Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-03-08
Autumn Blossoms.

How was IL that I came to be an old
bachelor? Not because of hating wo-
men, am sure, for I liked them very
much. and never could have spoken to
one rudely or discourteousiy for my
life. As nearly as 1 know, it was in
this wise:
Nv father died, leaving a family of
children, wife, and an old father and
mother, of whom only myself WAS able
to earn a shilling. He had never saved
anything.
So, after the first great grief, when we
had cslned down and were able TO look
matters quietly in the face, there WAS a
wretched sort of prospect for us. Twas
only All accountant, and had a young
fellows habit of wasting my small sal
sry in thousand different ways | had
been paying attention." too, to Elsie
Hall, who, young and childish as she
Was. had way that some girls do have
of leading their admirers into extrava-
gance. OF all the trials of that never
o-be-forgotten time, think the great
est wss appearing niggar,ily in those
baby blue eyes, | did not mind wear
ing plain suits, di>cardiug Lid gloves
and renouncing the opera; but not to
lay those bouquets. and books, and
music, and dainty bits of jewelry, aud
multitudinous trifes al Elsie's feet, was
q very terrible ordeal. | passed it,
though; and if ever man had reason TO
be thankful | had, for the acquisitive
little beauty Tilted me in month for
Tom Tandem, who was rich, and lavish
of gifts, and who ran away from her
after marriage of ten months.
worked day and night, and managed
to keep the wolf from the door.
Sometimes used 10 think how we'll
IL was for Elsie that she had not really
fvscd rzzv, tvI ctro vvyui,i tsavC uac uvtn-
ing but dismal prospect of wearing out
her youth in dreary, hopeless engage
ment To one too poor 10 marry. That
was until Tom ran off. Then thought
it would have been even better for her
ID have shared our humble home and
poor fare and the love L could have
given her than to be deserted so. And
pitied her. as if she had not proven
herself heartless. But l never went
near her, of course; and l never even
spoke of her to my mother.
grew no younger all this while, and
every year seemed 10 add five TO my
looks. / had never been very hand
some or very merry, and soon became
conscious of a peculiar middle-aged
look, which settles down upon some
people very early. fl
Strangers, too, began to take me for
the head of the family; and once, in
new neighborhood, the butcher alluded
TO my wife" l found out that he
meant my mother, and only wondered
that ii was not desr old grannie.
She was eighty, grandfather ninety,
and they died one bright autumn day,
before prosperity came To us. died within
an hour OF each other-for grannie just
said: 81 think I'll lie down bit, now
Lemuel don't need me. I'm very tired. y
Then she kissed me, and said /:
you've been a good boy to your
grandpa, Edward. You'll have that &c
thinE Of"
And when next we looked st her she
was dead, with her cheek upon her hand
like sleeping child.
So two were gone, and We were sad
der than before. And then jean, my
eldest sister, married at sixteen a ply
sicisn, who carried her of TO Hiudostan
In her honeymoon.
And we could none of us feel the
welding happy thing.
But prosperity did come at last. 1
had worked hard for it, aud anything a
man makes his sole object in this life he
Is very sure TO attain.
We were comfortable-easy. All,
what a word that is after years of strug-
gle, At last we were rich. But by
that time | was sfive-and-forty-a large.
dark, mi,idie-ayed man, with face that
looked to myself in the glass AS though
it were perpetually intent on figures.
The girls were married. Dick had
taken to the sea, and we saw him once
year or 80, and Ashton was at home
with mother and myself the only
really handsome member OF our family,
and just twO-and-twenty. Aud II was
on his birthday, remember, that that
letter came to me from poor Hunter
the letter which began: "When these
lines reach you, Neu Sanford, l shall
have nv six feet of earth-all l ever
owned or would if 1 had lived TO be n
hundred"
We had been young together, though
he was really older than and we had
been close friends once, but rowing fit
had seized him, and we had not met for
years. knew he had married young
kentish girl, and knew no more; but
now he told me that she was dead, ami
that his death would leave daughter
An orphan.
"She Is not quite pennies" he
wrote; "for her mother had little ill
come, viii, b, poor MS l WAS, was never
brute enough TO meddle with, and II has
descended To her. But l have been
rolling stone, gathering no moss, all my
life, and We never staid long enough
in one place to make friends. Will you
be her guardian? it is dying man's
Last request
And then he wrote some words, COM
ing from his heart, 1 knew, which,
b.ing of myself, | cannot quote even
here-I could not think that deserved
them.
Aud the result of that letter, and Of
an 'ther from the lawyer who had Annie
Hunters little fortune in charge, was
that one soft spring day found me on
board of q steamer which lay at rest
after her voyage In the protecting arms
Of Liverpool, with two little hands In
mine, aud q pair Of great brown eyes
Lifted to my face, and q sweet voice
choked with sobs saying something OF