Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-03-28

with every indication of truth that a
pair Of brown cotton overalls had serv-
ed to temper the Illinois winds to his
shuddering frame through the previous
winter.
"The peacock is a pretty bird" he
remarked to me once, cas- ually dis
coursing upon this matter of apparel,
"but it doesn't count; with all its
gaudy feathers, it can't sing worth a
cent. 1t looks well, but its music is the
most abominable noise [ ever heard, L.
and | have boarded in a house where
they kept melodeon," he added, with
a conclusive shake of the head.
Like most printers, cold Noah" was
a good deal of cynic, though his
cynicism was so closely woofed with a
subduing sincerity that it was very
difficult, frequently quite impossible,
to tell where the one left off and the
other began. As [ have said, he looked
upon life as play, and he was fond of
reciting Shakspeare's "Seven Ages" in
support of this idea. Its all right"
he would argue, as long as you don't
care. That's the whole secret. Ignor-
ance is bliss, oftener than we think; it's
knowing too much that bothers people,
and if you're bothered you can't enjoy
the show, don't you see? 1t isn't all to-
gether unlikely, let me tell you, that a
well-behaved dog, asleep in the sun and
sure of a bone for his dinner, isn't
better off than we are, with all our
wisdom and our doubts" And yet he
reyerenced wisdom, | am sure, and
respected all honest opinions, and l
think that, away down in his heart,
lurked a quiet faith in the saving power
ofvirtue; but | doubt ifhe believed very
much in the naked moral strength of
human nature. [ know he once sorely
tried my patience in that regard L
was telling him how George Insley,
known to us both as hardened speci-
men of the printer topper, had taken
the pledge and was manfully keeping
it; and after l had finished, with the
assurance that Insley had not tasted
liquor for nearly six months The sub
sequently shot himself, poor fellow J
he dropped his head a moment, and
then looking up with an incredulous
smile, said quietly:
"There aUas some truth in those
Arabian Nights stories, then after
an?'
Singularly enough, too, his skeptic-
ism was confined to his own sex; singu-
larly, [ say, for he was a man, you
know, and not woman. at was Eve
that the snake had to charm and be-
tray" he was accustomed to put it;
" Adam fell as a matter of course"
This was a little sophistic, to be sure, as
much of his logic was apt to be, but the
sentiment Of it was SO knightly that it
readily won him credit among his
critical fellow printers, even at the ex-
pense of some disloyalty to their own
personal sense of masculine superior
ity.
He had been in love once in his
life, this tattered prodigal, and the
venture had not been what could be
called a complete success. He told me
all about it, of his own accord, one rest
full night as we sat on the bridge at the
foot of Kansas avenue, listening to the
culver of the cottonwood foliage, and
watching the river slowly gather the
shadows to its taWny bosom. He was
relgiously sober that night, for a Won
der, and [ felt that it must have been
some subtle Witchcraft of the atmo-
sphere, rather than the few remarks
we had been exchanging about Phil.
Reades marriage with the Winsome
little singer, Minnie Beals, that so
suddenly drew his eyes away from the
water and out into vague perspective be-
yOnd the opposite shore, and sent his
thoughts backward with a bound, as it
were, to the rich days when every eye
was blue to him and every sound a rap
ture harmony.
"She was good, solemn girl" he
began, and / think her intentions were
honorable all the time. | know, now,
that she was not handsome, for her
eyes were crossed slightly, and her
cheek-bones high, and her chin had a
retiring turn,-the face didn't Justify
you understand and her hair inclined
to redness; but she was beautiful to
me, then as a flower, and [ loved her
very dearly. | was holding adj cases
on the Quincy Herald,' in Illinois at the
time, and saving some money every
week. | was expecting to be man of
family, you know. | had fixed in my
own mind what kind of q house we
would have, where we would buy our
groceries, how the children would look
and what we should name them there
were to be several of them, -girls,) and
a hundred other things that [ am
ashamed to think Of now. But it was
all very real to me then, [ tell you.
Not that ever spoke to Isabel-pretty
name, wasn't it?-about such matters,
On no. We were a very sensible pair
of lovers, can assure you, and our
courtship was painfully correct. There
was none Of yon bright orb nonsense
about us. We weren't a bit spoony
We didn't turn the light down, nor hold
each others hands, nor say darling.
Net any. Once, only once, l put my
arm around her waist and might have
kissed her may be, but she looked
squarely into my face and said, You
forget and that was all there was to it.
[ used to wish sometimes, that she
would be a little more demOnstrative-
one gets tired of mere words you
know, in takes of that kind,-but
perhaps perhaps it was better as it
was"
He paused and pressed his hand to
his forehead rs if he feared the sweet
memory would slip away from him in
his talk; and sat waiting for him to
proceed, busying myself meanwhile
with thoughts of a certain June checked
Juliet to whom l had myself played
Romeo and whose half forgotten image
his idyl had strangely restored to me
there in the pensive starlight.
WELL" he continued, directly we
were very happy-too happy, Cap.-too
happy. If there hadn't been quite SO
much, it would have lasted longer, prob
ably. The truth is, [ was so happy that
I had to do something to tone it down.
to loose the quoins, you might say