The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1860-1863, 1861-01-31
MY DAUGHTER MINNIE.


in the matter Of years by my daughter
Minnie-s pretty pane. always thought.
Minnie was good child, and being the
first born, was half maternal 10 her man
agement Of the latter corners, even down
to little 'PigeoD,' the latest aud tiniest Of
all.
The picture Of Minnie is just as fresh
I in my memory as though ILe forty years
which have simmered and etaporated
since. had been weeks instead. Bat It is
a father'seye which looks over these years
at Minnie. and the beauty may be half
fancy--a sort Of affsctionate Illusion
Those welove are transparent, youknow--
we who imagine it is surface-tint, and
surface-light Of which we are thinking.
This much l kaoW, Minnie was the
best, most affvotion1te and widest oi
dsughlerS-one Of those spirited but in
dustrious little creatures upon whose en-.
terprisS and tact the greatest and strong
est Of US will inyolunIarily lean.
Minnie, shall | want Eve or six breadths
in this skirt?' her mother would say.
Looking up with Just little knitting oI
the forehead, after moments thought,
Minnie would answer
i think FIVE will do. mother; and FIVE
il was.
can hear, even now, the voice Of Mn.
MES motheT--she has been gone twenty
years, dear hearl?- calling from the head
Of the stair:
Mime! say-Minne?
what, Mother?'
"What shall we have for dinner 10 day
you are tired, mother; let's have a IT.
lie ham and some eggs. with some peas
from tho garden, and bread That set
tied the bill of fare.
And SO it was through the livsIone
day, for in all the domestic policJ Min
ME. though only prims minister. posses
sed regal power.
At this tune, this forty years ago.
was, Of course. in the prime Of life. ant
full ofthe cares aud responsibilities whicl
Iclusier and cling to ones manhood.
was largely engaged in an active bu
sinesA, received some ligh, evidences o
public confidence; saw large family
looming up about me-from all of wbicl
my natural posiliveness and force Of char
ac'er more or less strengthened.
One night, when the last candle bat
been extinguisbsd and all hal been hush
ed, my wife said, when some anxiety o
tone
Husband. l felt very uneasy about cu
Minnie
Minnie? Why, what is the matter, i
she sick?'
No, she isn't sick but
But. what, wifs?'
Why. Minnie isl mean, sbs seem
to be--well, am afraid she likes Jsmm
Brun.'
Jenny Brun! Shed better not
And leaped to the floor, aud walket
10 the window.
n Jenny Brun and our Minnie-a pref
ty atch!'
Il was afraid you would bo disturbed
s but don't lake il SO much TO heart. hue
band, dare say we can put stop to it.
And a motherly sob came from the pi
8 low.
'Pu. stop to i'll 1 guess will. Jem
: my Brun and our MinnisE-I guess | wi
u put stop to it.
8 Aud WHO was Jenny Brun! A youn
( man of some two Years reridence in th
T neighborhood, Of good habits, SO far as
8 knew, but altogether and Numerically op
t posed to my taste, to my ideal of man
: liness, l had always worshlpped bus
8 ness tact and enterprise.
Q 1t had taken me, when psnniless boy
n and brough, me up through numberle:
:. difficulties to the position of inaueuc'
3 That which WAS found in my nature, ,whe
o young was thus nourished and rooted a
s the after years of struggling ripeniug I'M
;, triumph.
it The young man was Of literary tur
o of mind, and taught in an academy, WI
J. a writsr, it was said, for one or two p
/ riodicals. There was an air of sentimel
If about him, in his looks and manner
e which came precisely within the scope
o my contempt.
N l had known it in others-in strou
business men-this utter contempt f
the least possible manifestations OF sen
ment; for those unthrifty fellows wi
II have never an eye to business, but har
D. upon the skirts Of thought, clasp imag
le ry and rite upor rythm.
You may see it now every day
), commercial antagonism Of fact and ia
cy-ofthe figures which do the pages
/, the ledger and those which illumine LIN
III of the poet. The muses. frowned on M
q said a German poet. 'for keeping accou
P. books Undoubtedly. Nor Is the knig
% of the balance sheet less intolerant to
ne ard those miserable fellows whose stock
o' trade can be stared within very lii
ne cavity, just behind the fraternal bone.
Ny good wife had time Of it cooli
me down. and prevent tie adoption
III most violent measures. Even when | h
ss- formally surrendered to her superior d
I'D cretion, I chafed by times like bear
m. harness. II my wife had not almost bee
40 2arey in fact, | should certainly ha
e broken into pluuging even sooner than
VI did.
'd Minnie was taken one day into soler
nal conference by her mother, with only p'
sy in the doorway as auditor. But
in. child; though she blushed very mu'
NV moved about from seat to seat, and \
AMI ent pieces of paper into bits, declared
pa. was heart. whole yet--as why should
mo she bs?-for Jenny Brun bad never 8
,te word 10 her which any man might