Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-11-30

llt thU tNbil lnlIlk tnhb Ht btoh uVcuo-
toned TO do when q boy, finding as much
pleasure in forgetting that he was a
man as he had once found in hoping
to be man. The two boys enjoyed
his society greatly, and his father was
delighted TO see that he had retained
his interest in the farm-life, though the
deacon felt an uncOnquerable hostility
to what he called 1.-the scrlb-brush on
his upper lip" think If John had
known how strong his father's feelings
were against this most-cherished prod
uct he would have moved the crop and
grazed the field closely until he got back
to the city.
John was not insensble to Janet Dun
toms charms. She could talk fuently
about all the authors most in vogue,
and the effect of her fluency was daz-
zling to a man not yet cultivated enough
himself to see how superficial her culhire
was. For all her learning noated on
top. None of it had influenced her
own culture. She was brimming full
of that which she acquired, but it had
not been incorporated into her own ma
ture. John did not see this, and he
was infatuated with the idea of marry
ing wife of such attainments. How
she would dazzle his friends! How the
Governor would like to talk to herl
How she would delight people as she
gave them tea and talk at the same
time. John was i'm love with her as he
would have been in love with new tea
urn or a rare book. She was a nice
thing to show. Other people than John
have married on the strength of such a
feeling, and called it love. For John
really imagined that he was in love.
And during that week he talked and
walked and rode in the sleigh with
Miss Dunton, and had made up his mind
that he would carry this brilliant prize
to New York. But, with lawyer-like
caution, he thought he would put off
the committal as long as possible. If
his heart had been in his attentions the
caution wouldn't have been worth much.
Caution is a good break-water against
vanity; but it isn't worth much against
the spring-tide of love, as John Harlow
soon found.
For toward the end of the week he
began to feel warmer feeling for Miss
Janet. 1t was not in the nature of things
that John should walk and talk with a
pleasant girl n week, and not feel some
thing more than his first attcsted desire
to marry n snowy wife. His heart began
to be touched and he resolved to bring
things to II crisis as soon as possible.
He therefore sought an opportunity to
propose. But it was hard to find. For,
though Mrs. Holmes was tolerably in
genious, she could not get the boys or
the deacon to pay any regard to her
hints. Boys are tolerably depraved on
such questions, anyhow, and always
to stumble in where any priva-
cy is sought. And as for the deacon, it
really seemed as though he had some
design in intruding at the critical mo-
ment
| do not think that John was serious
ly in love with Miss Dunton. Ifhe had
been he would have found some means
of communicating with her. A thou
sand spies with sleepless eyes all round
their heads cannot keep man from
telling his love somehow, if he really
has a love to tell.
There is another fact which convinces
me that John Harlow was not yet very
deeply in love with Janet. He was fond
of talking to her of Byron and Milton, of
Lord Bacon and Emerson. c., as have
already said, he was fond of putting his
own knowledge on dress-parade in the
presence of one who would appreciate
the display. But whenever any little
thing released him for the time from
conversation in the sitting-room he was
given to slipping out into the old kitch-
en-, where, sitting on a chair that had
no back, and leaning against chimney
side, he delighted to talk to Huldah.
She couldn't talk much of books, but
she could talk most charmingly OF
everything that relatedto the country
life, and she could ask John many ques-
tions about the great city. In fact John
found that Huldah had come into pos
session of only such facts and truths as
could be reached in her narrow life, but
that she had assimilated them, and
thought about them, and that it was
more refreshing to hear her original
and piquant remarks about the topics
she was acquainted with than to listen
to the tireless stream of Janet DuntOn' S
ostentatious erudition. And he found
more delight in telling the earnest and
hungry-minded country girl about the
great world of men and the great world
of books than in talking to Janet, who
was, in the matter of knowledge, a lit
tie Jlase, if l may be allowed the ex-
preston. And then to Huldah he could
talk of his mother, whom he had often
watched moving about in the same
When he had spoken to Janet
of the associations of the old place with
his mothers countenance, she had an
swered with a quotation from a poet,
given in tone ofempty sentimentality
He instinctively shrank from mention
ing the subject to her again; but to HUI
dah it was so easy to talk of his mother s
gentleness and sweetness. Huldah was
not unlike her in these respects, and
then she gave him the sort of sympathy
that finds its utterance in tender 81
lence-so much more tender than any
speech can be.
He observed often during the week
that Huldah was depressed, He could
not exactly account for it, until he no
ticed something in his sisters behavior
toward her that awakened his suspicion.
As soon as opportunity offered he in
quired of Huldah, affecting at the same
time to know something about it.
81 don't want to complain of your
sister to you, Mr.. Harlow"
"Pshaw! call me John; and as for
my sister, know her faults better than
you do. Go on, please
"Well, it's only that she told me that
Miss Dunton wasn't used to eating at
the same table with servants, and when
one of the boys told your father he was
mad, and came to me and said: HUI
dah, you must eat when the rest do. If
you stay away from the table on ac-
count of these city snobs III make a
fuss on the spot So to avoid a fuss
| have kept on going to the table"
John was greatly veXed at this. He
was chivalrous fellow, and he knew
just how such remark must wound any
person who had never learned that do
nestle service had anything degrading
in it. And the result was just the OPP
posite of what his sister had hoped.
John paid more attention than ever to
Huldah Manners because she was the