The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-08-31
JOHN HARLOW'S CHOICE.
A DOMESTIC SKETCH.

There was q young lawyer by the
name OF John Harlow, in New York
He told his partner that he wanted tc
go home for week. He said he wanted
to see his father and the boys, and his
sister, but that he especially wanted tc
ride old Bob to the brook once more
and to milk Cherry again, just TO see
how it felt to be farmers boy.
"John," said the old lawyer, abe sure
you fix up match with some of those
country girls; no man is fit for any-
thing till he is we'll married, and you
are now able, with economy, to support
wife. Mind you get one of those
country girls. The paste and powder
people here aren't fit for young man
who wants a woman"
The next morning John had letter
from his sister. Part of it ran thus:
"Ive concluded, old fellow, that if
to parchment. I'm going to bring home
with me the smartest girl know. OF
course she don't know what I'm up to,
but you must prepare to capitulate."
In the old home they were looking
for the son. The family proper consist
ed of the father, good Deacon Harlow,
Johns two brothers, ten and twelve
years old, and Huldah, the "help."
This last was the daughter Of a neigh
boring farmer who was poor and help
less rheumatic, and most of the daughters
hard earnings went to eke out the scanty
subsistence at home. Aunt Judith, the
sister of Johns mother, &" looked after 4"
the household affairs of her brother-in-
law, by coming over once week and
helping Huldah darn and mend and
make, and by giving Huldah such advice
as her inexperience was supposed to re-
quire. But now Deacon Harlow's
daughter had left her husband to eat
his turkey alone in Boston, and had
brought her two children home to re-
ceive the paternal blessing. Not that
Mrs. Amanda Holmes had the paternal
blessing chiefly in view in her trip. She
had brought with her a very dear friend,
Miss Janet Dunton, the accomplished
teacher in the Mt. Parnassus Female
Seminary. Why Miss Janet Dunton
came to the country with her friend she
could hardly have told. Not word
had Mrs. Holmes spoken to her on the
subject of matrimonial schemes. She
would have resented any illusion to such
a subject. She would have repelled any
insinuation that she had ever dreamed
that marriage was desirable under any
conceivable circumstances. She often
declared, accidentally, that she was
welded to her books, and loved her
leisure, and was determined to be an
old maid. And all the time this sincere
Christian girl was dying to confer her
self upon some worthy man of congenial
tastes; which meant, in her case, just
what it did in John Harlow's-some one
who could admire her attainments.
Mrs. Holmes and her friend had ar
rived twenty-four hours ahead of John,
and the daughter Of the house had al |
ready installed herself as temporary mis-
tress by thoughtlessly upsetting, revers-
ing, and turning inside out all the good |
Huldah's most cherished arrangements.
All the plans for the annual festival that |
wise and practical Huldah had enter
tanned were vetoed, without a thought
that this young girl had been for year
and half in actual authority in the
house, and might have some feeling of
wrong in having guest of a week over
turn her plans for the next month. But
Mrs. Holmes was not one of the kind to
think of that. Huldah was hired and
paid, and she never dreamed that hired
people could have any interest in their
work or their home other than their pay
and their food. But Huldah was pa
tient, though she confessed that she had
a feeling that she had been rudely
+" trampled all over" suspect she had
a good cry at the end of the first day. l
cannot affirm it, except from a general
knowledge of women.
When John drove up in the buggy
tnat the boys had taken to the depot for
him, his hrst care was TO shake hands
with the deacon, who was glad TO see
him, but could not forbear expressing a
hope that he would "shave that hair
Oft his upper lip" Then John greeted