Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-05-15
JEANIE'S DIPLOMACY.
A Sketch-with a Moral.

Everything looked grim, massive and
out of humOr about the Manufactured
old homestead, Dark Ridge.
The sombcr walls, draped heavily, as
if in mourning, with the dark. writhiny
ivy, were certainly grim looking and
massive enough; and, il they were not,
in their way. out of humor, it is not in
the power of architectural physiognomy
to express ill-humor. If the erimness
of the exterior was austere, the grim
ness of the interior was morose. A
certain obdurate air of misanthropy
chung to everything. The heavy panels
of the walls, the smoky holdings of the
ceilings, the deep carvings of the mas
sive furniture, seemed to the nervous
and imaginative little housekeeper like
SO many wrinkles of one great implaca-
ole frown.
In this lair lived and growled John
Eldritch, bachelor and landlord; eccen-
trio, irascible, reclusive. "Auld John.n
his neighbors called him, though he
was not old; and yet neither had he
ever seemed to be young. ''In his oarli-
est boyhOod he had been considered a
tlnaist unco' bairnie." His shock hair
did not bristle from the outside of his
Uranium with less regard to conven-
tional modes than his shock of quaint
notions bristled Oh the inside of it. This
fact and the rather more weighty one
that his manners sat rs awKwardly and
loosely on him as did his awry garments
gave him no little repute as a philoso-
pher. His philosophy was, however,
of very stern mold; ''pessimeestic,''
he termed it.
How John ever came into possession
of his universal whatever is
ought not to be-" do not know; but,
having once adopted the spectral waif,
he chung to it with an heroic obstinacv
quite inspiring.
The especial object of Johns abhor-
renee was the weaker sex. His antipathy
to anything and everything feminine
was fairly ecstatic.
1.-The feckless, bletherin' corbies,"
he would vociferate. 'They care for
naething but daffin and clatterin'. L
wanna haze onything tae do wi them"
Wilma We, John9 'Bide Vice.
Aud John was a great rider. He
and his shaggy old road mare, "Meg,"
were known far and wide; and great
was the merriment they afforded the
keen-witted peasantry on the line of
their expeditions, which often were ex-
tended for days. For their Journeys
were but one continued obstinate con-
test for the mastership. But if there
was any doubt as to who was, de facto,
master (more politely mistress) it did
not exist in the minds of Meggy or the
lockers on. Whatever it occurred to
this cratic animal to do she did, in
spite of the railing invectives of her
irate but impotent rider. Did a clump
of grass on the hillside offer special en-
ticement-
Whoa! WHARF ye gangin' moo. ye auld
farran meere?'
But his mandate was as futile as his
irony. Meg's nose was hillward, and
If John did not fancy being dragged
under the housekeeping branches, his
only successful stratagem was to slim
of in the rear and await, with as good
Tor as ilD grace as possible, the pleas
ure of his companion. Did a particu-
larly coy place by the roadside incline
Meg to rest. the celebrity with which the |
staid philosopher slipped from his sad
die and the turbulent enthusiasm with |
which he expOstulated with his COM
placent partner, as she lay blinking |
deprecatingly at her liege lord, oc-
much suppressed laughter
among the unsympathetic observers.
II.
Nesting In one of the little plens
that creep out from the picturesque
and historic valley of the Tweed was
The quaint, retired homestead of Glen
Nook. Glen Nook was the peaceful
home of David Lester, q former mer-
chant of Edinburgh. retired, by ILL
health. and his sister, "Jeanie /" Leis-
To-. "Davie" was genial, medita-
i've, gentle man of, perhaps.
Eorty-five years. Jeanne was . very
small. very bright-witted. very placid,
very winning maid of some thirty sum-
ners. 1t seemed always to have been
summer with her.
At Glen Nook John and Meggy were
neither infrequent nor unwelcome visit
KS. To the mild-tempered Davie there
seemed something quite refreshing in
he aimless bluster and acerbity Of his
riend. |,
And Jeaniee Yes; she liked him.
Ills treatment of her, indeed. was de-
igned to be lofty and ungracious re- /,
erve, fitted. he thought, to impress her
July with the ardor of his misanthropy.
{ was not till many years afterward ,
hat he learned how virilant thoee