The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1857-10-14
FIRST TIME coURr1NG.
BY JEEMS.
We were betwec

We were between sixteen and seven
teen years of age, when the event about
to be related transpired, and as des-
cription OF our personal appearance at
that time is absolutely essential to the
point Of our story. We viii give it as
concisely as the subject will allow. In
reference, then, to that period. to say
that we were green in the usual accep-
tation of that term, would give the rea-
der but poor idea of the figure we dis
played. Rather imagine a tall, lean,
cadaverous, swathy looking chap, with
legs ike pair of tongs, countenance
about as expressive as a plate of Dutch
cheese, mouth that came very near
making an island of all the head above
it, face covered with a furze that look
ed very much like the down ON a nem!y
hatched goslin, with gait that woul!
lead the beholder to conclude that we
designed to travel down both sides of
the street at The same time, and you
have a correct daguereotype of Jeems
in the seventeenth year of his age.
One dark, gloomy night in the month
of December, we Glanced to be at a
"spelling school" not thousand miles
from Baldwinville, where our eyes fell
on "fairy form" that Immediately set
our susceptible Heart in blaze. She
was sixteen, or thereabouts, with bright
eyes, red chesks, and cherry lips, while
the auburn ringlets clustered in a wreath
of profusion around her beautiful head,
and her person, to our ravished imagi
nation, was more perfect in form and
outline, than the most faultless statue
ever chisseled by the sculptor's art. AS
we gazed, our feelings, which never be-
fore had aspired girlward, were fully
aroused, and we determined to 90 home
,ciM her that night or perish in the attempt.
As soon, therefore, as school was dis.
missed, and our ''lady love" suitably
bonneted and cloaked, we approached to
offer our services as contemplated, and
we then learned an important lesson,
viz: the difference between resolving
and doing. AS We neared her, we were
seized with partial blindness-red,
green, blue and yellow lights flashed
upon our vision, and appeared and dis
appeared like witches in phantasma-
goria-our knees smote together like
Belshazzer's when he discovered the
handwriting on the wall, while our
heart thumped with apparently as much
force as if it were driving ten-penny
,,tn hr ~,
time, managed to humble over some
thing which is perhaps known to the
Recording Angel, but certainly is not
to us, at the same time poking out our
elbow as nearly at right angels with our
body as our physical Conformation
would admit
The air blew keenly, which served in
some sort to revive us, and as our senses
returned, what were our emotions on
finding the cherished object of our first
love, clinging to our arm with all the
tenacity that drowning man is said to
clutch at a straw! Talk of elysian, or
sliding drown creased rainbows, or
feeding on German flutes, what are sich
"pEelinks' in comparison to those
mighty ones that swe.ied our bosom
nigh unto the bursting of our waistcoat
buttons !! Our happiness was sublime,
sutlimity, sublimety, suJlimated, and
every person who has ever felt the di-
vine throbbing Of a fledged love prin-
ciple, fully understands the world of
bliss couched in the fourth, fifth, sixth
and seventh words at the commence
ment of this sentence.
Well, we passed on pleasantly towards
our Sally's home, talking of ''love and
dove and dart and part" until, so cour-
ageous had we become, that we actually
proposed 'to go in and sit while,' to
which our dulcinea very graciously as
sented. Alas, for us how soon were
we to be reminded that the course of
true love never did run smooth"
Sally had brother of some ten sum-
mers who accompanied us along the
way, and who was in wonderful high
spirits at the idea of his sisters having
a beau, and he would walk around US
frequently, giggling in the heighth of
his glee, and eye us as closely as if our
self and Sally were the world-renowned
Siamese twins, and he was taking his
first look. Bill, by the way, was stub
bed, chuckle headed boy, whose habili-
ments would have made the fortune q
any two dealers in mop-rags.
At length we reached the bars, and
while we were letting them down, Bill
shot past us and tore for the house as if
pursued by thousand bulls of Bashan.
He flung open the door with bang
and exclaimed at the top of his voice
"Nother mother! Jim Clark Is COM
en- hum aoiM Sail !" a--
'Is he ?" screamed the old woman
in reply. Wal Ideclare Id;Qnt think
~ Il Il