Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-02-22

had everything pertaining to the outer
man, which would draw and hold ilogi-
cal feminine regard. He might have
been young viking (if the ordinary |
notion of a viking was true one) with |
the
"Knotted column Of his throat
The massive square of his heroic breast"
He was like Saul among other men,
taller by q head, and looked taller than
he was, by reason of a great mop OF
chestnut hair, which could not have
curled tighter if he had wound it up in
papers every night of his life. 1t actu-
ally made one feel warm on frosty
morning, to look at Shirley's hair as he
went to "prayers." He had suffered
agonies with it in trying to take out
the curl,-it looked so wonlanish,-
till there came that welcome fashion
of cropping the manly head into the
semblance Of baboon's; then his soul
had rest.
He had never been " disappointed"
as the phrase is, and yet there was
woman at the bottom Of his cynicism, as
there is at the bottom of most mischief.
The blame lay at the door of Miss Tenn
perance Strong, the only woman with
WAOLu OAlIlCy dLy eS4O
vet she was that one good woman OF
thousand whom Solomon might have
found counting one by one" if she
had lived in his day, and he had not
shut his eyes to all but giddy Egyptians
and the fair Moabitish woman. Her
price was far above rubies; SO. far, in
deed, that no man had ever offered
any thing approaching to it; and she
| had continued Miss Strong for more
than threescore years. She always told
her age at the first interview, so as to
guard against the suspicion of wishing to
hide it.
But to begin at the beginning. Bonn
bay Shirley was born at sea, and cost
his mother her life; but being a lusty,
! hard listed baby from the first, bound
to thrive on hard bread and water if
nothing else served, he came to the
turning point of jacket and trousers on
shipboard.
Capt. Shirley professed to scorn all
learning that could not be at once ap-
piled to practical use; and the most
contemptuous thing he could say OF a
botched piece of work was, that 1t
looked as if it had been done by a
collegian." No one familiar with
sailor-nature (which does not entirely
come under the head of human nature,
| but
Suffers a sea change. -
Into something rich and strangely
felt any surprise that he had set his
heart on his sons going to college. Ir
selecting preparatory school, he passed
over all those academies form erly as
lplenty as blackberries in New England,
where boys and girls were educated
| together {" counting schools" he called
| theml, and settled him in the family oil
a solemn old minister.
Two or three motherless boys and
Miss Temperance made up the family
| don't know whether she liked Bonn
bay any better for having taken his
first step off Madagascar, and spoken
his first word near Cape Horn but he
seemed to bring into her life the fresh
ness of the trade-winds,-a breezy flavor
that she had never felt before. He had
known no other woman and his affcc
ton, slightly tempered with awe, was
deeply grateful to her.
As for Miss Temperance she reminded
him of ships figure head, carved Out
of heart of oak, that had breasted al
weather till its first good looks are bat
tered out of all shape of comeliness.
She had bowels of compassion for al
the weaknesses that boy flesh is heir to
her heart would have held the fifty
sons of Priam but all women were
faithless as Helen in her eyes, or would
be if they had opportunity. She looked
upon young girls, and their ways, will
eyes of such force condemnation, tina
not one had ever darkened her doors il
Shirley's time. In the nature of things
Miss Temperance must once have beef
girl herself but she could never hav
been "of girls, girlish."
Shirley cherished certain bashfu
worship for all women in his boyhood
He had lived among sailors in cabin an,
forecastle; he had touched pitch, but h
, had not been defled; the most abar
doned wretch among them had held u
to the boy only the true sailor-ideal {
/, womanhood, which never fails hin
! though he may not have seen the SEN
| blance of it since he left his mother
! knee.
1t was Miss Temperance who set
order before him the depths of deceit {
= which the girish mind is capable. TIL
shortest way to the manly heart may {
may not lie through the stomach: Mi
Temperance certainly commanded th'
avenue. She tended her kitchen fiji
s like vestal virgin and the marvellol
IL products of genius which came from
(, were things to remem Der, and to aggr
q vate ones wife with, through Gf
q Shirley's last vestige of unbelief in Il
a general worthlessness of young al
T. pretty women vanished when his fat
d er's death brought out all the tende
a ness of Miss Tempy's heart. H
L sympathy and her preserves did for hi
20 what her logic would never ha
accomplished and he went to college
y confirmed woman hater. He avoid
n boarding in any house where there we
ID daughters, and had serious thoughts
III taking room and providing for hi
self, when he was placed opposite to |
cd landlady's niece, but the neice provi
er only a temporary, as Susan NipI
would say, he staia. He passed by t
ST windows of two boarding-schools, mai
times day, as if he were walking
ne invisible tight rope; and his Phillip
OK were terrible against those who suffer
n their souls to be moved by curtain s
nails, or the shaking of handkerchi
at He is willing to make oath to this d.
10 that he passed through his four We