The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1861-02-21
g 8rrttg Story
MY DAUGHTER MINNIE.


led in the matter Of years by my daugh
ter Minnie, a pretty name, 1 always
thought. Minnie was q good c,.ld, and |
being the first born was half maternal
in her management Of the later comers,
even down to little pigeon" the latest
and tiuiest Of OIL
The picture Of Minnie is just as fresh
in my memory as though the forty years
which have simmered and evaporated
since, had been weeks instead. But i'll
is a fathers eye which looks over these
years at Minnie and the beauty may be
half fauoy-a sort Of ofeotionate illus.
ion. Those we love are transparent,
you know, we who imagine it is surface.
tint and surface-light Of which we are
thinking.
This much I know, Minnie was the
best, most affectionate and widest of
doughtCrs-one Of these spirited but in
dustrious little creatures upon whose
enterprise and tact the greatest Of us
will involuntarily lean
minnie, shall want Eve or six
breadths in this skirt her mother
would say.
Looking up with just little knitting
Of the forehead. after a moments
thought, Minnie would answer:
81 think five will do, mother" and
Eve it was.
[ can hear, even now, the voice of
Minnios mother-she has been gone
twenty years, dear heart.-calling from
the head Of the stair.
"Minniel say, Minnie!"
"What, mother?'
"What shall we have for dinner to-
day?'
"You are tired, mother; let's have a
little ham and some eggs, with some
peas from the garden, and bread. "That
settled the bill Of fare.
And so it was through the livelong
day; for in all domestic policy Minnie
though only prime minister, possessed
regal power.
At this time though forty years ago,
I was, of course, in the prime Of life, and
I full Of cares aud responsibilities which
cluster and cling to oue's manhood.
I was largely engaged in an active
business, received some slight evidences
Of public confidence; saw a large iami-
ly coming up about me-from all Of
which my natural positiyencss was more
or less strengthened.
One night when the last candle had
been cxtiuguishcd and all had been
hushod, my wife said, with some ankle.
ty Of tone:
Husband, I feel very uneasy about
our Minnie"
"Miunio2 Why, what is the matter
is she sick?'
.''No, she isn't sick, but
But what, wife?"
"Why, Minnie isl mean, she seems
/ TO be-well, [ am afraid she likes Jcm
my Brun."
Jenny Brunl She'd better not"
And lcapcd to the floor, and walkcC
to the window.
Jenny Bruu and our Olinnie-'
pretty match!'
81 was afraid you would be disturbed
but don't take it so much to heart, hus
band, l dare say we can put a stop t.
it."
And a motherly sob came from tn
pillow.
put a stop to it guess will
Jenny Brun and our Miunie!-l gues
I l iCiH put a stop to it,"
And who was Jenny Brun?
young man Of some two years residence
in the ncighbor hood, Of good habits, 81
far as knew, but altogether diametrl
cally opposed to my taste, TO my ideal o
mauliuoss. 1 had always worshippe,
business tact and enterprise:
1t had taken me, when a pennies
boy, and brought inc up through mum
bcrlcss difficulties TO the position of in
fuenco. That which was found in M
nature, when young, was thus rOOte
and nourishod in all the after years o.
struggling ripening into triumph.
The young man was Of literary tur
of mind, and taught in an academy; wa
a writer, it was said, for ono or two pc
, riodicals There was an air Of senti
ment about him, in his looks and man
{ ners, which came precisely within tn
scope Of my contempt
had known IL in others-in stron
{ business men-this utter contempt fu
the least possible manifestations of sen
timent; for those unthrirty fellows VIII
, have never an eye to business, but han
{ upon the skirts Of thought-imogory an
c ride upon rythm. You may see it mo-
s every day in commercial antagonism o
fact and fancy-of the figures whic
dot the pages of the ledger and thos
which the illumine lines Of the poet. 9Th
muse frowncd on me, said Gcrma
poet, "for Keeping account books -
Undoubtedly. Morris the knight Of tn
balance-sheet less intolerant towar
those miserable fellows whose stock /
trade may be stored within very litll
cavity, just behind the frontal bone.
My good wife had a time of it cooliu
me down, aud preventing the adopto
of tho most violent measures Eve
when / had formally surrendered to hO
superior discretion, l chafed by time
like a bear in harness If wife had n,
almost been a Rarey in tact / shoul
certainly have broken into plungiu
sooner than l did.
Minnie was taken one day into so
emn conference by her mother; with OF
ly pussy in the doorway as auditor
y But the child, though she bushed ven
much, moved about from seat 10 sea
land tore pieces Of paper into bits a