The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1874-01-29
r7or9 srTTIPTor.. IOWA JANUARY 90. 1s74

49,
Immediately, but not in time to G.
cape the general chorus Of laughte
and jeers. He sneered 1t the depart
ing figure of Patty, and said 81 kne,
| could make her run" But he coul
not conceal his discontinue.
| When, at last, the party broke W
Morton essayed to have . word witt
Patty. He found her standing in tn,
deserted kitchen, and his heart bea
quick with the thought that she nigh
be waiting Tor him. The ruddy GLOW
Of the hickory Goals in the wide FIRE
place made the logs Of the kitchen
walls bright. and gave a tint to Pat.
tvs white face. But just rs Morton
was about to speak, Captain Lums-
denis quick, ,ierky tread sounded in the
entry, and he came in, laughing his
aggravating metallic little laugh, and
saying. .Aforton, where's your man.
nerss There is nobody to GO home
with Betty Harsha." xfaol
sDog on Betty Harsha.r muttcresl
Morton, hut not loud enough for the
Captain to hear. And he escorted
Betty heme.
a CHAPTER III.
GOING TO MEETING.
Every history has one quality in
common with eternity. Begin where
you will-therc is always a beginning
back Of the beginning. And, for
that matter, there is always = shad-
owy ending beyond the ending. Only
because we may not always begin,
like knickerbocker, at the foundation
Of the world, is it that we get cour-
age to break somewhere into the in
tcrlaced web Of human histories--of
loves and marriages, of births and
deaths, Of hopes and fears, Of sue
cesses and disappointments, Of get
tings and havings, and spendings and
losings. Yet. break in where we
may, there is always just little be-
hind the beginning, something that
needs to be told.
l find it necessary that the reader
should understand how from child
hood Morton had rather worshipped
than loved Patty Lumsden. When
the long spelling-class, at the close
Of school, counted of its numbers, 70
enable each scholar to remember his
relative standing, Patty was always
tone" and Morton ''two." On one
memorable occasion, when the all
but infalliblc Patty misspelled q
word, the all but infallible Morton,
disliking to s.turn her down. missed
also and went down with her. When
she sfterward regained her place, he
took pains to stand always "next TO
head.i' Bulwer calls first love a
great purifier of youth and, de-
spite his fondness for hunting, horse
racing, gaming, and the other wild
excitemrnts that were prevalent
among the Young men of that day,
Morton was kept from worse vices
by his devotion TO Patty and by a
cer.ain ingrained manliness. ~ ~
HAd. he wegshiped her less, be
might lon0 since. shave fpEnposed to
her, and thus have ended his ,,sus-
pense; but be had an awful sense Of
Patty's nobility and Of his own un-
worlhiness. Moreover, there was a
lion in the way. Morton trembled
before the face of Captain Lumsden.
Lumsden was Que Of the earliest
settlers, and was by far the largest
land -owner in the settlement. In
that day Of long credit he had man.
aged to place himself in such a way
that he could make his power felt,
directly or indirectly, by nearly every
man within twenty miles Of him.
The very Judges on the bench were
in debt TO him. On those rare occa
sions when he had been opposed,
Captain Lumsden had struck SO ruth
lessly, and with such regardlessness
Of means or consequences, that he
had become terror TO everybody.
Two or three families had been com.
PEELED to leave the settlement by his
prosecutions, 50 that his
name had come to carry sort of
royal authority. Morton Goodwin's
father was but small farmer on the
hill, man naturally unthrifty, who
had lost the greater part Of con-
siderable patrimony. How could
Morton, therefore, make direct ad-
vances to so proud a girl as Patty,
with the chances in favor of refusal
by her, and the certainty Of rejection
by her father? Illusion is not the
dreadfulest thing, but disillusion.
Morton preferred to cherish his hope
less hope, living in vain expectation
Of some improbable change that
should place him at better advantage
in his addresses to Patty.
At first, I.umsden had left him in
no uncertainty in regard to his own
disposition in the matter. He had
frowned upon Goodwin's advances
by treating him with that sort Of re-
pellent patronage which is SO aggra-
waiting, because it affords one no
good excuse for knocking down the
author Of the insult. But of late,
having observed the growing force
and independence Of Morton's char
acter, and his ascendency over the
men Of his own age, the Captain ap-
preciated the necessity OF attaching
such person to himself, partic cularly
for the election which was TO take
place in the autumn. Not that he
had any intention Of suffering Patty
to marry Morton. He only meant to
play fast and loose while. Had he
even intended to give his approval
to the marriage at last, he would
have played fast and loose all the
same, for the sake Of making Patty
and her lover feel his power as long
as possible. At present, he meant
to hold out just enough of hope to
bind the ardent young man to his in
terest. Morton, on his part, reasoned
that If Lumsden's kindness shonld
continue TO increase in the future as