Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-04-18
"A, o.
A LONG coURTsHlP.
Two Fond Hearts That Wore True Fo
Twenty-Five Years.

A LONG coURTsHIP.
Two Fond Hearts That Wore True For
Twenty-Five Years.
There is no sleepier, prettier place
within view Of the Hudson than Nell
sonville. 1t has been perched among
the mountains overlooking the river
since revolutionary days. 1t has
drowsed and droned along through the
years, never really waking. In winter
it sleeps profoundly, snow and ice bound.
In summer it awales to a sort OF doze.
Life is dull there to anyone coming
from a city or even a town. To viii
lager it is delightful. and nothing is
done in a hurry. Sixty years ago
among the few families then in the viii
lage were two between whom a strong
friendship existed. These were the
families of Isaac Riggs and Daniel
l! Griffin. Riggs kept the village general
store. Griffin kept the village shoe
store and shod the village feet
In the course of time there were two
children in their families-a girl in the
! Griffin family, boy in the Riggs fam
lily. The girls name was Elizabeth,
the boys John. AS the plain white
cottages where these families lived
were almost directly across the road
from each other, the children became
friends. They were won't to go
every day in the winter to school
together. In the summer the two
played together. AS the years slipped
! along the same strong friendship ex-
listed between them, and they We're al
| ways seen together. Soon the boy and
be married. But no one thought that
there ought to be any haste about it.
Love is not feverish in Nelscnville.
This was twenty years and more ago.
AS soon as the boy and girl had became
full grown everybody had considered
them as engaged, and that is as good as
married in Nelsonville. Almost every
night John went to see Eliza beth.
| Wednesday night he took her to prayer
meeting. Sunday night they went to
church together. When there was a
party or a church social they appeared
! there together. When excursions We're
going in summer to Niagara falls and to
New York these two often went on
them. Perhaps there was time when
people twitted John about Elizabeth.
or Elizabeth about John, but that was
so many years ago that no one remem-
bers.
Year followed year, and no marriage
occurred. John had not money enough
of his own to marry, and his father
needed him in the store. Elizabeth had
| to help her mother with the houscworll.
SO they didn't marry. Nelsonville was
confident that the marriage would
take place some day. John came to be
thirty thirty-ive, forty, and Elizabeth,
five years behind him. was twenty-five
thirty thirty-five. Johns father grew
old: his mother died. But still the time
was not ripe. Last April Johns father
died and his son succeeded to the store
and the post office and the office OF
justice of the peace. He had brown
burnsides, plcntisully strcahed with
gray, and hair that was thin on top
Elizabeth was slender, with the slimness
of middle-aged, unmarried woman
But there were no gray hairs in her
head. At last they decided to marry
Still there was no haste. The summer
slipped away. the autumn, the winter.
Then at the beginning of another
spring they married.
One Wednesday morning John hitcheG
his horse to his buggy and drove up ir
front of Elizabeth's door. She was
waiting, and came out with her hat ant
! her wraps on. They drove to Carmel
twenty miles away. to the house o.
| Elizabeth's uncle. Gideon Griffin. They
arrived late in the afternoon. In the
evening they stood up in the front parlol
Of the old farmhouse, and. hand in hand
repeated the marriage service after th'
minister. The next day they drove bacl
again. In a short time they will go tt
housekeeping. This is not rare in
stance of long courtship in Nelson
vile. At least fourteen married couples
Of the village courted for fifteen year
before marriage.-N. y. Sun.