a man gets such an
offer. At 5 2. NJ, we started-one of the merriest
crews that ever went any where thirty single sleighs
they don't go in for your great double arks there.
With a hip and q hurrah, off we speed, and over the
road we skinned, like q comet dashing along the
milky way. The girls were excellent whips, and my
black-eyed Kate was q 6 Genesee Mills, extra super
fine She had selected her steed with admirable
taste -
's4As well as her beau''
Sect out His neck arched like the Thames
Tunnel, and his broad breast marked his noble
strength, while his slender legs told you volumes for
his swiftness, which were backed up by the very
example. We went by them alive did-and Kate
led the grand procession, prouder, I dare say, than
any julius ever was of any triumph.
"What did you talk of on the road 30
cor the weather. the delightful ~sleighing, the
differences in horses, sc. After supper came the hon
'1 800 NNAAS PulAO |
dances, through which the parties go with the same
precision that two old chess players move, who have
played draw games for the last half century-no, sir!
1t was a regular Western hOp-but if you want it
any further, you must do it yourself, words
cam express tit was action, action, sublime, God
like action'-thats what it was. But like every-
thing else it had an end, and we were off on the road
again.
"And here [ must confess that I had been some
what coquettish during the evening, and had with no
little satisfaction seen those black ewes still on me
wherever l moved. Was [ Y wrong to enjoy it? How
often had l been served the same way. And when it
came to go, of course [ couldn't find my overcoat, and
NY hat was missing SO I called to my aid half-a-
lOzen misses, who sort of half hunted for them and
lalf not, and under the shawl of one of whom | at
asst discovered the one, and under that of another the
all the while standing by, and looking
demure as l have a thousand times under similar
And then [ got into the wrong sleigh,
+ course, by accident, as you will perceive, when [
ell you slapped the naughty girl who kissed me for
ENG where my room was better than my company.
S she laughingly said. Kate, meanwhile, quietly
landing with the ribbons in one hand, and ready
nth the other to help me in.
:" But, as L said before, at last we were on the road
gain but what a change had come over the spirit
1 Kate. On her way up, she was all talk, mirth and
re now she was all silence, abstraction and gentle
ess- Her very steed caught her sentiments. and. /;
Though he started off ahead, the acknowledged
eaaer OF the party, half a mile had not been gone.
ight.
on we went upon a slow trot, the reins swinging
; looSeiy as a clothes line in a gale of wind : at last
hey dropped from the hands of Kate and b,nn ~ - os'
IInOIV over the 61Shpr Al -.-1 -