Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1858-02-19
VOL. XII.
MY PRETTY COUSIN.

NY pretty Cousin is not like other cousins.
She is the queen of cousins, being at once
the most agreeable cruel and unmanageabie
| of all; the prettiest aud most dangerous;
liyeliest and most witty; and is besides such
conceited little prude as never lived before,
| whose fanciful and mischief loving DISPOSE
ton has inundated and subdued the country
besux for many miles around. She Is, more
| over, a eaPricious tyrant, willful and obstinate
and wields the sceptre of her powers with
an ausparing hand. Her admirers-slaves
would say--though their ribs have aehed
and smarted with the shafts OF more than
one of Cupid's shafts through their hearts,
bristling with his barbed arrows. pierced and
riddled in every direction, still dutter around
the light that scorches them, attracted, en-
chanted by eyes that melt by gazing, and
fire you with their fire.
See, how lond the saucy elf is of teazins,
with such mellow lips, that hang like golden
fruit, TO be plucked by the first bold hand;
pouing SO temptingly; wooing, inviting;
and if you would haste to press them to your
own, they arrest you with such ffended
delicacy. that you dare GO no farther least
the Puritan boxes your ears.
their heads In deliciors confusion. and suffer
one to do what he will with their lips, she
will be Juggling lt your whiskers, or what Is
lnoredreadful still, with one fell swoop, smash
the spotless, unwrinkled bosom, that is 50
snugly arrayed behind the vest that gives
it protection.
None of the devoted train yet had uffi-
cent audacity to steal kiss. Was il that
they feared they might disarrange the hair
they had spent much time in brushing
and torturiDg into sickness! Or were they
ccnteut to plod along in the same every day
employment of signing for paradise, and tho
they gazed ON it through their eyes, dared
not reach forth their hand and enter with the
seal upon her lips.
So stood the beseiged and the beseiging,
when city cousin arrived; and thus found
Harry Hosmer the pretty kingdom my pretty
cousin had founded.
He came, and she saw one more victim TO
swell the tide of triumphs. He was worth
winning; he was fine appearing fellow,
was true gentlemun; could dance, ride,
sing, and make love sonnets to perfection;
aud was, all in all, what handsome lady OF
eighteen would love to see at her feet. VIII
we be justified in saying that the same mo-
tives that Influenced her action towards 9th
ers, moved her to the concentration of ali
her art, cunning and power, TO batter the
heart of the city cousin. No, it was not
love, but something akin to it, for what coun-
try belle can see such Harry--one so su-
perior to the rest of the throng that SCR
rounds her-and not feel greater emotion,
more than common flutter when he ap
proaches her!
Her plans were laid. His heart was min
ed, assaulted, beseiged, and attacked in
every possible shape. He remained uhcen-
quered nor did any subsequent movement
dislodge him from his station.
His department was always the same, and
not all her skill at mans subjection could
draw from him more than that familiar, gen.
tlemanIy carriage, which acquainted her with
the freedom of his heart and the failure OF
her plans. She was piqued. What c1!d
senseless thing this cousin is! won't trou-
bic myself no more with the ill-mannered
bear! He isn't worth the pains one takes
to make him like, peop!e.
She, however, did not adhere 10 this wise
conclusion. The next day another attack,
u general assault, was directed against the
citadel, and she endeavored to carry all be-
fore her by storm, but he that had been so
long impregnable to So many city warfares.
led on, too, by the brightest eyes that flash
in cur land, was the same cousin Harry Hos
mes from the city And the only foil he
used, and that which he played with surpis-
ing advantage, was the name OF another city
] Ii
a counter attack that dis ssoncerted her.
My pretty cousin had failed. In her en-
deavors to subdue the heart Of her cousin
she had forgot to guard her own, nor did she
know that it was already in the possession
of another She was cross. Sic could
hardly bear that he should be in her presence
and was unhappy when he was out of sight.
If he was pleasant or laughed, he was ridi-
cu!ing her unhappiness, and rejoicing at her
! discontinue Il he was sad and sober, he
was thinking of the hated cousin he left be-
hind in the city.
s'Mv dear cousin you cannot imagine with
what feelings of pleasure l shall present
your beautiful cousin to you. She is such
divine creature, p" exclaimed he one day
after dwelling unusually long upon her beau
ty and learning. '-She is perfection!'
Clara pouted and picked the leaves of d
rose he had just plucked for her, and crushed
them with her foot
/ "You will be delighted to see her, she i.
SO kind and gentle. 1t will be impossible tt
be near her and not like her."
s'And do you like her, cousin Harry !
asked she in a low, hesitating voice, as i
afraid to ask what might be unpleasant t
her.
Like her we love her everybody
does. -
The rose was suddenly dashed on the floor
her foot Indignantly stamped upon it, ant
she arose and hastily walked to the window
'Wby, coz. what ails thee!" said Harry
without rising as he swung chair careless
ly round on one leg, while he commenced
lively air.
She was leaning against the side of th
window with her forhead pressed against tn
glass; sine did not answer. Nothing is NOR
, CALLING to a woman, than to hear the praise
of rival from the lips of one she loves
Clara was piqued; she was offended-angry
She could hardly bear her feelings, for sh
= pictured her happy cousin basking in tn
same sunshine of his, and then she though
of herself, neglected and unIoved, and he
breast heaved with feelings she ill coul
bear.
s'Is nv cousin unwell?"-s
. She is silent.
"Bless me, you have not forgotten the us
of that tongue that used to wag SO gaily!'
No answer.
Harry rose and walked to the window.
He gently pulled the hand that supporte
her head from her face. She was weeE
ing.
The day after, he departed for Ne
: York.