The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-06-10
A TRUE HEROINE.

A IkUt ntkUlNE,
"This would be jolly, Tom, if i
under our window, and those internally
noisy urchins across the street, and
Don't. expect, my dear boy, to Sc
cure all the beatitudes at rental of SIC
per month.
"And if you wasn't so everlastingly
bearish, and"
"What more, my dear fellow? Out
with it,"
"And if that shy daughter of the
landlady wasn't so frightfully ugly"
"Well postscripted, Jack l knew
all along where the chief objection lay. y
Upon my soul, Tom, L believe you
rented the rooms just because you thought
her looks would annoy me-"
You compliment me undeservedly,
my dear boy. 1 had not that much fore
cast. But, now that you have suggested
at, think will adopt a new method OF
torturing you. the great Aristotle i'm
bued his followers with philosophy
while strolling about the groves and
&horoughfares of Athens. Why should
L not initiate the master of the peripa-
tetic school, and make San Francisco
lodgings means OF intoxicating moral
precepts upon your mind ?"
"Good enough, Tom. But not such
acknowledgements lessons, if
you please"
"All wholesome instruction, my dear
jack, is distasteful to the beginner.
You will relish it more as you advance.
|'Never, Tom, never, if Miss Corbin
as an average specimen of the studies
proposed In your new system of object
teaching"
"Don't speak so confidently, my dear
boy. The future is great gainsayer of
thoughtless utterances. But, to inaug-
come to order. First class in moral phi
losophy, attention
Ready, sir"
"Why have you seen fit to speak of
the landlady's daughter as drawback
to the iollity of our present location ?"
because she is so territically hideous,
and because"
"No generalities, sir. Answer me
ccategorically. Exactness OF definition
was the great point for which Socrates
commended. She has lovely hair-brown,
sleek and tastefully arranged ?"
EYES,"
"Blue eyes of singular brilliancy and
gentleness ?"
eyes"
"Fme eyebrows and lashes, and
beautiful mouth and teeth?"
eyes"
San elegant fgure-girlish, but sym
metrical and well developed-and ad
mirable hands and feet?"
eyes"
"Taste in dress, grace in bearing, ani
prepossessing voice and manner?"
eyes"
"Then go to If the total Of these
be not loneliness, the world is decep
tion."
"But, Tom, did you ever see any on'
80 fearfully pockmarked?"
eff put to my mettle, Jack, you know
I never yielded the superlative to Living
man. Miss Corbin's features have sea
shell smoothness-a very gloss OF finish
compared with faces 1 have seen.
have beheld countenances that resemblet
colander-yea, that were engrailet
and corrugated like mass Of conglom
crate But, after all, it is only skin
deep. If the nature within be loneliness
these surface blemishes may become q
attractive to the eye as q piece OF orna
mental fret-work."
ct grant You, Tom, that Miss Corbil
is homely enough to afford to be good.
Perhaps she is good enough to af
ford to he homely. At any rate, yo1
were not born the censor of her or any
body else's appearance. The face yo1
dislike may be comedy to others and :
the Creator. And, il not, remember
my dear boy, that ugliness has icens
to exist in this world as well as beauty.
And 1 have a right to express m
opinion of 1t.
"And may have a reason to regre
ever doing so. Thus endeth the hrs
lesson. The class is dismissed"
Tom was awfuhby cynical Sometimes
but we were the best of friends. and
liked him Just as well "a though he ha
not keen twice as old as 1 was, On
crotchety and bald-headed beside.
We had chummed together for year
nnd took adjoining rooms in priva
residence on Russian Hill. It was du
ing the first weeks occupancy Of o,
new quarters, while smoking on Il
veranda and looking out upon the mool
Lit bay, that the foregoing conversatic
occurred.
I had never seen Tom 30 moved bv
book as he appeared TO be by o volume |