The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-04-03

brainsP''
"Why, Jack said Tom Green told him
you were certain sure going to be mar.
ried right away to Mrs, Nan Boyd"
mot muchm calculated Harry.
"Oh, Hal, that's slangw
"Well, what if it lisp Slang is tn,
language of the coming man; slang j.
universal painting; slang-but
wander from the subject. Listen, listen
ladies gay, and l will point moral and
adorn n tale for your infant minds.
| fell in love over head and ears and the
top of my tallest hair with Nan Boyd
| when / was twelve years old and she was
ten. I spent my little all in candy and
peanuts tor her sweet sake; / wrote hel
a valentine, and made her string ol
birds eggs three feet Tonga rosary o
! despair to the gentle birds robbed;
my last copper and n .jackknife that
loved like a brother; but she refused me
after all, though / implored her to elope
| with me in the milk wagon. Lo, as the
| Yorkshire man said, only t'other end
first, She wouldn't have he, dye see :
| for why now, he won't have sher The
moral of all which is, Rachel. don't snub
Tom Green too much now, lest he should
turn and rend you by-and-by."
81 hate Tom Green" retorted Rachel.
Harry laughed. But Philip Norton
could not speak he fairly trembled with
relief of mind almost painful in its
intensity. Harry did not notice his 81
lence, and Ruth went on:
but l should think you would want
to marry her, Harry. She is awful
pretty"
"Oh, loot! awful pretty and you
talk to me about slang! Ny dear, your
glass house will become fragmentary in
about five minutes if you go on"
Don't you like her, Harry?" asked
Rachel, always direct.
YES, miss, ] like her, but 1 don't
want to marry her."
Don't people ever marry people when
they don't want TOP" said Ruth.
"Perhaps they do, ma'am, but | don't
consider that am people. BY Jove! I'd
rather spin ropes out of sea-sand than
tie myself up that way. Ask the minis
ter here if he don't agree with me-"
Philip reused himself from his dream
at the appeal, but the question had to be
repeated.
I'D rather do anything else, Miss
Ruth"
but what ii you'd got married by
mistake, just as those people did in the
newspapers, for fun-but really they
were married-what would you dop"
asked Rachel, pcrsistently.
MAKE the best of it," laconically
answered Philip.
bad is the best of such mistake
Phil. Are there no divorce courts, my
friend and pitcherP'
Philips face darkened. "Not for me.
If had married Hecate by mistake as
Rachel says, l would try and make the
best of her. Anything rather than di-
vorce; that is unchristian and unmanly
both"
Good for you, parson! You haven't
forgotten your old trick of accepting the
position. Make the best of it, was the
theme of this distinguished gentleman's
valedictory address, my dears, on that
glorious day when he became the proud
possessor of a sheepskin, like the immor-
tai Brian O'Lynn, only the woolly side
was out; he pulled that over the profess
sor's eyes, and thereby got all the henors,
while my modest worth went unre-
warded."
Here the gate swung open, Just in time
to prevent further burst of Harry's elo-
quence, and a boy with telegram came
up to them. 1t was for Philip. One of
his most valued friends and supporters
in the church was dying after a brief
illness: he must see Mr.. Norton. There
was no delay possible, and in the morn
ing, very early, Philip Went. leaving
such adieus as he could for Harry to de-
liver, and carrying with him a triumph
ant sense that neither honor nor honesty
need seal his lips now; he could tell Nan
Boyd the love that possessed and con-
sumed him, and surely SO stringent IL
passion must compel return.
But he found his friend in the verv
agonies of death and in the atmosphere
of grief and pain that surrounded him,
after the solemnity of death, in the care
and help of the forlorn family, and the
services of burial, more than week
passed away before he could write the
important letter, and when it was once
gone his courage failed, suspense racked
and tortured him, he could not eat or
sleep, and on the fourth day he sat be-
fore the beginning of his sermon totally
unable to get further than the first sem
to bring him life or death. But the mes
sage was merciful; sweeter letter, to
his thought, was never written; modest,
reticent, yet with tone of deep feeling,
it promised to the heart far more than ii
said to the eye, and put him into state
of grateful rapture that crept into the
delayed sermon, and made sensation in
the parish when that precarious dis
course was at length finished and de
livered. For few, weeks frequent let
tiers were exchanged, but, at the lady's
request, nothing was said of any fixed
engagement; she wished, she said, to
know little better the man to whom
her future life must be bound. Philip
had heard that Will Boyd had not been
altogether devoted to his wife, and ap-
preciated at once the sense and delicacy
of her reserved expression of feeling in
the matter. In September he received
brief note, following a long letter, to say
that she and her cousin had both been
called to California to sister-in- laws
hurried wedding. DR.. Clarke was to go
with them as escort and groomsman to
his old friend DR.. Eldridge, and Nan
wished Mr.. Norton to know that they
were going-would be gone when the
note reached HMM ordT to account
for his own letters being unanswered,
for their brief stay in San Francisco
would not permit the mails to be use
full to them. 1t seemed as if fate sported
with poor Philip, for not two days
passed before he, too, received summons
to travel directly the other way; his only
relative, an aunt in Europe, was seized
with severe illness, and telegraphed for
him at once. He sailed by the next
steamer, and found Mrs. Warne at the
point of death; but the pleasure of seeing
her nephew seemed to rouse her and
waken her vitality she grew little bet
ter week after week, but was sent south
at 1act 10