Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-02-23
The First Time.
Kate Thorn, in n. Y. Weekly.

Is there man among you all who
does not remember the important era
in his life when he went home with
girl for the first time?
All! you all recall 1t distinctly.
Just how you stood on the broken
door steps of that old red country
school-house, after slnging-school
broke up, and waited for Ann Eliza
to put on her hood and shawl, and
finish up her gay gossip with the
other girls. How long you thought
she was in getting through. You
could have put on forty hoods and
shawls in the time. How strange it
seemed to you that girls should
have so much to talk about. How
you stood first on one foot and then
on the other, and tried to make your
self believe 1t was the cold which
put you in such tremor all over.
And you pleased yourself with
fancying how surprised she would
be when you offered your escort, nev-
er dreaming that the coquettish little
jade knew Just as we'll what was 60
ing to happen as you did. How did
she find out? All! don't ask us-we
know nothing about it; but you trust
the girls for always tinrling out that
sort Of thing. The intuition comes
to them as readily as swimming
Games tn a posl1uO-
By-and-by, after an age of
laughing and talking and
muffiing up in furs and scarfs, the
girls set forth, dozen or more, and
your Ann Eliza, mixed up with two
or three other girls, and looking so
straight ahead, and so profoundly
ignorant of your presence, that your
courage begins to ooze out, and it is
only by desperate effort that you
leave the other boys and approach
her, with your little set speech on
your lips.
All the other boys laugh, and all
the other girls giggle.
But You are desperate, and hurry
up to her with your elbow stuck ont
ut an accute angle, and-"Miss
Brown may l see you home to-
night?"
How she does start, aud how as
tonished she looks--quite as much
SO as it she had thought you at the
antipodes all along; and you would
never miStrust from her appearance
that she had endured the torture Of
curl tapers all day with special ref
erence to your taste-and washed
her face in lemon,juice and oat-meal
because she had heard you say you
detested freckles.
She is ''tickled half to death" at
your preference, for she hates those
Smith girls, and she knows they
have been making a "dcad set" at
you, but she is rs cool as Il cucumber
at your proposal.
And why? that is a conundrum
we give up. We know nothing
about the why's and wherefores
which control woman's heart, es-
pecially the heart of young and
pretty one.
Aud when she has kept you wait
ing till there is lump in your throat
which threatens to sutfocate you, and
your knees knock together, and you
feel as it you wished you were at
home in your little he'd, she puts out
two fingers and fastens them to your
coat sleeve, and you set forth.
You are elevated to the highest
pinnacle Of felicity, but you are froz-
en- as dumb as a festive tree-toad in
the middle of January.
You wonder what yon shall say,
and almost wish the earth would op.
en- and swallow you up and save
you from the necessity of "making
talk" By-and-by she breaks the ST.
lcnce with the original remark:
Every fine evening!"
And YOU start as if bomb-shell
had exploded at your feet, and blurt
out:
ayes l guess it isl"
After you get safely home, and up
stairs in the dark, with your boots
in your hand for fear Of rousing the
old folks, you will think it all over
again and wonder how you ever had
the courage.
All, we'll, it is all over now, busy
man of the world; and Ann Eliza
has silver threads in her hair, and
grandchildren at her knee, or maybe
she is sleeping quietly in some green
valley under the daisies; but you re-
member that first walk alone with
her as if it were but yesterday.
If you have u big boil ou your
neck and want to get rid OF it, mix
snow and salt, apply. and YOU can