The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-01-11
NUMBER FIFTEEN.

work at both ends; but that isn't my
wav. or, rather it wouldn't be my way If
was In the habit Of writing tories,
which, thank Heaven, I am not. l get
my living in a Respectable way, ~ the
sweat of my brow, not by writing lies for.
newspapers. Consequently I've but one
story to write, and that is my own.
Nv~namo is Roderick McStivers, and
Pm q native Of thegood old town ofIad-
mouth; Pm forty years old if Pm day,
and, If | do say it, as good looking for
nv age as any man you ever set eyes on.
Twenty years ago l was fully as hand.
some as | am now, and mt that time /
was cnLaged to the charming Mary Black,
lhc belle Of Tadmouth. That was the
beginning of all my woe--that engage
ment. l was poor then Town the largest
boot mandatory in Falmouth today
and the Lord only knew when | should
be able to marry Mary. But she said
she didn't care, she could wait two or
three centuries just as well as not, if I'd
only be true to her meantime
Sooner shall the blue ocean melt to air,
Sooner shall earth resolve itself to sea,
Than | resign thine image, oh my fair!
Or think Of anything excepting thee.
that's Just what | said. You wouldn't
.bink, to look at me now, that I could
my anything quite so soft as the above,
would you, ell? Bless you! ! had more
poetry in my head twenty years ago
.hQn you could shake q stick at.
Many are poets who have never pann'd
Their Inspirations, and parchance the best.
That's what's the trouble with me. If
hu1u't confined myself to leather. /
should have played the deuce with "the
uinc.' We'll, YOU understand from the
lbovc that Mary and / were all right. !
sToIe that I'd be true, and she dittoed;
1ut, bless me, my dear sir, tue sweet
girl had q father, and he was not so
q, young as we were by several years,
'TIlose were days when my heart was
volrauic," but the old gentleman's palpi-
!ator WAS as hard and cold as a cast-iron
grindst0ne. The paternal Black did not
believe much in love, you see.
He had married for money, and, in
his opinion, that was the only thing
worth marrying for; and SO, instead OF
throwing his only child away upon a
miserable yawaJ0nd like myself, he verv
unceremOniously showed me the door
one evening, and the very next day
brought 81 lover Of his own choosing
home to Mary. The lovers name was
Bunsby, and he rolled in gold, metaphor
.Cally speaking; owned q fine house in
New York, and had horses, carriages
md servants "too numerous to men
ion" On, why should | linger over
his period Of my existence Pm sure |
don't know why, and hang me if | do.
You guess the rest. Mary was daz-
lied with her new lovers wealth. Size
iUrgvt p0or fnSoaaorion sF5s5i and
married Ihos. Bunsby, Esq, and IL,
alas, was not invited to the Weddingi
Anything more heartlcss than the above
oan scarcely be imagined, suppose J.
might have gone into mourning"
They told me l couldn't be a nun on ac-
count Of my sex.
"Oh, what shall I do?' asked, in a
voice that sounded horribly strange, not
withstanding that it was my own. I
1efy you 10 tell me what I did do. In
he light Of my twenty years experience
| am convinced that / did the. best thing
| could under the circumstances. [
married my boarding mistress. She
vas IS and | was 20 years of age; she
was
a maid unmatched IN manners as in face,
skilled in each art, and crowned with every
SN~~
And, though / never learned to love her
9Xtravagantly, ] must confess that she
could make the best apple dumplings
That / ever ate. In the course of time /
became a father. A daughter was born
% us, and we called her Julia, after my
grandmother, who was the most beauti-
tuI woman IN the country, to judge of
her portrait now before me. My dalgh-
aer looks much as my grandmother did
at her age. Wen, as l said, a daughter
was born to US and a son was born to
Bunsby, and they called him Tom. We
heard of the ast-mentioned event uE
acre In Tadmouth, but for years | never
saw either MARY or her son, nofWitll-
Standing they used to visit her fatEer
quite often while the old gentlemal
lived. But at last Mr.. Black was
gathered to his fathers. and about the
same time my wife was gathered to her
mothers, and i was LETT alone with my
little Julia. / was rich then-the most
wealthy man In Iad~mouth-and I bad
ouiit me q fine house. the satae that I
aaFe lived III ever since, with .ffPg little
lula as ho~usekeenar Well. how things
Will come about! Last summer Young
Tom Bunsby came out to Falmouth and
put up ut the hotel-they have quite a
number OF summer Doarders there-and
Vie lISt thing tile Young ma did was 10
tah III love with my daughter Julia. or
course the poor fellow was not to blame.
lie conldn't help IL, for she was the
most bewitching little woman that you
eve saw, not w~ithstanding that old Me-
Stlvers is her father.
he saw her first at a picnic, danced
with her, kissed her in the ring, and
walked homo with her at night. / re-
member the evening very well. / was
sitting in my library smoking a cigar and
thinking Of the late Mrs. Nc Stivers-oh,
those apple dumplings! my mouth wa
ters every time l think OF them-when,