The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-09
CHOOSING A WIFE.


John Harlow, young New York law.
yer, told his partner that he wanted to &C
home for week. He said he wanted tc
see his father and the boys, and his sister,
but that he especially wanted to ride old
Bob to the brook once more, and to milk
Cherry again, just to see how it felt to be
a farmers boy.
"John," said the old lawyer, "be sure
you fix up match with one of those
country girls; no man is fit for anything
till he is well married, and you are now
able, with economy, to support a wife.
Mind you get one of those country girls.
The paste and powder people here aren't
tit for young man who wants young
woman"
The next morning John had letter from
his sister. Part of it ran thus:
g I've concluded, old fellow, that if you
don't marry, you'll dry up and turn to
parchment. Pm going to bring home the
smartest girl know. OF course she don't
know what Pm up to, but you must pre-
pare to capitulate.o
In the old home they were looking for
the son. The family proper consisted of
the father, good Deacon Harlow, Johns
two brothers, ten and twelve years old,
llulQul, llC 1lclD. lIlS ldSI w as
the daughter Of neighboring farmer, who
was a poor and helpless rheumatic, and
most Of the daughters hard earnings went
to help out the scanty subsistence at home.
Aunt Judith, the sister of Johns mother,
''looked after" the household affairs OF
her brother-in-law, by coming over once a
week and helping Huldah darn, and mend,
and make, and by giving Huldah such adj
vice as her inexperience was supposed to
require. But now Deacon Harlow's daugh-
ter had left her husband to eat his turkey
alone in Boston, and had brought her two
children home to receive the paternal bless
ing. Not that Mrs. Amanda Holmes had
the paternal blessing chiefly in view in her
trip. She had brought with her very
dear friend, Miss Janet Dunton, the ac-
complished teacher in the Parnassus Female
seminary. Why Miss Janet Dunton came
to the country with her friend she could
hardly have told. Not a word had Mrs.
Holmes spoken to her on the subject of
matrimonial schemes. She would have
repelled any insinuation that she had ever
dreamed that marriage was desirable under
any conceivable circumstances. She often
declared, sentimentally, that she was we'd
ded 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 herself upon some
worthy man of congenial tastes; which
meant, in her case, just what it did in
John Harlow's-some one who could adj
mire her attainments.
Mrs. Holmes and her friend had arrived
twenty-four hours ahead of John, and the
daughter of the house had already installed
herself as temporary mistress, by thought
lessly upsetting, reversing, and turning in
side out all the good Huldah's most cherish
ed arrangements. All the plans for the
annual festival that wise and practical
Huldah had entertained were vetoed, with
out 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 for 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 patient, though
she confessed that she had feeling that
she had been rudely ''trampled all over"
/ suspect she had a cry at the end of the
first day. l cannot affirm it, except from
general knowledge of woman.
When John drove up in the buggy that
the boys had taken to the depot for him,
his first care was to shake hands with the
deacon, who was glad to see him, but
could not forbear expressing hope that he
would ''shave that hair off his upper lip"
Then John greeted his sister cordially, and
was presented to Miss Dunton. Instead
of sitting down, he pushed right into the
kitchen, where Huldah, in a calico frock
and clean white apron, was baking bis
cults for tea. She had been a schoolmate
of his, and he took her hand cordially, as
she stood there, with the bright western sun
half clarifying her head and face.
"Why Huldah, how you've grown"
was his first word of greeting. He meant
more than he said, for, though she was not
handsome, she had grown exceedingly
comely as she developed into woman.
"Undignifed as everv' said Amanda,
as she returned to the sitting-room.
The next day the ladies could get no
good out of John Harlow. He got up early
and MIXED the cow. He cut wood and
carried it for Huldah. He rode old Bob to
the brook for water. He did everything
he had been accustomed to do when boy,
finding as much pleasure in forgetting that
he was man, as he had once found in
hoping to be man. The two boys enjoyed
his society greatly, and his father was
delighted to see that he retained his interest
in farm life. John was not insensible to
Janet Dunton's charms. She could talk
fuently about all the authors most in vogue,
and the effect of her huency was really
dazzling to man. John was infatuated
with the idea of marrying a wife of such
attainments. How she would dazzle his
friends! How the governor would like to
talk to her! How she would shine in his
parlors! How she would delight people as
she gave them tea and talked at the same
time! John was in love with her as he
would have been in love with tea-urn OF
rare book. During that week he walked
and rode in the sleigh with Miss Dnnton,