The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-03-31

duty to help make home for you"
Instantly l rendered that Aunt Louisa
was worth $4,000. / think l learned
that fact in early years at the paternal
knee, along with who made me, and what
State l lived in. know it always stood
to my infantile consciousness in the re-
lation of primary truth. My father,
all his life, courted poverty through the
medium of dry goods and groceries, and
went through bankruptcy as often as the
law would allow. During the periodic
seasons, before calling the creditors and
making an assignment, he used to clasp
his hands to his head and calculate:
Louisa might help me if she only
wouldw
But Louisa wouldn't, or at least didn't,
and, whatever may be thought OF her
filial affection, mature observations on
the oscillations in the molasses and gin
ger market have convinced me of the
soundness of her judgment.
I'm delighted to see you, Aunt
Louisa. I'll go right down to my board
ing-place with you"
Hence, with brown willow basket in
one hand and shiny leather bag in the
other, and my great-aunt trotting behind
why under heaven she didn't walk by
my side | couldn't see!-we meandered
down the street.
We met Evelina Angela Plimpten. I
was engaged to Evelina Angela. had
enjoyed that honor ever since one July
evening when there came up sudden
thunder-shower, and she clasped my arm
and calculated she was $50 tim-id." An
engagement was an annual episode with
Evelina. When l solemnly asked Pa
Plimpton's consent he didn't remove his
pipe from his mouth, but just nodded,
and pursued his previous train of
thought. Evelina smiled patronizingly
upon me. Difference to the aged | knew
she considered beautiful.
My aunt didn't like my boarding place,
and wasn't pleased with my boarding
mistress. She thought we'd better keep
house, and | spent the next fortnight
house-hunting with her. The great de-
sideratum seemed to be the right kind of
"buttery"; one would have supposed
butter was to be the staff of life with us.
We at last found a "buttery" on the
northwest corner, opening into both
kitchen and dining-room, having the
requisite number of cupboards, having
shelves that admitted of being taken out
in housekeeping time, painted a be-
witching cream-color; and we engaged
that buttery, regardless of cost or of the
character of the neighborhood.
The next momentous step was to get
writing scientific essay on psycholog-
ical distinctions of sex, | should make
one strong point the tenacious attach
ment of the feminine mind to " things"
Ten thousand dollars in stocks and bonds
at stake in an unsettled estate have been
known to excite less interest and create
less jealousy than the disposition OF an
odd table-Cloth.
My aunt was for some days in a har-
rowing state of INDIGESTION as to whether
she had better have her things invoiced
as freight or to hire a car. By virtue of
the handsome figures learned to make
at Commercial College, proved to her it
would be cheapest to hire the car. had
to go to her former place of abode to see
about getting the things en- route, and |
had to g meet them with carriage" at
our depot. felt like a collector of an
tiquities just getting an assortment over
from Egypt. | shall ever feel grateful
to the small boys of our village for their
self-restraint on this tempting occasion.
l don't recollect single opnrobrious ep-
tibet. They treated my loads with re-
spect to which nothing but hoary hairs
could entitle them.
There was cheese-press, and | don't
know but a cider-mill; there was some
thing, with four tremendously heavy legs,
Railways believed to be something IN dis
guise of bedstead There were seven
bandboxes -four large and three smalD,
five feather beds, seventeen comforta-
bles, and a great deal of crockery which
evidently came over in the Mayfiower,
but had much better have put back to
land in the Speedwell.
/ need not say that our residence when
furnished was neat but not gaudy.
slept under "rising-sun" bed-Quilt, and
had a round braided mat to put my feet
on when l got out in the morning. |
sighed for my former cozy quarters, but
remembered my aunt ) NaluaJlOn, ana
reasoned that if she was my only living
female relative on the fathers side, |
must of necessity be her only living male
relative on the mothers side.
Soon after we were domesticated |
found that my aunt was subject to mys-
ferrous attacks, which attacks invariably
seized her in the nighttime, and made it
imperative that | should run for the doc
tor. Liability to these attacks precluded
the possibility of my being away from
home evenings, except Sunday and Thurs
day evenings, when | was expected to
see my aunt to prayer-meetngs and at
tend her home, though Evelina went off
in an opposite direction with another
fellow. DIDN'T know but justice both
to myself and Evelina demanded that
should have conversation with my aunt,
and set before her, in language which
even a child might understand, my views
of the duties and privileges of an en-
gagged man; but felt extremely doubt.
full of her sympathy, and seventy-five
thousand was a good deal to risk.
We had one servant, whose wages my
aunt thought it right should pay, be-
cause, as she said, if there was no one
but herself, she shouldn't keep a girl