Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-10-20


'.Then l will give up smoking" |
persist.
81 don't believe you can, Mr..
saucily.
ssMiss American, you are trifiing
with me-" Indignantly. "Kittie,
will you be my wife If promise you
to abandon tobacco?''
ssYe-s, when you have given it
up for good and all,'' she replies
/ attempt to ratify our bargain
with a kiss, but she is too quick for
me, and up in arms in an instant.
Well, ] can afford to wait. We slow
ly wend our way homeward, and L
am feeling supremely happy, for is
not my Kittie as good as engaged
to me?
/ think it wiser to keep my heroic
resJ4atlon secret from both Basil
and Bessie. so [ leave my pipe and
pouch in their accustomed place.
''Fill up your old pipe and come
out on the porch, Dick; l want to
talk with you about that last scribble
of mine,'' Basil calls out to me after
supper.
But l curtly decline, greatly to his
surprise, and seek the seclusion of
my chamber, where l pace savagely
up and down, trying to get the better
of that insatiate appetite for the
weed nicotian. | seek my couch
early, but Morpheus refuses to be
wooed. ! toss, tumble, fret and
fume, and finally, about three O clock
in the morning, arrive at the conclu-
sion that | love my pipe more fer
vently than [ love Miss Kittie Amer
lean. l steal cautiously down stairs,
capture my meerschaum, and return
ing to my chamber, | enjoy long,
lazy, delicious smoke.
Oh, drug more potent to soothe
my fretful nerves than the far-famed
narcotic of the Orient | revel in one
long, continuous dream of delight,
but my appetite is no sooner satisfied
than | am seized with terrible re-
morse. l have broken my promise,
and have shown myself to be mis-
erably weak man. l sit upon the
edge of the bed and calmly think the
matter over; finally l arrive at the
conclusion that stimulant must be
opposed by stimulant, and, satisfied
with this theory, l get into bed and
fall peacefully asleep.
In the morning, after breakfast, |
sally forth and procure bottle of
the best brandy 1 can find. This
stuff, agree, will drown my insati-
ate thirst for tobacco, as am not in
the habit of using stimulants of this
character. can easily dispense with
it when it has accomplished my OBJ
ject. l take the liquor to my room
and indulge in it more or less during
the day. | astonish Bessie and Basil
in the evening by appearing grabbed
and sour, and talk in a boisterous,
incoherent manner.
/ remain more OF less under the in
fuence of brandy during the whole
week. | have so far realized my
condition that l remain away from
Mrs. Americans entirely. Finally,
Basil tells me | am fast going to the
bad, and Bessie implores me with
tears in her eyes to save myself from
certain ruin. | send for the doctor
who doses me with bromide and ''fix.
es me up all right" as he terms it
and return to my pipe again.
/ 90 to see Kittie and expostulate
with her; but it is all of no avail
she only replies to whatever | have
to say:
II told you l did not believe yor
could abandon it; you are too mucl
its slave"
1t is evident she despises me fol
being so weak. / return home heavy
hearted and despairing, and seek sol
ace and sympathy IN my old meer
schaum pipe.
One morning a bright idea strikes
me. l take my pipe and pouch ant
walk about three miles to the sum
NIT of a high hill, vulgarly called
"Goose Hill - | sit down on an ole
stump, take a farewell smoke, de
posit my pipe and tobacco on th
stump and return home. | am sorel,
tempted during the day and during
the night also, but 1 hold steadfas
until the next morning, when my fee
bear me against my will in the di
rection of 'sGoose Hill," and l fal
from grace again.
Thrice in the space of three days
take that absurd journey, and then
give up. 60 to Kittie and tell he
candidly that | have over-rated m
strength, that it is impossible for m
to abandon the habit, that even th
physician, on account of my intense
ly nervous organization, advised m
not to attempt it unless | did so grad
ually, and that it would be matte
of months, perhaps years; but sh
remains lmpregnable so far as argu
ment is concerned.
"Why will you not abjure that at
surd vow, dearest Klttie?' l exclain
81 will not smoke in your presenc
any more than l do now, or not a
all, If you SO desire it"
Sand why will you not abando
that ahsnrd habit ?" she anSWere