River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-02-21
LOVE AND FROST.

There was beauty enough to be found
in Mataska valley, what with the river
and the lake and the foreSt-crowned hills,
at least in summer time; and even the dry,
cold rigor of a Minnesota winter could
not take it all away. Nevertheless, there
was nothing else there half so beautiful
as Norma Ericsson.
Her withered, old Norwegian father
had settled himself on good enough
piece of land, away up above the head OF
the lake, miles away from Mataska village,
and no one could say he had SO much as one
friend more, at the end of five-years' res
idence, than the day the first timber was
cut for his house.
A thorougbgoing miser was old Jan, and
his crusty se!fshness included not only
his earthly goods,a and the gift or use there
of, and his own not very desirable COM
pany, but also his own jewel OF daugh-
ter.
Rarely was Norma seen in the village;
almost never at all at any merry making
of the neighborly country folk; and old
Jan seemed to take an ogreish sort of
pleasure in. preventing her from enter
tanning yisitors-young men especially
at his own house.
And so, the more Norna's beauty grew
and became known among them, the more
unpopular was old Jan Ericsson among the
free-hearted settlers of the MaStaska val
ley.
And vet there were those who had sue
ceeded in breaking through or climbing
over the odd old miser's wall of reserve.
John Primer had done it, by his IA
theirs advice; for Judge Primer was Jan
Ericson's lawyer and he had more than
once limited to his son and heir that Nor
ma had other and more solid attractions
than her beauty.
If, therefore, any fair occasion offered
to send message to the Ericsson farm,
John Primer had been generally quite
ready to oblige his father by carrying it,
and more than once he had even ventured
on brief call without any special GRAND.
AS for Paul Wood, on the other hand,
either he had not sufficient cunning to in
vent errands, or his pride forbade any
subterfuge, for he had positively and open
ly braved, more than once even the harsh
discourtesy of old Jan, in his unlimited,
unabsshed intrusiens.
1t Paul did not pretend to vie with
John Primer in dress, wealth or apparent
prospects, he was certainly fine, manly
specimen of a young Western farmer, and
his dark curls and almost swarthy fea-
lures wore pleasant contrast to even the
ripe blonde Morse loneliness of Norma
herself.
One bit of strategy it seemed that Paul
had stopped to, for more then once
Norma had been surprised that he had
been "out a-hunting in that neighbor-
hood . on the very days which old Jan
had chosen for bit of teaming on the
furthest edge of his possessions, or trip
to ths store at the village.
Nobody ever knows how such things
come TO be common property; but, some
how or other, Judge Primer and his son
were made aware that they had reasons
for distressing Paul Wood, and he had
been made to feel the fact very sem
sibly. more then once.
There had been an added bitterness
the past autumn, In the fact that John
Primers nomination to tho State legis-
lature had only resulted in showing the
folly of the Mataska valley people, for
the stupid fellows had known no more
than to choose Paul Wood instead; and
even Norma Ericsson had said she was
glad OF ii.
There came a day, however, in the
early winter, when Paul would have Civ
en- his political honors and his best horse.
perhaps even his farm to boot, to have
known why it was Norma suddenly be-