The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1859-12-10
The Courtship and Marriage Of Josh
Ua Wheat

Did you ever see bashful man, reader
If you have, you have seen one OF the most
awkward, nngainly creatures among the nu-
man bipeds. Now there may be something
:. yery attractive and interesting in the shrink
ingtimidity of basbful girl, though con-
fess I have my doubts in regard to it; but
a bashful man, who ever pities him p
Though despised by one sex and laughed
at by the other, always doing what he new
er ought to have done, and saying what he
never intended to say, he is one of the most
pitiable objects IN existence.
To be sure, in these days of brass and
assurance, when every man thinks himself
as good as his neighbor and great deal bet
ter, they are very rare. But still they are
to be met with occasionally. though they
are quickly disappearing, and probably in a
few years there will be none of them left
NV friend Joshua Wheat was one of this
unfortunate class of people. say was, for
he has wonderfully improved of late years.
But will not anticipate.
No one could have seen Joshua enter a
room where there was company, especially
ladies, without being aware of this peculiar
ity of his. He generally either blundered
along, looking red and foolish, or shot hur-
riedly in, with white, scared face; hiding
himself as soon as possible from observa
ton behind door or in corner. If there
was a chair or stool anywhere in the room,
which was very apt to be the case, he gen.
orally managed to stumble over it, which
was not at all calculated to add to the grace
of his entrance. If pretty girl spoke to
him, he stammered and turned all sorts Of
colors, looking as frightened as if he had
been convicted of sheep stealing.
Poor Iochno fbara aoPtaiplU mayor xUoc
a man who had higher opinion of the bet
ter part of creation, or was more capable of
approaching the blessing of matrimony ;;
yet he had reached the age Of twenty eight
without being one step nearer towards real
izing them than he was eight years before.
He had FIVE brothers, but though none
of them had half his good looks or sense,
they possessed what he did not, plenty of
assurance and tact of showing what they
did know, and were all married and happily
settled in life. while he remained a forlorn,
disconsolate bachelor.
It was not for want Of means to support
a wife, for he had plenty of this worlds
goods, a well stocked farm, nice, new
house, besides some money in the bank. 1t
surely was not for the want of girls, for
there were scores of them in the town where
he lived, of all sorts and sizes, black-eyed.
blue-eyed, grey-eyed and eyes of no color
at all. No, Joshua Wheat remained un-
married merely because he did not possess
the moral courage to look any one of the
girls in the face and say !: 81 love you-will
you marry me ?''
These words are very simple, and to the
uninitiated very easily spoken yet have
known many mans courage to fail at the
thought of saying them, who would have
ridden into the front of the fercest and hot
est battle without the slightest shadow of fear.
At last all the girls of Joshua's acquaint-
ance were married to Drawer, if not better
men-all but one, Mary Dearborn, the pref
test one among them all, and as good and
sensible as she was pretty.
Mary had plenty of suitors, but she
turned cold shoulder to them all, being
firmly determined in her own mind that if
she married at all, she would have nobody .
but Joshua Wheat.
Joshua had taken a great shine to Mary
ever since they were children; they used
to go to school together in the little red
school house on the hill, he drawing her to
and from school in winter on his little sled,
and bringing her apples as red and shining
as her rosy cheeks.
When they grew older he still exhibited
his preference for her, though in a some
what different manner. Every Sabbath af-
ter meeting was over, he would post himself
by the door to escort her home, and in the
evening, .arrayed in his Sunday best. he
might have been seen striking bee-line for
Squire Dearborn's. About nine O'Clock
the old folks would 90 off to bed, leaving
Joshua and Mary together. And there he
would sit, looking straight into the fire,
scarcely daring to move or breathe, with
the momentous question trembling on the
very tip of his tongue, yet never asking it.
He was no nearer the object of his visit
when he left the house than he was when he
entered it.
Things went on this way for a number of
months but at last an event occurred which
gave Joshua quite start. A son of DIR.
Hale, the village physician. came home
from college where he had graduated, it was
said, with considerable distinction. He
was tall, lank, smooth faced fellow, with
more learning than brains and more brass
than either. He saw Mary in church the
first Sabbath after his return, and took
great fancy to her, and commenced paying
her considerable attention.
Young Hale had always been Mary IS par
ticular aversion. She disliked him from
his boyhood. but she did not scruple to fiirt
with him little. hoping to arouse Joshua's
jealousy and bring him to the point.
It seemed to have its effect, for learning
that Mr. Lawrence, one of his neighbors, a
thriving farmer, intended to give party,
and having obtained an inkling in some way
that that college chap, as he termed his ri ,
val, intended to take his Mary, he went .
over to Esq. Dearborn's early next morn
ing, and asked her himself Delighted at
the success of her maneuyer. Mary gave
smiling consent, and at the appointed time, !
much to the chagrin of the young collegian,
who had intended TO appropriate her to