The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-07

smart and I've heard that they tnouSn'
a sight of him in the city. If Luplry
wanted him she d better a took
him when she could get him without
fussin' about trussoO, for some OF
them rich city girls will be settin' their
caps for him, and you and know whaV
men be, Sister Bemus."
u.-LUKE.
He was tall and angular, had stopping
shoulders, and wore his hair very long.
He had very large bony hands, which
he never knew exactly what to do with
in society. He never sat down in the
presence of others without becoming
painfully embarrassed by the length OF
his legs, and eying them in calculat-
ing way, as if he were trying to devise
some plan for curtailing their proper
tions or getting them out of sight. tie
had a high and prominent forehead,
near sighted gray eyes peering through
scholarly spectacles, large Roman
nose, and very wide mouth which
suggested humor and relieved his face
of an oppressive solemnity.
But his congregation declared that in
the pulpit, when he got fairly under
way and forgot himself, he was neither
ugly nor awkward. And not few OF
the unmarried young ladies thought his
appearance " very interesting"
Miss Una Whitefield, the Bishops
niece, when she met him at the Chinese
mission school, thought that his head
resembled Guido's head of st. Paul.
The low brow and the leonine locks of
the st. Paul were certainly not Luke's,
but what dreary and prosaic world
would this be if no latitude were allowed
to the Imagination! Luke, on his part,
when he first saw Miss Una, mentally
quoted, -" Her eyes, like the angels of
the Lord, sang peace on earth, good
will toward men," He almost fan
cied himself blest, like the prophets of
old, with an angelic vision. How far
puffs of golden hair and white tulle
bonnet will go toward the making of
an angel, it is vain to consider, or how
often dazzling purity of complexion and
heavenly eyes are the masks of impurity
and earthliness. 1t is sufficient that
Miss Una Whitefield's angelic aspect
was the outward and visible sign of an
inward and spiritual grace, and what
Luke saw in her eyes came from the
abundance of her heart.
He felt like sitting at her feet to be
taught, rather than joining with her to
teach the benighted All Sins, Hop Wards
and Chin Wangs; and when one of the
teachers loosely congratulated her up
on her celestial employment, Luke felt
an unregenerate inclination to strangle
him. For man to venture upon such
a pun in her presence seemed to him a
striking proof of total depravity. How
her pupils could regard her with such
stolid Indifference while she talked to
them was profound mystery to him.
He was convinced that if she should ut
ter such soft and persuasive accents to
him he should fall down on his knees
before her.
The unhappy result of the reverential
admiration with which she inspired him
was that his hands and legs became
more hopelessly manageable than
ever before, and he clutched so fran
tically at his long lock of hair that it
threatened to come out by the roots.
He blushed like school-boy, and STAN
mered a few commonplaces which
seemed so insane as he remembered
them that he was almost driven to de-
spair.
1t was the very next day after his
meeting with Miss Whitefeld that he
received the letter from Lupiry an
nouncing the decease of the turkeys, and
the consequent necessity of postponing
their wedding day. The letter seemed
to startle Luke-to act as a sort of moral
shower-bath. For the space of twenty
four hours he had been unconscious of
Lupiry's existence. He drew himself up
to his full height and walked across the
room several times with long, de-
termined strides.
81 can't have it postponed, not for a
day." he said. "We are far enough
apart now; in six months more"
And he firmly resolved to go no more
to the Chinese mission school.
He kept his resolvc-for the space of
three weeks. During that time he had
entreated Lupiry to be married even if
it were in her old buff calico, and Lu-
piry had steadfastly refused. He had
then resolved to improve Lupiry's mind
in the time that must intervene before
their wedding-day, and thus produce
some congeniality of taste between them
having hidden consciousness all the
while that pouring water into sieve
would be more hopeful task.
And Lupiry, reading the improving
letters, sighed and wished that Luke's
hair eurled like Seth Jones'. She had
observed that men with long straight
hair were always dull and prosy; and
the prospect of leading the woman
prayer-meeting and entertaining the
conference brethren lay heavy on her
soul.
At the end of those three weeks Luke
had come to the conclusion that, consid-
ering his unusual facility in acquiring
languages and the considerable COM
mand of the Chinese language which he
had already gained, together with the
scarcity of laborers in the vineyard, il
was his duty to spend his Thursday
evenings at the mission school. II
temptations beset him there had he not
sufficient manhood to resist them, with
the divine aid which is never denied to
the weakp
At first he decided that his only safety
lay in avoiding the angelic vision alto
gether, and confined his attention strictly
to the stolid, Acknowledged Celestials.
But before long he became disguised