Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1874-11-18
The Loves Of Obadiah.

never come to him, because, ere hi
reached its flower and fruit, the I'm
timely frost of a rejection by its ove7
sensitive object nipped his hopes
but the stolid insensibility which il
nearly every case provoked the dis
missal, also prevented any great de
gree of disappointment and great suf
fering.
"Being as l see a bucket out there
in the kitchen, guess III wash my
feet" said Obadiah to the widow, as
they sat in her front room, with all thu
doors and windows open, on a hot
July evening.
Those who have lived in the foot
hills Of the SierraS, breathed the dust,
and endured 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 visit
to lady whose virtues as house
keeper and economist had enchained
his fancy and excited his warmest ad-
miration.
"What-what did you say?' excit-
edly asked the widow. But when she
saw, with distended eyes, the actual
preparation going on, she dropped her
voice into @ key of the coolest and
genteelest irony "Certainly, make
yourself comfortable, Mr.. Fuller, by
all means. A foot. bath is undoubted-
ly refieshing-make yourself at home,
and wash your feet by all means. -
Whereupon she sat down very rigid
ly.
Obadiah, looking at her from the
kitchen-door, where he settled down
to what he consideled a very simple
and natural performance, noticed, for
the first time, n certain thinness in
the widows lips, and 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 Wild
ow Blaine gives me this bucbet,'' 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 WATERFALL to unho-
ly uses, without trampling on the
best feelings Of her nature, which were
those of an untiring house keeper
that she was a firm believer in a place
for everything and everything in its
place, and the place for Obadiah's feet
was neither in her bucket nor within
her doors any more henceforth. He
reached for his hat and, with mildly
troubled and pensive look, departed
for home. When he got there, he
gave the bucket 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
dismissals, which gave him an indiffer-
ent id ca 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 deserved better sue
cess.
Obadiah Fuller, in his infancy, was
the wonder of the neighbcrhood for
fatness his eyes were round and un-
blinking tears never came out of
them on the most melancholy occa.
sions. He grew amazingly in body i
his mind and sensibility far in the
rear, were almost lost sight of in the
general scramble of the coarser appe-
tites for development. His manhood
had more than fulfilled the promise of
his youth ; he ate, and slept to reple-
ton and never ceased wondering
why things are just as there are. To
him it was astounding that a woman
should refuse the hand of any man
that could support her.
Obadiah--a fair representative of
small class of men existing in every
community-was incapable of inspir-
ing love in the heart of any woman