The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-03-18
,UNTY, OHIO WEDNESDAY, MORNING. MARCH ls 1857.

shal her papa, and took care never to
step beyond.
The colonel held out his hand to me,
and said he had thought to have seen
me sooner. stammered out an apol-
ogy about missing the coach, and so
forth, when he answered, Young man,
rtmember, battles are never won by dill
a4cry people. Life is a long battle )
ssys hat you don't get defeated in the
end"
II felt something like-a a school-boy re-
pfpved by his master; still L took the
reprimand patiently, as the colonel was
abort Of a guardian, deputed by my de-
ceased father to continue. the task of
leeturing me on my indecision. Be-
| sides, when looked at my cousins, could
be neither angry nor displeased at any,
thing We now went into the dining
room, as the hour was striking for din
DER, which the corporal had just laid
ubon the table. The conversation was
ldiscursive and turned on the topics of
ihe day; and not word was said about
family matters.
No sooner was dinner over than the
tsolonel took me to smoke cigar in the
enmmer- house, having telegraphed to
the girls not to accompany US. As he
Strobe along with an almost lowering
courtsnance remained silent, ,waitingfor
him to open his batteries. He now spoke
of my late father, who, it seems, had
acquainted him with my peculiar lido
eyncrasy, as well as with the various op-
portunities of Advancement I had already
lost. The colonel knit his brows as he
ldecIared he could not understand such
a character, and that if had been his
Ison, he would presently have brought
me into marching order.
The substance of the information he
gave me about my late fathers disposal
of his property, amounted to this: 1 was
great deal richer than had any idea
of, from the quiet manner in which my
parents had always lived, perhaps owing
to their having come into some property
rather late in life, when their habits
were formed. My mother being of a
listless character, had never desired any
ALTERATION in their mode of living; she
thad, however, died-y -years-before my
father, who5 seeing my hereditary inert
ness, had rather wished to impel me to
exertion and to the choice of career,
by concealing from me the real state of
the case. Hence his constituting the en-
ergetic colonel to be a kind of guardian,
to keep ME in tutelage two or three years
after 1 was legally of age-with this sa-
wing clause, that if 1 made choice of a
profession within year after his death,
1 might then be put into possession of the
whole of his property, provided 1 perse-
vered in any career I might choose for
the space of three years. Were to
give, it up before the allotted span, I
was then to be mulcted of three years
income, which was to revert to the CO.
lionel. The next condition was trife
more consolatory, and ran thus: If, at
the end of a couple of years,in default Of
adopting profession, L married with the
colonel's appreciation, should then be
put into unconditional possession of my
fathers property. He trusted proba-
bly,, that on my becoming family man,
I should see the necessity of exerting
myself, even though in the enjoyment of
a competency.
After the colonel had expounded all
this in a peremptory voice, there kind
of relaxation of his official rigidity as a
guardian and executor; after hand
ing me another cigar, when 1 took and
lighted mechanically, he gave me sun
dry hints, through the blue clouds that
surrounded US, that if I could make my
self agreeable to one of the daughters,
he would not be averse to my alliance
provided I got over that confounded
fault of mine. He would take me on
trial, he said, and allow me to stay a
few weeks at the castle, and then we
should see.
I was in the ninth heaven of delight
on hearing this could have been con-
tent to smoke on to all eternity, and
dream in the hazy atmosphere, and nev-
er move from the summer, house, even to
begin the SCI ge of the heart of one of my
cousins-but the moment my cigar was
smoked, the colonel rose and gave the
signal to march, saying we had now set
tied all we had to talk about.
There now followed delicious period
which was certainly the happiest of my
whole life. Most of my time was spent
with the two sisters. We were all
three rassionately fond of music, and
frequently got up little concerts, of
which we were at once the sole perfor-
mers and auditors. Sophie played on
the harp divinely, and as she sat at that
poetic and graceful instrument, she
looked like the embodifcation of one of
Ossian's heroines. The more energetic
Henriette was an admirable and yigc-
rous performer on the pianoforte. I
could sing at sight with tolerable pro-
6eiency and n male voice> was hiobl1