The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-03-14

w I'LL AIdD6li6 lOE " SWetbuedIt duu
Annie for confidante, what man could
want mcrep The flood-gatcs of his soul
were opened. He certainly lacked the
eloquence of that much-to- be-envied
newspaper chap; but Annie was SYM
pathetic, and she got notion OF his
longings, his doubts, his aspirations,
quite as correct as II they had been
more elegantly expressed. Then came
the story of the sonnet that wouldn't
allow itself to be written, and the stupid,
uncomfortable, contumacious behavior
of that awful pollysyllable Arabella.
"Don't put it in at the end of a line, y
suggested Annie. Get over it at once,
and have it out of the way"
"Capital!'' said Mr.. M'Govern.
!" Could you, Miss Annie, give me an
idea, q suggestion, line or two per-
haps?"
"What style will you have it imp
"Well, something little like Tenny-
son, with dash Of Shelley, just trifie
of Swinburne possibly" He had evi-
IDENTIFY been reading up.
How would this dop'' suggested the
accommodating Annie, with twinkle
in her eye that somehow made Mr..
M'Guvern blush to the roots of his hair.
"AEabella, gaze upon me
With thy soft and gentle eyes.
See the wrong that thou hast done me;
All my troubled spirit lies
Painting with it's deep emotion,
Pulseless as a tropic ocean,
And seem RS one who lieth
Low upon his couch and dieth.'
Beautiful! Go on"
Now the result of all this was that
within the next three weeks Miss Ara
bella received no less than nineteen
love poems, all signed clarence
M'Governr in that gentleman's best
style, with flourish underneath at
least four inches long.
But somehow this partnership in pO-
etry did not seem to agree with Annie,
and before long she announced her in
tention of visiting friend in the coun-
try. She needed a change" she
said.
Curiously now, the holes in Mr..
M,Govern's stocking began to reap
pear; the dust resumed its normal
sway, and the only line of poetry the
young man could remember was:
Thou wilt come no more, gentle ANNIE"
which he whistled SO lugubriously that
one morning, out of pure sympathy,
Mrs. Gibson put her head inside his
door and whispered consolingly:
"Lor' bless you, yes, she will. Mr..
M'Govefn, she's only gone for a
month";
Then Clarence began to wonder where
his thoughts had been straying; and as
poetical illusions were no longer pos
sibility, he resolved to see Arabella at
once and put his fate to the touch, and
win or lose it all.
It was night Of wind and rain and
sleet as Mr.. MGovern left the station
and approached the lockwood man.
sion. Miss Afabella would see him in
few moments, and in the meantime
would he wait in the library? Fancy
ing himself in solitude, he selected the
easiest chair, and was just composing
his address to the fair object of his at
fections, when small voice appealed
to him pathetically:
Pleathe, thir, thith it'll too thick, it
won't twitht."
"What is it, my childg" inquired
Clarence, affectionately, seating the
small petitioner on his knee.
18th maxim lamp-lighterth. Thith-
ter Bella gave me all thith white paper.
l wanted new, but she said it wath
good enough for me; there wath moth
ing ON it but some thilly vertheth that
big fool-she thaid hith name, but l
forget-had written to her. Don't
pinch me tho; I'll thcream.n
Oh, agonies of unrequieted affection!
There. curling gracefully around a
lamp-lighter, destined perhaps to light
one of his rivals cigars, were the ten
der lines,
"Arabella, gaze upon me
With thy soft and gentle eyes"
The rest were gone, unless they might
be discovered on the vicious morsel of
paper that g wouldn't twitht."
In less than two minutes Mr.. Meow
ern was in the street. Oh, the dismal,
dreary, sleeting iniquity of that night!
Where was the station? It had disap-
peared. Down in torrents came the
rain, freezing as it fell; slippery and
more slippery grew the pavement;
only cat, or some animal with claws,
could have maintained systematic
perpendicular. Suddenly down went
Mr.. M'Govern. Perhaps it was bless
ing, for the sudden application of cold
ice to the back of his head restored his
consciousness of where he was, and he
turned toward the railway station,
having in his excitement wandered
half mile in the opposite direction.
Had that partial bath suddenly
cooled his. passionp Clarence could
not have told, but somehow he did not
feel as miserable as he had expected,
only very wet, and the ride home
seemed Unfortunately long.
Two or three days passed by, and
even yet Mr.. MGoyern was in a re-
markedly serene frame of mind for .
disappointed lover. A week passed
away, when suddenly he began to feel
a serious distress in his left ankle. This
struck him at once as peculiar, as, ac-
cording to all precedent, the anguish
should have proceeded direct from his
heart.
But pretty soon the invisible tweezers
of most malignant imp began to
wrench him in the knee; before long
euC SliP W6o upOu A1o a IL bucuCC III
struck to his hip; and, utterly in the
power of the enemy, Mr.. M'Govern
awoke one morning and found himself,
not like the Philistines dead, but unable
to move limb, and helpless before the
eyes of Kitty, the waiteress, who, late
4. sa-s 1919 R.hSd her head into
the room and inquired II nc VIZ, o 5'TsS
going to get up.
weeks did Mr.. M'Govern rise from his
bed. They blisteped him, they poul-
ticed him, they dosed him, they drugged
him; but all to no effect. The fever
would have its way in spite of the whole
medical pharnacop@ia. First of all,
they placed linn in the charge Of mon
strous MALI nurse, whom Clarence,
in his impotent fury, mentally de-
nominated ssgreat hulking brute,n
but without whose assistance the un-
fortunate victim Of his attentions could
not even turn in bed. How he grew to
hate tie horrible cressure who stood
over him day and night Even Mrs.
Gibson's breaking boots and high
pitched voice became . blessing when.
in the intervals Of her domestis labors,
she looked in upon the sufferer. But
Annie-if he could hsve had Anniel
/ nally, in his semi -delirium be teean
! VIII aloud for her; and Mrs. Gibson,
/ own h out Of the motherliness Of hr
! ;deas Az or because she had her oJA
: Young dry>A Annie and this thriving
cannot be exls salesman-too much
: msrriageabls did Of landladies w
4 thst Xnnie shppl0< ers-promised BIN
q. AZ 1l1st he calneSut Tor.
81 trenrth q IL enemy whether the
q vhst6er hs id not dare m spent, o.
e inr. burning implements caSis frces
s Annie's gentle presence ~ e3re =