The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-11-12

pulAOSOpner. Cnlnk, on the whole,
I??should have preferred to be the
"laughing philosopher" And as to
the novelette, style in general, I can't
say that could have done justice to
it if I had tried, for my parents had
judiciously selected my novels for me
and had not descended to the dregs
of the day, and I always made up
my mind to do justice to thing or
not undertake it.
And so can safely aver that I
didn't loll on Wares shoulder didn't
weep; and didn't initiate any favor
ite brown-paper heroine.
But I did say Eyes" in plain Eng
lish; plain, maideuly, English and
/ did say it without having to be ask
ed q second time; and I did think
his long brown beard lovelier than
ever, and his big eyes grander, and
his elegant form statelier; and I did
feel glad I had found favor in his
eyes and I did let him see that I
did, too.
And what's. more, I'm not sorry for
it, either; though that has been ex-
actly twenty-five years ago, this very
day that I sit down, pen in hand, to
gather up the threads Of my life and
weave them together for my precious
nearly grown-up nieces and nephews,
and for any other PERSONS nieces and
nephews~who may choose to listen to
my grooming from the chimney cor
What lovely days and evenings and
fresh mornings We had staging over
the Alleghanies! How grand the
scenery and clear the. sky! How
slowly we logged along in the lumber
ing old stage-driver with glovesand
ribbons on the box-snoring or ach-
ing passengers in the vehicle-and
leather-sided trunks slowed away
tightly and securely strapped in the
boot behind!
And the inns and the inn-keepers,
and the inn breakfasts and dinners
and suppers, T never shall forget.
But poor as they were, one scarcely
ever got time to indulge in them.
'Stage ready, ladies and gents! came
bawling in our ears almost invari-
ably just as we got our first forkful
half way up to our lips. Determined,
however, since we had to pay, eat or
not, to get something to satisfy the
inner man Cor womanl I obstinately
made myself the very last one to get
into the coach, for which l received
such looks Of internal and suppressed
abuse from the freckled-faced little
driver that I was in constant dread of
his enlivening the tedium Of the Jour-
ney by an explosion from the intensi-
ty of his feelings and their unfortu-
nately compulsory suppression within
the somewhat contracted boundaries
of his little bottle-shaped carcass.
In time, long before our journey
was at an end, and in face of the
freckled drivers suppressed, but mani.
fest, wrath, I learned wisdom, and
should, by any unforeseen series of &C.
cidents or combination of circum-
stances, the ancient method of ]ocomo.
ton return, I am bold to say that ]
am fully prepared to breast all its diff
ficulties with an unblanched cheek
and an unterrifed heart.
My prescription was simple.
merely opened the mouth of my
travelling satchel-a large, capaciou'
cavern of q mouth it had-and it was
astonishing with what rapidity it con
sumed its breakfast, dinner or supper
as the case happened to be. It the1
disgorged itself leisurely in the stag
for the benefit of the inventress of tn,
| ruse.
All this, ! noticed, was at first t.
the great horror of the other passen
gers, among them a gentleman whom
at first, from the alacrity with whicl
he obeyed the coachman's horn ant
never swore, I suspected of being
base employee of the ring of innkeep
ers put upon the road to set the res
Of US 4 hypocritical example Of chez,
fulness, under the trying circumstan
ces to which We were exposed, bu
whom I afterwards discovered to be
SQUAD Of q theological student in hi
pen-feathers.
| In time the other contents. of tn
stage began timidly to initiate my e1
ample, and divers satchels and cal
pect sacks were brought from hidin
places and put to valuable use, an
our journey from one inn to the mex
was somewhat in the nature of a pre-
longed picnic on painfully contract
ed scale.
Even the SQUAD caught the COZ
tagion and very pious- looking va
Use of rusty black leather was, shor
| " after, seen between the feet of th
incipient divine, with the leg Of a fov
protruding from its jaws, as if tn
halfAedged gentleman of the clot
had recently visited neighborin
roost and taken advantage Of th
amputated condition of one of its il
habitants, and, surprised in the &C
had fed, only half concealing his pre-
in his CONSERVATION and flight.
Il And 50 from ~ to W ou
party became 9 travelling terror I
every landlord uponathe road. Thi