The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-08-20
A BRACE OF BOYS.
CONCLUDED FROM LAST WEEK.

CONCLUDED FROM LAST wEEK.)
With both ofmy nephews hopeless
ly enamored, and myself the confdant
OF both, 1 had my hands full. Dan
iel was generally detected and dis
trustful; Billy buoyant and jolly.
Daniel found it impossible to over
come his bashfulness; was spontane-
GUS only in sonnets, brilliant only in
bouquets. Billy was always coming
to me with pleasant news, told in his
New York boy vernacular. One day
he would exclaim: "oh, I'm getting
on prime! got such smile off her
this morning as I went by the win
dow!' Another day he wanted coun-
sci how to get valentine to her-be-
cause it was too big to shove into q
lamp post, aid she might catch him
if he left it on the steps, rang the bell,
and ran away. Daniel wrote his own
valentine; but, despite its originality,
that document gave him no such COM
fort as Billy got from twenty-five
cents worth of embossed paper, pink
Cupids, and doggerel. Finally, Bill
ly announced to me that he had been
to play with Jimmy, and got intro
duced to his girl.
Shortly after this Lu gave what
they call "a little company'-not a
party, but reunion of forty or fifty
people with whom the family were
we'll acquainted, several Of them liv-
ing in our immediate neighborhood.
There was goodly proportion of
young folk, and there was to be dane
ing; but the music was limited to q
single piano played by the German
~--:l~ usual on such occasions, and the
refreshments did not 1ieo to the splen-
dor Of costly supper. THIS k1nQ OF
compromise with fashionable gayety
was wisely deemed by Lu the best
method of introducing Daniel to the
beau neonde-a push given the t1mid
eaglet by the maternal bird, with q
soft tree top between him and the vast
expanse Of society. How simple was
the entertainment may be inferred
from the fact that Lu felt somewhat
discomposed when she got a note from
one Of her guests asking leave to
bring along her niece, who was max
ing her few weeks visit. AS a mat
ter Of course, however, she returned
answer to bring the lady and well
come.
Daniels dressing-room having been
given up to the gentlemen I invited
him to make his toilet in mine, and,
indeed, wanting him to create a fa-
vorable impression, became his valet
pro ten'., tying his cravat, and teasing
the divinity-student look out of his
side-hair. Ny little dandy Billy
came in for another share of attention,
and when I managed to button his
jacket for him so that it showed his
shirt-studs ''ike q mans" Count
dOrsay could not have felt q more
pleasing sense of his suficiency for all
the demands of the gay world.
When we reached the parlor we
found Pa and Ma Lovegrove already
receiving. About a score of guests
had arrived. Most of them were old
married couples, which, after paying
their devoirs, fell in two like un.
riveted scissors the gentlemen find.
ing a new pivot in Pa and the. ladies
in Ma, where they mildly opened and
shut upon such questions as severally
concerned them, such as "the way
gold closed" and chow the children
were"
Besides the old married people
there were several old young men o.
distinctly hopeless and unmarried as
pect, who, having nothing in common
| with the other class, nor sufficient en-
ergy of character to band themselves
for mutual protection, hovered de
jectedly about the arch pillars, or ap
peared to be considering whether, OF
the whole, it would not be feasibl'
and best to sit down on the centre
table. These subsisted upon sucl
crumbs Of comfort as Lu could get al
occasional chance to throw them by
rapid stories of conversation-becam
galvanically active the moment the,
we're punched up, and fell fiat tn
moment the punching was RENTED
I did all I could for them, but havin,
Daniel in tow, dared not sail too nea
the edge Of the Doldrums, lest h
should drop into sympathetic stagn.
ton and be taken preternaturall
bashful, with his sails all aback, jul
as I wanted to carry him gallantl
into action with some clipper-bui]
cruiser of q nice young lady, Fina
ly, Lu bethought herself of that la
plank Of drowning Conversations
the photograph album. All the d
; ; jected young men made for it at ono
some reaching it just as they we
about to sink for the last time, but q