Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1874-05-20
Ida NIOrton's Courtship.

ONhAi Dbhbbi " 90 pOA a. oAia
brought up on one of the hillside
farms that bordered the town Of
4, in the State of Ohio.
An ambitious youth was John,
who ever dreamed of q brilliant
opening somewhere in the future,
when he could abandon driving
team, following oxen, hauling wood,
wedding vegetable patches and
hoeing corn. OF all things, he
hated farming, and long before
glimpses of fashion had dazzled
his vision, the fact of being farm
er's son was gall and bitterness to
his foolish pride.
Vainly did the honest farmer,
sold Steve Dunbar as he was
commonly called in that section,
council his son John on industry,
economy and humble plodding,
waiting and watching to save
competency from tilling the soil.
Johns mind was bent on things
high-fown and crank, which to his
mind only aboundcd in city life.
Thus it was not strange that be-
fore the age of nineteen, with his
scanty clothing tied up in "pillow-
skin," which his thrifty mother adj
monished him to send home the
first chance he had, this country
boy started in search of the key to
life more suited to his taste.
Had it been possible at this
period to clip the thread of his ex-
istence, and start life over again,
from some other standpoint than a
little farm in the country, John
Dunbar would gladly have ignored
and forgotten home and all its
associations. AS it was, he resolv-
ed to kick the dust Of the past
from his feet, and ever after to
make footprints elsewhere in the
sands of time,
"Old Steve Is not the man to
stan in the way Of his boy plowin'
right uphill as fast as he can and
over the road he finds most to his
mind" said Mr.. Dunbar, when the
subject of John going to the city
to study medicine was being dis
cussed.
"Bnt John, lad" continued he,
"there's the chances sgin ye, that
yell fall into error by means of
your prinlzed up ideas. Better far
be gathcrin' potatoes, and tarnel
small ones at that, than cuttin' up
some rusty as II make your father
pull his hat over his face for shame.
Boy and man, Stephen Dunbar,
never disgraced himself by any
dlshonorable act toward his fellow
men and women. Will you say as
much at my age, John9 1t is so
hard to keep clear of ruts, that |
rather see you around the farm, but
you are so built in conceit of goin',
that go you may"
Whereupon five hundred dollars
were drawn out of the bank to de-
fray the young mans expenses
while studying to become physi-
clan.
Johns mother objected to so
much money being wasted on a
pack Of nonsense. "To think"
said she, "of all the butter / have
churned, the cheese l have made,
and the dinners / have cooked on
scorching hot days for parcel of
men in the fields, to help earn that
five hundred dollars Stephen, l
an, put about that you will allow
that boy to squandcr so much
money on pure balderdash. Jine
the medical faculty Pah ! haven't
l raised as likely family of chill
dren as you wish to see, without
any assistance from the medical
faculty! If n woman has grain
Of sense, all she ever needs with
her children is ainse seed, onion
drafts, catnip, picra, castor oil and
a good birch gad. Doctors bills is
wilful waste of means. John Is
fool to ever jine, if they make
him pay for it, for he ought to be
paid well for goin' into such folde-
rol. | never shall consent in the
world, for, depend upon it, no good
will come of it !"
, Notwithstanding these remon-
strances from the draperied men,
ber of the household, John had
the money, and entered medical
college in the city Of C, ar
hundred miles from his hill-sid,
home.
Young Dunbar began town life