The Republican journal., 1872-05-23
The Loves of Obadiah.

Obadiah Fuller was courting the widow
Blaine in earnest; he was increasingly
counting some one in earnest. The ''sad
safety" of love had never come to him,
because, ere he reached its flower and
fruit, the untimely frost of a re iection by
its over sensitive object nipped his hopes
but the stolid insenslbilty which in neal "
every case provoked the dismissal, also
prevented any great degree OF disappoint-
ment and suffering.
Being as | see bucket out there in
the kitchen. guess I'll wash my feet" said
Obahiah to the widow, as they sat in her
front room, with all the doors and win
dows wide open, on hot, July evening.
Those who have lived in the foot hills
Of the Sierras, breathed the dust, and en-
dured the toll of existence will appreciate
the feeling which induced the utterance
of the above remark, though they might
pity the poverty of sentiment which kept
him down to the recognition OF ignoble
physical discomfort upon the occasion OF
a visit to a lady whose virtues as a house
keeper and economist had enchaineu his
fancy and excited his Warmest admira-
ton.
"What-what did you say ?" exctedlv
asked the widow. But when she saw,
with distended eyes, the actual prepara-
ton going on, she dropped her voice into
a key OF the coolest and genteelest irony {:
"Certainly, make yourself comfortable,
Mr.. Fuller, by all means. A foot-bath is
undoubtedly refreshing-make yourself
at home, and wash your feet by all
means" Whereupon she sat down, very
rigidly.
Obadiah, looking at her from the kitchen
door. where he settled down to what he
considered very simple and natural per-
formance, noticed, for the first time, a
certain thinness in the widows lips, and a
rather combative and determined air in
the cords of her neck.
Good evening"" said she, with flashing
eyes and offended air. Take the bucket,
Mr.. Fuller: since you have none, [ freely
give you this one"
Obadiah, ambling toward his cabin,
stopped at store. "What curious creatures
women folks be The Widow Blaine gives
me this bucket" said he
The next evening he learned from the
widow herself that no man could wash
his feet in her house and live-at least, in
her affections; that no man could put her
best water-pail to unholy uses, without
trampliug on the best feeling of her nature,
which were those of on untrng house
keeper; that she was firm believer in
place for everything and everything in
its place, and the place for Obadiahs feet
was neither in her bucket nor within her
doors any more henceforth. He reached
tor his hat and. with mildly troubled
and pensive look, departed for home.
When he got there, he gave the bucket Il
kick, and to this day considers there was
scarcely any ground for the sudden change
in the widows mind.
This was simply one of many such dis
missals, which gave him an Indifferent
idea of the constancy of the sex. Still,
the comforts of home-that delusive
rock upon which SO many hearts have
been wrecked-had charms for him, and
lent perseverance to efforts which deserv-
ed better success.
Obadiah Fuller, in his infancy, was the
wonder of the neighborhood for fatness ;
his eyes were round and unblinking; tears
never came out of them on the most
melancholy occasions. He grew amaz-
ingly in body; his mind and sensiblity
far in the rear, were almost lost sight of
in the general scramble of the coarser
appetites for development His manhood
had more than fulfilled the promise of his
youth; he ate, and slept to repletion; and
ust as they are. To him it was astound-
ing that a woman should refuse the hand
of any man that could support her
Obadiah fair representative of a small
class OF men existing in every community
was incapable of inspiring love in the
heart of any woman; yet, as tar as lay in
his power, he loved the sex indiscrimi-
nately He was now in the middle-li lite,
subject to frequent depressions of spirit
through the fickleness of Eve's fair
daughters, and was correspondingly elated
upon the happy occasion Of their benig-
nant condesension. He made money in
the mines, and kept it--enough to attract
the attention of women of uncertain age
He had in its incipient state, the friend
ly spirit which takes in its embrace the
back of its victims chair in public places
than which, says the modest girl, there
is nothing more eXcruciating in the cata-
logue of social offences Tn fact, he pos
sessed, in u high degree, the "makings"
of a tirst-class society nuisance but the
''unspiritual god, Circumstance, had de-
barred him from the attritions of that re-
finer of mind and manners, and left him
an untutored blunderer. He had many
virtues, good habits, business integrity,
and kind heart; but his negative virtues
and negative vices were so eveningly dis
tributed that he could arouse no active
feeling in the human breast. Neither
loved nor hated, he stoud on that middle
ground 50 extensively occupied by that
band of Natures unhappy creations-good
men and women; name unanimously
agreed upon by the world as appropriate
| for beings with neither virtues nor vices.
| The hopeful eye of the humanitarian see
in the dim future of a million years hence
new order of things, when courtship
and marriage will be made easy and
agreeable by the classification of men and
women. Obadiah Fuller should have de-
ferred his coming until that time. But
could it have been possible for him, by
the light of science or otherwise, to have
| found the woman to whom his attentions
were acceptable and his courting not OBJ
noxious, from what disastrous expert.
ments he would have been saved Doubt
less there was such an one somewhere
and Jane Springer might be she, as, upon
a gala-d day, he invited her to the county
seat.
They started in the early morning Jane
in her neat-fitting riding habit, looking
younger and fresher than was her wont
A housekeeper in the Larue Hotel this
opening day held within its hours two pos.
sibilities for her; a pleasant ride, and a
proposal. Should the latter come she had
resolved to accept it. 1t did come. Every
thing conspired to make it easy, and il
was made far less awkwardly than Jane
had IMAGINED p0ssible from Obadiah. The