Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1868-01-11
Proposing Under Difficulties.

A student who had completed his
studies and was commencing his pro-
fessional life under very favorable
auspices, was on his way home late in
the Autumn to make little visit to the
parental roof. 1t was in the old times,
when the only mode of conveyance for
travelling was the stage coach. Among
his fellow-passengers in the coach was
young lady of very agreeable person
and mar ners, who first attracted his
notice by her kind consideration for an
aged woman who was assisted into the
coach at a wayside inn. In the course
of the day the gentleman became pretty
well acquainted with the young lady,
whose name he ascertained was Mary
W. He began to feel strong in
terest in her, and it would seem from
the result that the interest was in some
degree reciprocal. In the course of the
conversations that they held together in
the stage, and also in walking up GER
tain long hills, where such of the pas
sengers as were SO disposed got out to
relieve the horses, they learned mutu-
ally many particulars of each others
parentage and history, SO that as the
day passed on they began to feel some
what like old friends.
During the afternoon a rain-storm
came on. The roads became wet and
heavy, and the progress made was slow.
The sky was overcast, and darkness
superveoed at very early hour, while
the stage was yet several miles from
the village where it was to stop. As
the wheels went on blowing through the
mud and ruts the passengers became
uneasy, for the driver had no lights.
The young lady, however, evinced so
much calmness and composure as great
ly to increase the interest which the
student felt for her. The danger was
real, as the event proved, for just as the
coach reached the top of a hill, the
wheels on one side went off the edge of
the road into a ditch, and the coach
overturned.
The student called out to the pas
sengers to lie as still as possible, so as
to get out quietly, one by one, from the
opening in the side of the coach which
was uppermost He was himself near
the door and on that side, and was the
first to escape He then assisted the
others by feeling, for it was so utterly
dark that nothing could be seen. The
young lady came next but one. The
road was SO wet and muddy, he said,
that she could not step in it, and she
must let him carry her to the bank on
the other side. She consented.
So he took her in his arms and began
to carry her across the muddy road,
feeling his way in the utter darkness,
made more intense by the trees of a
forest that bordered the road. She
yielded herself so readily to his grasp,
and reclined her head SO con6dingly
upon his shoulder, that he was encour-
aged to whisper in her ear, "Mary are
you engaged to be married ?" She
answered, "No." care you willing to
be my wife p She answered "Yes."
He sealed the promise with the usual
little ceremony, and then placed his
prize upon fat stone BY the roadside,
the white surface of which reflected the
sky sufficiently to make its form just
visible, after which he went back to
assist the other passengers.
! believe that this couple were not
married within the month, but they
were duly united at the proper time.
The lady afterward often told her
friends that she always had the most
agreeable associations with the idea of
the upsetting of a stage coach, though
thew could NOT imooipo Univ