St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1872-05-10
From Hearth and Home.
THE END OF THE WORLD
BY EDWARD EGGLEsToN.


THE BACKwOOD> PHILOSOPHER.
One reason for Andrews love of Au-
gust Wehle was that he WAS Il German.
So far from sharing i'll the prcludicr> of
his ncighhor> against foreigners. An
drew had So thorough IL contempt toI
his ncighborS, that he liked anyhodN
who did not belong to his own people.
If Il Turk had emigr;Itcd To Clark town
ship, Andrew would have fallen i'll love
with him. and built IL divan for his
special accommodation. But he loved
August also for the sake of his gentle
temper and his genuine love for books.
And only August OF Augu>t'S mother.
upon whom Andrew sometimes called.
could exercise his demon of mi>;inthro-
pN. which he had nurscd 50 long thai it
WAS now hard to dismiss it.
Andrew Anderson belonged to IL class
noticed, | doubt not. hy every acute
observer of provincial life in this corIn
try. In back woods and out-of-thc-w
communities literary culture produces
marked ecCcmtrictios in the life. Your
buokiSh man ut the West has never
learned to mark the distinction hctwern
the world of ideas and the world of
practical life. Instead of writing poems
and romamcc>. he falls to living Them.
on at least trying to. Add II diS;Ippoint
mcnt in love. and YOU will surely throw
him into the class of which Anderson
WaS the representative. For the edu-
cation one gets from books is sadly one
sided. unless it he balanced 10y knowl-
edge of the world.
Andrew Anderson had always been
regarded aS an odditN. y man with IL
good share of ideally and literary taste,
placed against the dull back ground of
the society of Il western ncighhorhood
in the former half of the century. would
necessarily appear odd. Had he drift
ed into communities of more culture,
his cccentricitl. hcgottcn of Il SENSE of
superiority to his surroundings. would
have worn away. Had he been happi
IL married. his oddities would have
been Sottrncd hut neither of these
things happened. He told August il
very different history. For the conf
deuce of his "Trutonic friend" had
awakened i'll the solitary man ii desire
to uncover that story which he had kept
under lock and key for So many Years.
'.Ah, my friend" said he with cN-
citemcnt, "doI't trust the faith of IA
womam." And then rising from his
seat he said The Backwards Philoso
pheT warns Nnu. pray you give good
heed. do not know Julia. She is my
niece. 1t ill becomes me to doubt her
sincerity. But | know whose daughter
she is. pray You give good heed. my
Teutonic friend. knoW WhoSc ddugh
ter she is!,"
Il do not talk much. But You have
arrived at IL critical point point of
turning Ont of his own life, ont of his
own sorrow, the Backwoods Philoso-
phcr warns You. | am ut peace now.
marks of the raNageS of ii great storm !
\ sort of II qualified happiness | have
in philosophy. But what | might have
been if the storm had not torn me i'll
youth-what might have been, that
am not. pray you never trust i'll Il
w"man's keeping the happiness of your
lit, -
Here Andrew slipped his arm through
Wrhle's. and began to promenade with
him Ill the large apartment up and down
an alley. dimly lighted by ii candle, he
tween solid phalanXes OF books.
Il pray You give good heed" he said,
resumlng. Il was always eccentric.
People Thought was either Il genius OF
fool. Perhaps was much of both.
But this is digression. | did not pay
any attention to women. | summed
them. ! said that to he IL great author
and IA philosophical thinker, one must
not be man of society. never went
to IA woodchOpping, to an apple-peel-
ing, to corn -shucking, to il barn-rIls-
ing, nor indeed to any of our rustic
feasts. | suppose this piqued the vani-
ty of the girls, and they set themselves
to catch me. | suppose they thought
that | would he trophy worth boast
ing. | have noticed that hunters esti-
mate game according to the difficulty
of getting it. But this is Il digresslon.
Let us return.
There came among us, at that time,