The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-04-01

his eyes and ears open, he found out that
he was not the only one appointed to meet
the bewitching Clorinda upon the evening
Of the celebration. Some half score rivals
evaded his questions about going to Mar
bray ia such manner that he was sure
they were intending to keep the appoint
ment with Miss Perrivale. Eliphalet went
home and ponderod upon the matter. He
reflected that, II Clorinda were intending
10 make her choice from q superficial ex-
animation OF some ten or twelve young men
dressed in their Sunday clothes and gotten
up to skill" he would stand pretty poor
chance. If there were only some way of
getting rid Of his rivals! If he could think
of some plan TO keep them away on the
eventful night, and make it appear to Clo-
rinda that they cared less about her than
they did about n nights fun in Marbray.
why, his suit would be as good as won, Tor
girl of her spirit wouldn't stand snubbing
by the handsomest and most agreeable
young man that ever walked, Eliphalet
put on his thinking cap, and drew ii tighter
than he ever did before. He concocted all
sorts of schemes, but rejected them one
after the other as impracticable. All of a
sudden he started up as if he had been sit
ting on box of dynamite. "By the great
horn spoon!" he exclaimed, striking his leg
with the palm of his hand, "Ive got il
now!" He nodded so emphatically that his
hair tumbled down over his forehead, and
gave him the appearance of very much
exaggerated sky terrier, "Ive got it, sir!
I've got It'll" he repeated, in louder tones,
leaving any chance listener to surmise for
himself whether he meant he had the de-
lirium tremens or the secret of perpetual
motion. He then danced all around the
room on one float, and ended up by taking q
running Jump on to the bed and bringing
down the whole structure in one confused
mass of Stats, pillows, blankets, and bed
posts.
Any one lettering around the Babbitt
farmhouse ut about eight o'clock on
the evening of the 4th of July, 49,, might
have seen tall, gaunt figure, neatly array
ed in black, emerging from the shed door
with tin-pail in one hand and a short
handled brush in the other. That figure
belonged to Eliphalet Babbitt, and that
pail to his mother and in that pail was lard.
Now it happened that the regular path of
Clorinda Perrivale's suitors lay across the
vast meadow aforesaid, over the fence and
across good sized brook by means of a
single log. They took this path because it
brought them to the rear of the house, and
relieved them of the disagreeable necessity
of saying good-evening TO Mr.. Perrivale,
who usually sat On the front porch at the
evening hour, smoking his pipe. ct is to
be noticed as universal fact in love affairs
that the suitor, however well received,
always keeps shy of the girls male parent.)
Eliphalet Babbitt was aware of the GUS
tom of his rivals, because it was one that
he himself habitually practiced. and to-
night grim smile sat upon his lips. as he
pursued his way across the fields in the soft
summer twilight, lard pail in hand, and
with his love-speech already made out in
his heart. The shadows of early night We're
Just closing round, as he climbed the fence
and approached the log bridge over the
brook. Looking carefully about him to see
that no one was witness to his deed, he
flung himself ,astride of the log, with his
back to the Perrivalc cottage, opened his
pail, dipped the brush in the lard, and pro-
ceeded to apply liberal coating of it to
the already smooth log, as he
hitched along backward toward the
opposite bank. When his task was COM
pleted he hid pail and brush under the
bank and fastened up the path to the cot
tage. Clorinda was sitting in her little
work-room with the vine-covered window
as ,he drew near, and she merrily babe him
come in without knocking Oh, how beauti-
full she looked rocking bnck and forth in
the dusk-light, against tic background of
the vine, her pure white dress of muslin but
half concealing her round white arms and
marble shoulders! Eliphalet shyly sat down
on the edge of chair. and turned his bell
crowned hat round and round in his nerv-
Gus hands. They talked-or rather, she
talked-pleasantly and quietly for q little
while, listening in'the pauses to the mon
otonous chirp, chirp of the cricket and the
croaking of the frogs ON the banks of the
brook. Deeper and deeper grew the shad-
ows, till the figure in white seemed like a
substanceless thing seen dimly in vision,
and the figure in black had almost melted
away into the darkness of the inner room.
The girl had ceased to talk much. Her face
was turned away from Eliphalet, and she
seemed to be looking out anxiously, as she
rocked, through the narrow spaces of the
vine. At length dead silence prevailed.
Eliphalet's tongue was so dry that he could
not speak, and his wits were drier still of
words to speak to the beautiful girl, with
her thoughts apparently 80 far away from
him. Suddenly there was q heavy splash
from the brook below. "Oh, MY" cried
Clorinda, starting as if suddenly wakened
from dream. "That rock has fallen out
of the bank-I knew it would"
"What rock, ClorindvP" asked Eliphalet,
hitching his chair little nearer in the
dark, under cover of the sound of his voice.
do you mean the big rock by the bridge?"
EYES," answered Clorinda. "Did you
notice it?'
II guess I did," exclaimed Eliphalet,
glad to get upon a subject of conversation
in that trying moment. II lowed that rock
was going to fall one of these days. told
father so. Did it brighten you, Clorindy?"
(Here he started to hitch a little nearer, but
his chair creaked, and he forebore)
ayes, it did," admitted the girl. II must
have been thinking"
Splashl
"Gosh. what q mushratl" exclaimed
Elphalet, the cold sweat starting out all
over him. swish I'd a been there with q
gun!"
"Was it muskrat?" asked Clorinda,
curiously. at didn't sound like stone."
"Yes, it wes," asseverated Eliphalet,
roundly. Il know q mushrat splash, every
time. Did you ever see mushrat,
Clorindy2' tCreak, creak. from the chair.
mo, never did," exclaimed Clorinda;
"but have seen their holes"
"So've 1, so've II" exclaimed Eliphalet,
immensely tickled at the coincidence.
"When the brook gets down roal low and
| hayin's over, so there won't be anybody
round TO bother us, I'll show you more n
fifteen or sixteen of EN-, ali in a."