The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-04-08
PHIL ASSERTS HIS INDEPENDENCE.

1a PHIL ASSERTS HIS INDEPENDENCE.
Mr.. Phil Kermer boarded at the very
worst place in the world for man of his
tastes and temperament-nam at the
village hotel When he returned home
that evening, he was not in mood to 90
quietly to bed and think of his rival
which would have been by tar the most
wholesome thing for him to do. On the
contrary, he took the very course which
led him still farther from the happiness
which he dixie SO many of us) wished to
clutch and make his own, without first
earning it by honest endeavor
He felt blue, in short, and thought he
would assert his independence and warm
his heart little by taking dram. Find.
ing half a dozen good fellows in the bar
Then, as good fellows can never bear to
be outdone IN generosity each felt under
obligations to treat in return. &c. it hap
pened that Phil asserted his independence
a good many times, for it is good fellows
etiquette to drink again with the man
who has drank with you. Considerable
confusion seemed to arise at last with re-
gard to whose turn it was to treat as we'll
as with regard to things in general, and
Phil somehow found himself doing the
honorable thing again, and still again.
The result was that he, for the first time,
went to bed that night decidedly and un-
mistakably drum mean lndepend-
ent. -r,.. e .g...I
Clint, i'll the mean while went home
sober enough-a little more so, in fact,
than he had expected to be on that &C.
casion. What he had said to Emma, and
what she had said to HIM, could never
learn; but this know, that lovers hare
returned from their wooing with lighter
hearts under their jackets than Clint car
ried that night into the gloomy old house,
and upstairs to his sad bed. He lay
awake long time, thinking what fool
he had been, and wishing himself where
neither grandparents, nor Emma, nor Phil
might ever hear from him again, until
they should some day learn, with bitter
remorse and envy, what a noble, great,
renowned and rich man he had got to
be- - sI4a.3 .ti
Waking early, and looking out ON the
still, white morning (the storm was over
but the earth was covered, and the laden
trees dropped with their beautiful burden
of snow, and remembering that he was
sin the ice" he jumped up, and felt his
interest In life revive as he thought of the
exciting days work before him.
! "NeYer mind" thought he; "Phil's a
good fellow. don't blame him. I'm his
right hand man this year, and that's
enough for me- sI..... la.s aa.
So, he forgave Phil, VINO was necessary
to him; but was quite far from forgiving
his grandparents, of whose happiness he
was himself so necessary part.
He ate his pie secretly in the pantry,
and went out into the snow-the first to
make tracks through its calm and unsul-
lied purity, that memorable morning. Ar
rived at the tavern, he found Phil in bed,
4 sick t - rE
"a cold-an awful headache-that's
all" and the haggard foreman fixed his
eyes steadily as he could upon his right
hand man. HAS it stopped snowing?"
YES; the sky is clear as bell"
That's deuced unlucky, with this head
ache on me! How much snow fell9
about five inches"
"The wooden scrapers will do. Take
the key, Ciint-it's hanging on that nail
there; go and open the tool-house, and
start the mep when they come. I'll be
there soon" H
s"'All right" said Clint, and hurried
laway, proud of the Importance of his
duties. 1890 AM. ,,~a-iaaa1s,4r +
The men had had warning that, if it
tsnowed, they must be on hand with their
Eteams;as soon as the storm was over; and
when the sun rose on the dazzling scene,
not fewer than hundred laborers and
lsixcy horses were already on the pond.
Clint went around among them. POM
pously giving orders, only to get laughedat
When they learned that Phil was sick,
they went to work in their own way,
choosing the way that would most annoy
Clint, in preference to any other IS
i Il cut fore ever you was out O your
Ibaby-clo'es; an think I'm going to be
Igee-hawed by your" said old farmer Cor
Dett, whose contempt for Pills right
hand man" seemed to be pretty generally
shared by the rest.
4 Clint was enraged at their conduct, as
/ well as alarmed Phil had told him the
i day before that, as the ice was, it would
cot do to put many teams on it together,
but that they must be scattered over the
pond. The men, however, would not be
llieve but what the ice was twice as thick
as it was and, for want of specific orders
from Kermer, they all went to scraping on
one side. In vain Clint shrieked his com
imands to them 90 scatter. To and fro and
athwart the icy field went the men and