The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-10-07
ADONIS LOVELADYS CLAIM.
BY ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIwAY.

Why his mother called him AdOnis, nobody
knew nor would you have ever imagined, to look
at him, that the cognomen of Lovelady any
more appropriate than that of Adonis. Indeed of
all the men who had herded cattle in Brush
Prairie precinct since the days that antedated all
need of precinct divisions in Oregon Territory,
Adonis Lovelady seemed the least capable of sup
porting such title with any show of consistency.
Rumor had it that he had once been bouncing,
roly-pOly, well-rounded baby, the delight of his
lady mothers heart, and the hope of his aristo-
cratic fathers ambitions but you never would
have suspected, had you not known him until l
did that he had been born in the proud family Of
Colonel Lovelady of Old Virginia, and that his
mother belonged TO the notable house of the Ran
dophs.
Adonis Loveady had run away from the re-
staints of his aristocratic parental home in his
boyhood. I do not know what induced him to run
away, but I do know that when he had peregri-
mated about the country for half dozen years,
and had grown from lubberly boy of sixteen into
an angular and sinewy young man of twenty-five,
he was very grateful for the destiny that landed
him in the Territory of Oregon and settled him
squarely upon a fine donation claim. And I also
know that, however handsome he might have
been at first, he had been the subject of many
hardships, misfortunes and disappointments gen
orally that at forty he resembled, more than any
other living thing, the gnarled and knotty oaks
that grew as a wind-break in the gap of the Coast
Range, hard by his virgin acres. His own mother
would not have recognized him if she had met
him; but that was of little consequence, seeing
there was no prospect Of her meeting him at all.
His father had long ago given him up for dead,
and I do not suppose that ne would ever have been
l.
the Allgrace family, into which he was married
by the free consent Of Oracle Allgrace when he
reached the age of twenty-three.
Oracle was, as I have been reliably informed,
very beautiful girl in her maiden days; but you
would never think it, 10 see her now, good reader,
for she has grown as anxious and angular as her
husband, and the eternal unfitness of names i'm
general is even more strkingly illustrated in her
case than I'm that of Adonis himself. Their union
has resulted i'm half a score Of really fne-lookng
children, thereby proving that the parental stock
was good in the abstract, however badly it had
been warped and twisted from the graceful prom
ise Of its youth through the hard knocks of a
rugged pioneer experience.
The donation claim Of Adonis Lovelady con-
sisted of three hundred and twenty acres of as
beautiful land as ever nestled down upon the
cIayey subsoil of the departed ages and the dona-
and natural advantages to his own, thereby giving
the couple an equal start in life and-other things
being equal-placing them upon an equal road to
liberty, prosperity and happiness.
Oracle Loveady was not afflicted with any OF
the modern nonsense that fills the heads Of silly
women with the thought Of being supported 10y
husbands. She was a 1COrIer She planted corn
and potatoes, miked cows, made butter, and
washed, sewed, churned, scrubbed, ironed and
cooked for half dozen bachelors, besides attend
ING TO the wants Of her own numerous family o
little LOveladys and waiting upon Adonis, hel
husband, with that sublimity of subservienc,
which half spoils sensible man and quite de
stroys the proper appreciation of all sef-assertinl
womanhOod in the mind Of many otherwis,
tolerant and tOlerabe husband.
The neighbors called Adonis Lovelady a shift
less fellow His wife apOlogized for his short
comings saying he was bad manager but h'
meant well. He was not lazy about work, but h'
was injudcious in its application. He often die
the right thing, but he almost always did it at th
wrong time He would make rails in harves
time and let the wheat get over ripe and go t.
waste or he would build corral in the threshini
season and let the rain catch his grain in th'
sheaf. He would go a-huntng i'm the plowins
season and a-fshing in planting time.
Mrs. LOvelady things differently, and some
times essayed a little advice but Adons Love
lady did not take any more kindly to the idea o
obeying the advice of his wife than he had i'm hi
youth Of his mother. He liked to work by con
traries Had his wife understood his disposition
when they were first married, she might have haC
her own way in everything by simply opposin.
him In that which she most desired him to do