The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-08-08
Il HE STORY-TELLER.
THE DEACON'S COURTSHIP.

The handsomest and richest woman ia
all the countryside was the widow Ad-
ans. The reigning toast and belle at
sixteen, bride at eighteen, and widow
at twenty, endowed with the largest and
best farm in the upper parish, with out
lying pasture and woodlands, and thous-
ands in bank stock, little wonder that
though her crop had not diminished one
iota, and her rosy cheeks and bright
eyes were still shrouded in the widows
veil, that manly eyes and manly hearts
would not be directed toward her; less
wonder that when sleighing party
from the Port" should visit her on
bright moonlight evening that the pref
ty widow should look her best and be
toasted as never before over her Thanks
giving cake, sweet cider, and choice old
Jamaica, or that when the beaux and
bellies next evening were congregated
in the school-house on the Green" to
practice choir singing, which was just
beginning to supercede the old fashioned
deaconlng out" that the handsome
widow and her surroundings should be-
come matter for discussion.
Deacon Cluff at the Pines" had a
holy horror OF this new style of singing.
Though man only little past forty,
he held in sacred disdain any infringe
ment of his sabbatical privileges. 1t
made him a person of mark to stand in
the deacon's seat before the pulpit and
read two lines of the psalm for those in
the singing gallery to tune into melody.
So the dea con, that evening, had deter
mined to go over to the school-house to
stop the discrderly proceedings. Six
weeks q widower, dare not aver how
strongly other reasons urged the step.
Mrs. Cluff was not forgotten on the
contrary she was remembered every
hour in the day. He was lonesome his
house was at skies and sevens, his child
rem unruly.
Then he was conscious of a strange
sense of freedom-the feminine world
was again open to him it was pleasant
to gaze at the lovely maidens of the So
ciety. He was high ia the social scale /;
last year overseer of the poor, this year
selectman of the town, spoken of as
being likely sent to the big and mighty
General Court on the following year.
With his standing in the church, surely
he might aspire to the fairest and richest
of the land.
A huge fire of green logs was sputter-
ing and sizzling in the wide stone fire
place of the rude, half-fnished temple OF
learning; the tailow candles, stuck into
square blocks whitfield from pine stick,
cast weird light over the clumsy desks
and seats, hacked and disfguIed by
their various occupants, casting ghostly
shadows over the time stained and
smoke-embrowned - walls. Grouped
around the smoking fire, and perched
hither and thither upon the benches and
desks, were some thirty lads and lasses
singers at the "Green," and few friends
come to assist in the requirement of sa-
cred harmony. SO
Deacon Cluff was an artist fear he
scarcely understood the full meaning of
the term; still, as he pushed, aside the
clumsy outer door and stood in the little
vestibule, the picturesqueness of the
scene arrested his steps, and caused him
to stand unobserved in the half open en-
trance to the, larger entrance.
A merry laugh ran round the group
as the deacon paused; a curly haired,
blue-eyed miss, perched upon the front
desk, exclaimed /:
"Eibridge Clifton expects to marry
the rich and handsome widow we visited
last night; but the lady is a good, God
fearing Federalist, and would not look
at such a Tom Paine infdel and Jeffer-
sonian Democrat. Now John Pike has
a chance Cheer up, John if the school
marin did give you the mitten, heard
the wido3 Adams ask you the price of
salt hay" -a-- = q 1
Another uproarous peal was the re-
sponse to this sally .rt--. ga5,g. .ta
"Who is this widow Adams2" in
quired young man, throwing down the
bellows with which he had been csaxing
the fire.
"My cousin, Mrs. Bessie Adams, the
fairest and wealthiest dame in the coun-
ty," replied the damsel on the front
desk.