Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-05-14
THE REASON
Why Miss Janey Clings to the
Old Dingy Piano.

suppose people are excusablc fol
wondering why Miss Janey clings t.
such battered old hulk as l. with my
mufllcd, reluctant tones and dingy
yellow-tinged keys, but l could tel
them a reason if chose.
Who butt, in the early twilghts, re
spending to the touch of her trembling
fingers, calls up with my faint, mourn
full tones, bitter-sweet memories of {
vanished youthp With whom else car
she commune over the long-bureo
hopes, and fears, and loves of her early
blighted springtime, now that the au.
tumn draws nearer and nearerp Weun
derstand one another, Janey and l, and
we have grown old, and yellow, and
querulous-toned together. Is moi
Janey's own voice becoming a triflt
cracked of late, and have not the fresh
tints of her girlish complexion taken or
n hue that matches my yellow keysP
To be sure, am something the elder
but l am equally positive that have
not gone of in looks n bit more than
Miss Janey herself, although l don't
want to give myself airs because time
has favored me little more than it has
my mistress. There is the difference OF
wear and tear to be considered. never
had lover, although l can not deny
that / have on numerous occasions sup
piled needful physical support to
various weak-kneed, intensely yearning,
chaotic bundles of masculine emotion.
have, therefore, had opportunities OF
observing the general method and par
ticular madness of young men in love,
and | should judge them to be very
wearing upon the nervous systemi at
least have found some of them very
wearing upon mine. There was Almira' S
young man, for instance. He was an
cntomologist, and had the habit charac-
teristic of his profession of dropping all
manner of small, creeping things in
various stages of activity out of his ca
pacious pockets, wade to order unus-
ually large. remember particularly
that on one occasion, while the pro-
fessor was abstractedly turning Almira' S
music-in the wrong place-a fine
specimen of polydesmus complanatus
escaped from his pocket and disappeared
within my internal economy, causing
me great distress and the professor much
anxiety, not on my account, l assure
you, but lest the polydesmus compla-
natus should be squeezed a little in
transit or lose a few of the locomotive
apparatus with which nature in gencr-
Gus mood had endowed it. i really
could not understand why the loss of
few feet, more or less, where one has so
many more than necessary, should be
regarded as domestic calamity, but
| hn al In min do
not think Almira had, either, though
she did not spoil her prospects by saying
so, and bestirred herself most actively
To recover the pest with the long name.
Soon after this little episode Almira
nnd her entomologist were made one,
and removed to another State with all
their worldly goods, which consisted for
the most part of new dresses, wedding
presents, and large and varied assort-
ment of native and foreign bugs.
Ada, the second daughter, being in
the thump and bang period of musical
transition, when young ladies do not
play for company but merely for their
own amusement, enjoyed a short but
blessed respite from the passive super
vision of young men and maidens on
matrimonial tactics bent. Less than
two years this lasted, and followed the
most trying period of my whole exist
ence. Ada was considered the beauty
of the family. Almira had been well
enough in her way, but we had scarcely
considered ourselves fortunate in be
slowing her upon, "a lean young professor
with spectaclcs and very thin stand
OF side-whiskers, and whose hearts best
affections were sealed up in small bot
ties of picked reptiles and many-legged
bugs impaled upon pins. For Ada we
looked higher.
Ada had many admirers, considering
the quiet country town in which we
lived, but l well remember that she had
passed her twenty-tirst birthday having
received only one offer, and that from
local sewing-machine agent, when
Frederick Foster came to spend the
summer with his college chum, George
Marshall. A gentleman of leisure, ap-
parently, who wore upon his little fin
ger an elegant diamond ring, was Mr..
Fred Foster, but he was fortunate
enough to possess physical develop
ment that rescued him from an appear
ance of dandyism in spite of certain out
ward tendencies in that direction. All
his appurtenances, from the distin-
guished little finger down to his jointed
ilshing-rod and gayly-caparsoned but
delusive box of insects pertaining there
10, were all that the most fastidious
could desire. Ada, whose mind, like
the spare room bed, was always made
up beforehand, said inwardly but en-
phatically here was the man for her.
She admitted there might be difficulties.
lie might object to the appropriation, or
there might be ether lions in the path,
but what were lions compared to man?
Mr.. Fred had evidently been hunted be-
fore, and that in every conceivable man
ner known to modern matrimonial wood
craft; and it was very early in the chase
that Ada wisely concluded to feign per-
feet indifference and await with what
patience she could command the day
when he should discover that here was
remarkable pretty little girl-wonder
If she knows how to flrt!
A mans curiosity will usually get the
better of his discretion il you give him
time, and SO it happened that when one
afternoon, as he was lounging along the
bank of a rapid little brook that rippled
noisily through the meadows OF the
Holt farm, he came upon Ada with a
little willow-basket ON her arm and a
serene Inconsistencies on her dim
Piled face, he did not turn and flee to
cover as the prudent man is understood
10 do in such cases, but in fool-hardy
spirit passed on and was-well, you will
discover what later on.
The days drifted on in that particu-
larly aimless fashion that seems to spec
tators to largely prevail in countriiied
little towns, but which, nevertheless, are
days that TEEN with significant trines
and sufficiently important issues when
one comes TO be an actor in the quiet
pastoral drama. During these days
Fred Foster had become regular visitor
at the low brown house on the outskirts
oi the town, and driited fram an indo-