The Centre reporter. [volume] (Centre Hall, Pa.) 1871-1940, 1878-02-21
LOVE AND FROST.

II ere WAS neAutN enough 10 ut loulll
in MakaSka valley, what with the river
ani tle lake and the fOrest-crowned
hills, IT least in summer time and even
tie dry, cold rigor OF Minnesota WIN
ter eauld not take II all away. Never
FL eless, there Was nothing else there
halt 50 beautiful as Norma Ericsson.
Her withered, old Norwegian father
had settled himself on q gOod-enOugh
piece OF land, away up above the head of
the lake, miles away from Mataska vii
lage, and no one could say he had SO
much As one friend more, at the end OF
a five-years' residence, than the day the
first timber Was cut for his house.
A thoroughgoing miser was old Jan,
and his crusty seltishness included not
only his earthly goods, and the gift or
use thereof, and his own not very desir
able company, but also his one jewel of
s daughter.
RSrely was Norma seen in the village :;
almost never at all at any merry making
oi the neighborly country folk and old
Jan seemed TO take an ogreish sort of
pleasure in preventing her from enter
tanning visitors-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
Mataska valley.
And vet there were those who had
succeeded in breaking through or climb
ing over the odd old miser's wall of re-
serve.
John Pinner had done it, by his
fathers advice for Judge Pinner was
jim Ericson's lawyer, and he had more
than once limited to his son and heir
that Norma had other and more solid at
fractions than her beauty.
Ii, therefore, any fair occasion offered
10 send a message 10 the Ericsson farm,
John Pinner had been generally quite
ready 10 oblige his father by carrying 1t,
and more than once he had even vehtur-
ell on q brief call without any special
errand.
As for Paul Wood, on the other hand,
either he had no. sufficient cunning 10
invent errands, or his pride forbade any
sAbterfuge, for he had positively and
openly braved, more than once, even the
harsh discourtesy Of old Jan, in his un-
invited. unabashed intrusions.
If Paul did not pretend to vie with
John Pinner in dress, wealth or apparent
prospects, he was certainlya fine, manly
specimen of a young Western farmer,
and his dark curls and almost swarthy
features wore q pleasant contrast TO even
the ripe blonde Morse loneliness of Norma
herself.
One bit of strategy it seemed that Paul
had stopped 10, for more than once
Norma had been surprised that he had
heen " ont a-hunting in that neighbor-
hood on the very days which old Jan
lad chosen for bit of teaming on the
furthest edge Of mis- possessions, or a
trip II the store at the village.
Nobody ever knows how such things
come TO be common property; but, some
how or other, Judge Pinner and his son
were made aware that they had reasons
for distrusting Paul Wood, and he had
l,een made 10 teel the fact very sensibly,
more than once.
Tlere had been an added bitterness
the past autumn, in the fact that John
]'inner's nomination 10 the State leRfs-
ltture had only resulted in showing the
folly of the Mataska valley people, for
the stupid fellows had known no more
tlan to choose Paul Wood instead and
rven Norma Ericsson had said she was
glad of it.
There came day, however, IN the
carly winter, when Paul would have
,.Jven his political honors aud his best
horse, perhaps even his farm TO boot, to
lave known why it was that Norma sud-
tenlv became as distant and repelling as
old Jan himself
Not word would she vOuchsafe him.
though he met her full half-mile from
the house, and walked to the very door
ly her side.
He did not give the matter mp, even
then, half so much for the volly of bit
Ter abuse with which the old mfser
greeted him, as for the icy look Of indif-
ference with which Norma marched
straight on into the house, and closed
The door.
There was really very little "give up
n Paul's composition; but he met John
Pinner, before he had left the farm a
rnile hehind him, and there was a look
an Johns face that suggested good
Inany ugly thoughts to the sore heart Of
The discomfited youth.
The next day and the next, and, in
fact, good many days after that, were
decidedly unfavorable to courting Of any
sort.
II was weather to have "bred cool
ness" in a blast furnace. First, there
.ame driving northerly storm bring
ing untold freights of drifting snow from
The Arctic regions, till all the country
WAS buried under a genuine "Minneso-
Ia blanket" No roads, no paths-no
usein trying to make any, almost.
And then there followed cold snap,
that utterly exhausted the expressive
powers Of the thermometers. The only
way to get the mercury low enough was
to hang it down a well. Thirty, thirty
five, and some said forty degrees below
zero-only, when people are half frozen,
they are apt to exaggerate
Anyhow, there we're terrible stories
Of suffering. here and there, and nobody
cared to stir far from home t'until the
frost should let go its hold a little"
John," said the careful Judge, on
the third day, when the abating storm
began to let in the frost" John, don't
you think you'd better go and take q
look at the Ericsons? I don't believe