Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-12-24
A NEW YEARS GIFT.
WHY a Young Man Was Presented
With One.

Egyle Meriweather had two lovers.
On was an old familiar friend, no other
tim her first cousin, Sam Meriweather,
wb had been-although a few years her
seior-her playmate. and for time
shr school-fellow, always ready to tease
br himself, but quite as ready to come
her aid if anybody else did. He
emed to look upon her in the light of
possession, which he had a right to
: have his own way with, but was equally
bound to protect. So it was with great
surprise that as they grew older and Ar
gyle bloomed suddenly into lovely girl
of sixteen. with hair of genuine gold and
eyes of bewitching gray. she found. after
slight contest with Sam in which she
had expected of course to have to give
up us before, that Sam was very willing
to succumb completely to her will. feel
ing himself amply rewarded if she smiled
she began to realize this unexpected
change of anairs-being like most girls
of her age little tyrant-she seized the
reins and kept them-not always out of
sight Her second surprise was to find
that there were some things which even
she could not make Sam do-for which,
with true feminine inconsistency, she
liked him twice as well as for the many
things in which he yielded to her.
When Sam declared himself her lover,
she feigned pretty astonishment, and
said No" positively, but would have
relented-so grievOusly did she miss
him during the two weeks that Sam
staid away, had Overwhelmingly for
Sam-her second lover appeared on the
scene and engrossed all her leisure time
AMI attention. This was stranger. an
officer in the army, and his name was
Clarence Dupont, from Thibodeaux Par
ish. La. He came to the neighborhood
on Il furlough obtained bya slight wound
in his arm, and brought letter of in
PRODUCTION to her father from his uncle,
an old friend and classmatc of Mr.
Meriweather's After his first call. he
came frequently. for he was staying
with friends who lived at the distance OF
a few miles only, and the ride and talk
with his pretty young hostess was an
agreeable enough advertisement for a
summer day. He began, of course, by
making love, as Il courtesy due to the
sex. but soon fell head over ears in love,
after his ardent Southern fashion, and
conducted his wooing after style very
different from poor Sans slow and
earnest way. He was very jealous,
and in complete despair, or very ecstat-
ic, and on the point of announcing a
betrothal to all his acquaintances; and
Argyle. who had never given a serious
thought to marrying this new admirer,
found it equally hard to restrain his
hopes and his fears. When at last he
would have a final decision, and re-
ceived a negative one. he took his de-
parture in the depths of gloom. bring
ing tears of self-reproach to Argyle's
beautiful eyes and filling her tender
heart with alarm by threats of suicide,
and hints of a speedy death on the
bloody battlefield.
Argyle was very young. and she was
much troubled about it, and wished that
Sam had not been so foolish himself-it
would have been such comfort to have
him reason and laugh her out of her
fears, or even scold her for her sell
fshness in amusing herself ut the ex-
pense of another pain
81 will never be so wicked again, y
sighed Argyle. and she went off to get
her fathers shirts to mend-the mend
ing had been accommodating during the
last few weeks-as proof Of her gen.
uine and profound repentance. She
persevered in her course of amendment,
as illustrated by attention to darning and
repairing everything she could lay her
hands on, for the next fortnight, and /
regret to own that she found it uncom-
monty dull, and there were moments
when she would have relapsed into
former iniquities had not both her lovers
been safely out of her reach. and long
rainy spell kept others from calling.
At last there came bright, beautiful
weather in the early autumn. Mr. Meri-
weather was reading his morning paper.
This was always a lengthy occupation,
consisting of an absorbed perusal of the