Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1862-09-22
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The Eccentric Lover.

... The Eccentric Lover.
In quiet little village in one Of our
western States, lived a young girl whom
We shall call Margaretta Bowman--or, as
she was most generally known, 'Retta.-
Beautiful, she was not; but pretty, ami
able and witty, she certainly aoas. She
had none of the witching brown ringlets
80 euogized in our modern ronances. nor
haG she that other necessary requisite for
heroine-an unhappy heart. We fear
to deprive our main character of these al
ways-to hc-cousidered possessions will be
d. TO doom our story to passing sneer from
all the true lovers Of disnwatcr sentiment:
yet it was even "a we have said. and the
truth must vindicate us in the above as
sertions. 'Retta was of the medium height
for females, and right well formed, bear
ing not even the slightest resemblance to
wasp-her waist being proportioned to
the rest of her body, and her hands and
feet, though small enough, were not on
the wax doll order. Round, rosy cheeks,
bright gray eyes, queer little mouth al
ways filled with odd sayings, and com
plexion that showed evident marks of hav-
ing seen the sun, were her stock in the
market Of "personal appearances" Be-
sides all this, 'Retta was not rich. Her pa
rents were both dead, and her ONLY home
was in the house of friend who very
kindly furnished her in sewing and little
household duties, to keep her cut of mis-
chief. As to her education, it was as good
as any of the village girls possessed-that
il, an almost perfect knowledge of reading
and spelling, good plain, old-fashioued
" hand write" and enough of arithmetic
to enable her to count all the money she
was at all likely to inherit, earn, or marry.
The lessons that taught her all this, she
had imbibed from that Soon the country
school nadster--a true specimen of that
.ge1aaS homo who can undoubtedly trace
their origin in bee line to Solomon, the
wise man. Mr.. Dennis Flaherty, the man
of the birch for the aforementioned VIII
lage, was man of mark-that is to saw,
he left his impression on the scholars
backs and hands, and stamp of differ
ent kind on the minds of the parent. A
firm believer in the doctrine, taught by his
great ancestor, of "spare the rod aud spoil
the child" he belabored the big boys and
crossed the palms of the big girls right
well, but never-we must say in his de-
fense-unless they richly deserved it
Mr.. Flaherty didn't profess to teach the
tenth part of the abstruse sciences witt
which he was conversant, but what he dio
teach was we'll taught No girl nor boy
whose head reached the masters desk W a
ignorant of Noah Webster's spelling book
nor the mysteries of the multiplication
table, and that is far more than half tn
seminaries in our land can boast for, b
it remembered, we are not talking of thos
"hash establishments where the mind /
.crammed with crumbs and clippings c
everything and precious little of anything
if we except affectation and extravaganza
We say we are not talking about them
but about Mr.. Flaherty's school-a larg
room, filling the entire inner part of
rough log cabbip, containing two sma
windows and one door and some two {
three dozen "young hopefuls" of bot
sexes. .u.... ....
And now we remember to have state
that 'Retta Bowman's education was bega
and finished off in that same school hou,
under the supervision of that same seve,
discipilinarian, but beloved teacher, NJ
Flaherty. This being the case, 'Retta hs
a good sound knowledge of the simp
component parts in the great medicine
human mind. e., requirements, for b
instruction in household affairs was eoua
ly thorough, and embraced more brancht
She had grown up like wild plant, fillc
with goodness and needing polish, un
she had reached her eighteenth year.-
Until then, she had never thought seriou
: ly OF lovers or marriage; but the choi
of two being afforded her, she had CO,
cluded to settle her mind on one of the
and become loving and loveable hous
wife. The first offer was from Char
Goodwin, young man of % years, rath
good looking, but in character what t
"down easter" would term ShitileSS.
Work, hard work, was fine thing w
Charlie when there was nothing else to
done but he generally found other G,
ployment for his brains and hands I
other offer was from the village store ke
er, Mr.. Vance, q worthy, steady, indust
ous old bachelor, somewhere in the mis-
uncertain region of 80 years. A Ii
man was Mr.. Vance, with countena
resembling the early stages Of dr
peach quick, nervous, and crusty in o
ward appearance, but warm hearted +;
forgiving at heart, with strange kind
sympathy uudemonstrative, but pract
and sincere. Strangely croagh, tho,