The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-05-07
DIR. JACKS VALENTINE.

There were half dozen of the girls
&ogether-pretty creatures i'll the very
first season of their long dresses-the
eldest not quite sixteen. They were all
tbraids and puffy curls-all loops and
ribbons-all smiles and dimples. 1t was
Saturday before Valentines day, in a
certain year OF grace, of which l will not
give you the precise date, but less than
ten years ago and more than five. r.
"What are you thinking about, Nell p
Bertha asked, sitting on the arm OF
NelIy's chair. 90.
"rhese Valentines" Nelly answered
slowly.
"Well, surely they need not make you
sober-they are absurd enough"
Sc Yes, and it's because they are so alb
surd that they make me sober. L was
Just wondering why we couldn't just as
well have done sonnet thing to help some
body think-to do some good.
Nelly's heroic!" cried Kate Greene,
hippantly /" Miss Hunt is moral re-
former !"
Nelly blushed from her pretty ears to
the roots of her sunny hair, buth eyes
sshone clear, and there was ring of ear
nestness in her voice as she answered
You can laugh if you will, but L
mean what 1 say, and I'm going to try an
experiment I'll write one boy valen-
tine, such as think girl ought to write,
and III send it,"
Her task was harder than she had i'm
agined. 1t is only the old, perhaps, who
are sage i'll counsel by nature. At any
rate, to give good advice did not come
aty1rallu RI ,,ratty Nallu P,t che hoJ
an idea of what she wanted to say, and
at last she got it said. She had written
and rewritten it, and finally concluded
that she could do no better, and then
copied it out into her neatest handwrit-
ing before she called the others. 1t was
little stiff, to be sure, and preachy and
high flown, but it sounded like lofty
effort and complete success to the listen
ing girls. This is what it said:
MYVALENTISE You will have plenty of
fine speeches and praises and perhaps of
fun and fancy from others so shall not
give you those-I would have but one
interest in you, namely +: that you be the
best boy and the best man which it is
possible for you become. If you are
selfish, if you are indolent, if you are
mean, you will never be happy i'll your
own society until you have sunk so low
that you don't know the difference be-
tween goodness and badness. But if you
Net out TO be gentleman and n man of
honor and faithful worker, you will do
Guod deeds and live happy life and be
worthy the everlasting esteem of
Your VALENTINE.
Nellie read it with rising color and a
little culver about her mouth which Ber-
tila understood; but she read it with
firm voice and careful, deliberate accent.
Then she said when she had finished,
90 shall burn up all the rest of my val
-entines and send only this one for it is
what mean in earnest, and, as old Aunty
Smoke says, "If it don't do no good, it
cant do no HARM"
I" To whom shall you send it, dear ?"
Bertha asked gently, little subdued by
NelIy's epistolary success.
." 1 hadn't made up my mind" Nelly
answered thoughtfully |" they all need
n."
"Oh, send it to Jack" cried Kitty
Greene, "He boards with us, and he
needs it-bad enough. If ever a boy
was full of his pranks Jack is, and if ever
a boy tormented a girls life out Jack
docs mine
a color clear and bright as flame glowed
ON Nelly Hunts cheeks. Had she had
dark-eyed Jack in her mind all the while
She only answered very quietly
" don't mind. i had just as lief send
Is 90 Jack.
On the 18th the girls were altogether
nj school comparing notes and exchang-
ing condolences. But Kitty Greene drew
Nelly aside, while they walked up and
down the hall together, their arms around
each other, as girls will
" saw Jack get it, Nelly"
Neiiy's pretty cheeks glowed and her
eyes shown like stars, but she asked no
questions. Indeed they were scarcely
necessary, Tor Kitty was eager enough to
tell her story.
" He got it, don't you think, along with
bali a dozen others, and he read them all