St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-11-15
Worried WOoing.

Snow, when I, in the natural course
Of human events, took little time an
done my courrin', everythin' was pro-
pitious and pleasant like with one ex-
ception,'' said Bill Spriggs. "No one
seriously objected to me from the old
| folks down to the rather fastidious
house dog.
Everybody was friendly an willin',
apparently, that ! should undertake
the keeping OF one of the daughters,
an' to some extent the rest O. the fam
ily. But the one heavy, pulverizin'
cross [ had to bear was the old man s
talk. He was on hand every night O
my would-be courtin', ready primed,
an from the time the door closed after
| nv amiable arrival till it formed 3
background to my departin', disgrunt-
| led footsteps he never one moment OF
appreciabIe or standard time let up in
| his conversation. | was a martyr to
them conversational abilities. Pve still
got the whole of the incidents of his
| tourney from Pennsylvania to the West
indelibly imprinted upon my memory,
together with every foot O. the scenery
along the road, from that long winter of
! extraordinary long nights variations.
| 'Ah, me, he'd commence, them was
times that tried mems souls, an espe-
cially their wind an constitution. Com
in from Pennsylvany I've went actually
four days 'thout any milk in my coffee,
an the toughest kind o steak, an no
maple strip for our hot cakes, an only
what fresh fish we could eat, an pain
fully lug along with US. Young
TELLER, YOU don't know nothin' :,
specially bout what US pioneers suf-
fered.. Them times showed what a
mans made out'n, very Visibly, some
times. At times, when we'd come to a
big, deep, dark, rapid-rol1in' river, we'd
have to holler ourselves hoarse, and
p'raps wake the baby, attractin' the
| ferry man attention on t'other side.
| An maybe crossin' small streams we'd
be pestered terrible with mosquitoes,
an more'n once I've been that dizzy on
account O. the rapid current. Once
I shall never forget it; often yit | dream
of it an boiler out dreadful when we d
been out on the road about week an
twas near the close of day, an we was
still pressin' on hard, tryin' to git to
some spring that hadn't sulphur enough
IN it to spoil the whisky punch. The
shadders of night was gatherin' very
fast, an also the gnats an mosquitoes,
an the trees an things seemed dipped
in tar, SO black they was an gloomy,
when all of a student l was sprung
upon from behint an raised Almost out
OF my saddle by the violence an pain
of the stab / received from one O them
tarnal big black ants!'
"Then, may be, for a rest an a
change for himself, he'd go off onto
the story of his very great-grandfather,
who revolutionized some war, or varied
in some revolution, or somethin'. He
most generally commenced about a
cannon he claimed the old fellow had
helped to captivate. I dozed of one
night when he'd sprung the cannon
story, an when finally woke, saw by
the clock I'd been sleepin' one hour
an forty minutes, an there he was still
onto that gun.
81 hadn't been married two weeks
afore the old man asked me for p loan
of seven dollars, an bein' refused he
withheld his conversational powers
from me for three months, even to pass
in the time o. day as we passed by. !"
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.