Litchfield enquirer., 1874-01-29

1 tSN++EA40O i assumed tbe dignity of science. so inter- esting and so dangerous. had forced it's
 way through the tough cuticie of Faith ! fuis antl-nervons organization. He had no fear of n palpable danger, but he was very coward before an omen, a bad dream. shadow. or an unusual or uucanny ex- perience. ECousin Miranda was bafled :; sine talked and reasoned with him to no purpose Sine could not lay the ghosts, she only told him 10 keep silent; and she sent Dick of to boarding-school, where the lnferlority of the vivands, and the i necessity of protecting his fifth rib, took his attention for the moment from the terrofs of fhe unseen world.
 have two love-stories to tell, which properly come in here, and I confess my self ,embaErassed. Something of the old fashioned New England shamefacedness comes over one, as Cupid comes into court; the Puritan's dogged cold -blooded desire to-ignore this youngster is upon me. The Puritans did not intend to bring Cupid over in the Mayfower; they intend ed to leave him with other opportunities at Delfthaven. But he was a stowaway in spite of precaution, the first passenger, doubtlese. to go ashore.
 Many a pale paf of. Puritans had to confess n the language of Heine,- t'As We two travelled together,
 fF We were both astonished to find 1hat third was sitting between us, | N Twas Cupid, going it b!ind!'
 So he cheated the fathers and came over but always to be treated as culprit. No couple in the old days were openly Zen gagged. It was considered indelicate to speak 0f such subject. Their court ship must be a stolen felicity, and they were thaobjects of much joking and ieer- ing. Fibbing was permissible On this subject. In humble circles the formula of denial was, "Oh, pshaw!" ''Now, you stop!' {. 'Tain't so, at all" while amongst the better instructed and more fashion able, there was polite denial, biting of the lips, and from the father and mother of theF damsel came the elegant eva sion Ofa"I don't know what her prospects are. To the few who had the courage to announce their intention of marrying was universally attributed lack of deli cacy;-but Cupid must come in. If the Puritan fathers could not keep him out, how can l?
 One. summer We rolled off, as was the fashion then, to Saratoga. At the gay and crowded watering-pla for the first time learned what beautiful and attrac- tive girl was my Cousin Miranda, and un- fortunately for us certain Captain Sel- den found l. out also. I call him Selden, because that was not his name, for We must be prudent about the registered heroes of West Point. to which delight full spot we wended our way after Sarato- ga. If the gallant Captain had been fas- cinating at Saratoga, what was he on his native heath-the parade-ground at West Point? He knew how beautiful he was, when, as officer of the day, he reviewed the more beautiful cadets, turning to our enraptured vision back which was suffi- clently straight to have been used in a mathematical demonstration, and a waist
 Ekiebrzas 2, ss>..r,..o0 s'' elie.' os H.. Miranda, the of,en-quoted, weD-behaved model, the delight of the elderly maids and matrons of Mossbrook, actually fell in love with the Captain. We did not think she would do such 8 thing! She sank in the estimation of all who knew her, but she did it. The Captain follow cd her to Mossbrook. Uncle was furious, we were outrageous. do not remember more gloomy festivity than the Captains first dinner at our house; but we ragged like the heather, and imagined a vain thing, If we supposed that we were going to break up this love-affair.
 Miranda was twenty-tnree, the mistress of very pretty fortune, and the Captains record was as straight as his back Be- ing in advance of their age, these lovers announced their engagement, and the on- ly mitigation of our sentence was that they promised to wait year.
 Poor Miranda! what struggle she had between her love for the Captain and her love for the boys and girls who had been under her guardianship from the time she was sixteen! She did not fear for the girls, they could take care of themselves: but those poor, dear, helpless boys!-es- peeially that darling Dick Ca giant at six teen, able to floor dozen captains) ''No one had ever understood Dick but her self," she said; he was brought home from boarding-school, and she caught his big red hands in her small white ones when ever he passed her. She sewed up his fractures of broadcloth with streaming eyes, and plastered and poulticed him with renewed tenderness tenderness. If Dick showed temper, it was sensitive ness;' iihe climbed over the ridge-pole, it was sn s'heroic defiance of danger" Divine tenderness of the female heart for the arti,le s'boy," undoubtedly planted for the protection of the species! Dick was grie7ed to the core at the thought of Mirandas approaching marriage, and made himself as disagreeable as possible, but the ghosts had left him never to re- turn.
 Now cemes in love-story number two.
 We hada very pretty, rosy-cheeked maid, named Maggie, my cousing Mlranda's I EoS1w .l> young lsdy had consistently fouted and scorned Faithful. Nothing that he did met witl approval in her sight; and so it naturallr followed that they should be- come tn, Katherine and Petruchio of our 1 simple 9here.
 My cousin had a great talent for flow er-raisig, and our parlor windows were 1 filled win her roses and geraniums all .throughthe winter. Maggie, who loved my couan's blonde tresses better than l anything else in the world, used to ar-
 range. with exquisite taste, 2 soft, fluffy bramblerose, with its long pendants of green, Ii Miss Miranda's hair of an even ing wha she was going out, and would allow n, one to pick 1t but herself. One evening coming down into the denai, jour of the, dmly lighted parlor, she plucked her rose and was going upstairs with 1t,
 when wlo should step out of the darkness 1 and kissher, hut Faithful 1
 This ecret was not long s'under the
 rose, !" fc who should have seen it but but
 Dick, wio Immediately "blowed," as he would ave phrased 1t. Poor Maggie
 came upwith her white rose, and one very
 red one n each cheek, conquered, cap tured, tined by Faithful Bean. Was n't
 her life burden to her after thata And
 yet, 2 sat of difference was paid the pair
 after 1t fas known that they were ''keep-
 ing con1any.'' Statira cleared the kitch-
 en ansh har earlier on Saturday night, that
 they mint take possession of it for few
 hours ourting. The great brick oven, 1 in 8 glq of persistent heat, went on calm
 ly cooktg the pork and beans and brown
 bread pr Sundays breakfast, and the
 wood-fe resigned itself to dying bed of ashes a;our friend Cupid famed into new and caE1cious currents the flames which T 16ounTHrN EkQ 0R