The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1862-06-25
NV FIRST LOVE.

writer that every person born into TINS
world is subject more or less to the lndu-
ence of love; that, some time or other, IN
the course of life, they will be so situated
as to feel its powerful influence, and that
those who are attacked young the sooner
get through with it whereas, if they are
attacked later in life, it goes very hard
with them, and subjects the iodividual to
all kinds of queer, out-of-the-way, odd
doings, quite unlike themselves before
Cupid hurled his flaming dart, and made
the wound. Thus speaks the author
now for the case in point.
When I was very little boy $50 my
mother told me,) | used to hear a great
deal of talk, among the nursery maids,
about marriage; out, not having very
definite idea OF what il meant, [ imagined,
from scraps of information picked up from
said nurse-maids, that it consisted of a
woman dressed in fine clothes and man
, with top boots, going to church, and the
minister reading to them and further
more, nurse told me that | used daily to
say that when should be man, with
!, top boots up to my knees, [ would walk
/, the streets till | saw lady with red
cheeks, then I would get coach and
, invite the owner of the red cheeks to ride
with me, and l would take her to some
place with trees outside the city, and live
: there, letting no one see her but myself
Thus I used to have haven Of happiness
in small way,
i few years rolled on and had to
leave the nursery and ali its pleasant
"reminiscences, and attack the beginning
of my world in g Juvenile school, where
I pursued the alphabet study in concert
with some dozen others, under the super
: intendence Of stately elderly dame, with
a rod in one hand and book in the other.
:: II We didn't get enough out of the book
hand to please her ladyship, she would
help US with stroke from the rod-hand.
So things went on till was considered
too large and too impudent I'm sorry to
say to receive any more faTOrs from that
venerable rod, SO was honorably OF dis
honorably dismissed !; q forget which, but
it was either one or the other)
After feH days another school was
selected, and my future development was
confdad to the hands Of master. Z very
few days with this gentlemen suficed to
convince me of the superiority of his
whipping over the antiquated hand that
had welded the birch in the last estab-
lishment The contents of the school
was mized-half boys and half girls.
When nearing my tenth birthday q
girl came TO school about my own size,
age, and weight, wearing the reddest
CHEEKS that could be, (my beau ideal Of
beauty) The consequence was, [ felt
bound to ingratiate myself into the favor
of those red cheeks, blue eyes and faxen
curls, at al risks and all hazards.
used to assist her in examples. help
her to spell big words, and sometimes,
when she was standing up in class, would
write answers on my slate to questions
put to her, and hold the slate up for her
to read, til I got caught at it, and had to
experience something from his master
hand. Once I heard her say that she
was very fond Of oranges SO the next
. copper3 had took to the fruit dealers
and purchased the largest he had for the
money, and slowed it away II my pocket,
(Which, By the way, was rather difficult,
as the pocket was small and the orange
large) took my seat in school, waiting
foE 'cheeks" to stand I'd and recite her
lesson. She always stood with her hands
behind her. Occasionally I used to put
scraps Of paper IN her hand Eve should
have called them billet dour, if We had
been il a French school, but as it was.
they were scraps Of paper) with something
o1 them. This time had something
more weighty. After extricating the
orange from its hiding place, | put it into
her hand. She, not knowing what 1t was,
let it fall Down it vent, dub, dub, ub,
ub, uh, bib b, to the end of the room.
Never did the loaded clap of thunder have
such an effect upon me as the bump and
roll of that unfortunate orange. Fruit Of
every description was SO strictly prohib-
tied that | fancied at the time DY end
was certain.
The master, in his savage, steEtorian
voice, demanded "who is that who dares
to violate one Of my laws 2" No one
spoke. The whole school was silent as
death; but | was the suspected one, SO
was politely requested to stay after school
hours, and he would give me private
audience. And I did stay after school
hours, and he did give me g private au-
dience, and something else with it, which
made it exceedinly inconvenient for me
to sit down for two or three days.
After the school laws had been salts
fed I was dismissed for home. I had not
gone far before saw Madamoiselle Red