The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1895-02-27

III,
the world held one somewhere He would
seek her through the ompipotent press The
more he thought Of it, the more the idea
pleased him. Without the ordeal Of ask;
ing he would know If the maiden were;
willing He could enumerate the necessary
qualifications, SO that none others need an
ply. And finally everything could be An
ished up before the spring planting came
on
The wording of the advertisement took
much thought. He decided to keep his
plan entirely secret After twenty sims Of
paper were torn up, the following notice
was sent to the weekly to which the Gillie-
flowers had been subscribers for many
years; "A good-looking" (mother always
says so, that's all know about it,, "well-to-
respond with modest, amiable and indus
trious lady; object matrimony. Address J..
this Office" ~
When Joel took the weekly from the mail
and saw that notice on the first page he
blu7hed violently. 1t seemed to him that
everybody must know who sent the adver-
tisement. He was almost afraid to give his
father the paper, lest they should suspect
him at once. But the old man took no.
further notice of the all important para
graph than to remark to his wife, who sat
with her knitting on the other side of tha
table: Here's another darn fool adver-
| Using for his mate"
Joel and Julia had gone to the prayer,
meeting at Deacon Podgers'. Thew drove
| along in silence, and, strange to say. both
were thinking of the same thing. Julia
| Gillieflower had long suffered from the
| heavy weight of the commonplace. Shs,
| longed to throw off the bonds of convention-
ality, to feel some Of the wild emotions she
read about in novels. In short, she wanted
to get married. She had seen that notice in
the weekly. 1t was wild, dreadful thing
to do, but she was very much inclined to-
answer it.
That night before she slept, Miss Julia
composed the following letter: Gay: Dear
S1r-I have seen your advertisement in the
Weekly and would like to correspond
industrious and we'll off, and willing to
meet a suitable partner for life. I hava
been to school and to a high school. 1
would be willing to do anything for my hus-
band. Please address Evelina, Buffalo, Il.
Y" Miss Julia also wrote to a friend IN
Buffalo to forward these "Evelina" letters tn
her under cover.
In three days Joel received bundle Of
answers to his advertisement He took them
from the mail himself, and read them as
old Glover lazily jingled the sleighbells on
the homeward coad They were a mot1ev
crew. Several addressed him as Darling
Jay" which he thought ndecorous One or
two made unpleasant puns on his initial
letter Finally he took out a delicateiy
tinted envelope Of the twenty-five cents q
box order The handwriting, though slight.
ly disguised, was of that delicate, copybook
kind which Joel al Julia had been taught
to admire at school. The address nestled
,modestly toward the bottom of the envelope
A thrill went through Joel's fingers as
he opened the end The contents were ex.
actly to his taste. 1t was signed "Evelina."
Lovely name! Joel looked over the level
fields to the sunset which famed behind
the distant woods. Far away old Ontario
painted under its icy bars. The red. glow
shone back from the polished surface of the
snow. Strange he had never noticed these
things before.
He answered the letter that night, elabo-
rately back-handing his writing and keeping
his assumed name. He wrote how nice a
home he would make for his bride, how
large the farm was, that she would never
need to work hard, but might have her own
hose and carriage and go where she pleased.
He limited that he lived not far from Alton.
This letter was duly forwarded to Miss
Julia, whose delight Herewith flushed a
I. tty pink into her plain face. Lived
near Alton! What could it mean? Miss
julia knew he vicinity we'll Running over
the names Of the unmarried men, she finally
came to Woodford Longley. He lived ten
miles the other side Of Alton, owned a large
tsrm and was jovial widower whom Miss
:.'ia felt she could readily take to her
heart. t. idea Of Woodford gradually
strengthened :tself to a conviction. There
fore her next letter she wrote in fancy to
him. She was glad to have so pleased him.
She felt from the tone Of his letter how
kind anC md man he was, She dreaded
lest her A. saw her he should be dsap-
ink. Atogether she wrote four pages
ten sentiment, which later enrap-
tn. tn heart Of Joel. What a treasure
OF wo*-Nn-4t Cd rs this he dad discovered!
r 1fy1o or n1T