The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-08-14


of a thing as you, only just seventeen.
You in love indeed! Why you don't
know anything about love"
but, father, really l am in love.
s'pose I ought to know"
"No, yer oughtn't. Yer amt old
enough / didn't know nothing about
II at your age. No more didn't your
mother. And what was good enough
for your mother is going to be good
enough for you even If l am a widower,
she bein in heaven"
81 don't see how it's wrong for a girl
to be love at seventeen If she is in
love-"
ITS improper at that age and 1t
amt necessary AT all. Yer mother and
/ was never in love at all, and she was
thirty and / was over when we were
married" "-1... .;# ...'
IF you didn't love each other, what
did you marry for?"'
Zoos we was told by our parents,
and that's the proper reason for any
body marryin.' .-
Mr.. owen was host of a sweet little
inn, all roses and honeysuckle, in the
wee village near the famous water
falls fifteen miles from a good-sixed
seaport in England. All the tourists
came from the town, driving out
there was no ruilroad-put up the
horses at Mr.. OWENS Falls Inn, did the
scenery, returning to the inn for a
sample of his daughter Jenny's cook
ing: then they would drive back in the
afternoon or evening. Thus owen and
his daughter were busy enough
throughout the day, but seldom had
people stopping over night in spite of
the fact that his bedrooms were invit-
ing enough. Jenny and two strong
rough Welsh women kept the house in
perfect order. Mr.. owen could see
what his 'ostler was about, mind his
little bar and watch his guests in the
"coffee-room'' $50 called because coffee
was never drunk there. and tea was, in
great quantties). The establishment
was thus numerically small but it was
a good property, and Mr.. John Owen,
in his fifty-first year. wbdower, of am
pie girth, and as obstinate as mule,
was waxing peculiarly comfortable
and very satisfied with the world in
general-till Jenny talked about being
in love.
In connection with this same love
there is much to commend it, for the
village had scenery alone to recon-
L.
were spread over an area of two miles.
Mr.. owens nearest neighbor, four
acres away, mended and made boots
all day and collected and by means of
a ramshackle old tricycle., carried the
mail at half-past four in the afternoon
of the aforementioned town. Tim, who
slept there, would fetch the village
mail bag and mounting his venerable
iS h11t a
half-past nine. A meal his second
breakfast, was his first consideration,
but there was nothing mean about him.
He would leave his iron horse and Her
Majesty's unlocked mail bag outside
his little cobbler's hut, and any one
who wanted or expected letters could
examine the bag and help himself
1t was rare that there We're any left
to deliver by the time his meal was
finished. so he was nearly always able
to betake himself at once to his awl
and waxed thread.
OF all the inhabitants of the village,
of course Tim, the postman, was the
most metropolitan for, at all events, he
slept in the atmosphere of a big city
At the same time Mr.. owen constantly
discoursed with citizens of varied ma
tionalities. many of whom had toured
the world over. Again. Host owen
had his daily paper. which he would
read in the evening over his church
warden pipe. So the villagers would
stroll into Tins through the day and
get their news viva voce and If it was
of grave import they would drop into
the Falls Inn of an evening to ask
John what he thought of it, So regu-
lar was this custom that if Tim was
asked accidentally what he thought of
any news he was dissemina ting his
waXed thread would be arrested, his
awl cease to play and, looking up into
the face of his questioner, he would
answer that he didn't believe he know.
but that he'd ask John.
Enough has been explained to make
1t evident that John Owen was a man
who was considerably spoiled for op-
position and contradiction especially
from his own child; for fathers of this
rural category, however amiable they
may be, bring themselves with the ut
most difficulty TO believe that their off
spring have any other mission in life
than to do as they are told and gather
information from parental sources.
Now John Owen had said that love
at seventeen was improper and unne-
cessary. But MISS Jenny was-but le [
her character develop itself.
An evening or two following the in
frchange of remarks which begins this
stCry, Jenny was doing her sewing and
Papa Owen was smoking his Bristol
hrdstye in the pretty porch, when
Jenny, selected pause in the newsna-
pcr perusal, began with
Father, do You remember my tellIn'
you tother night that l was in love ?''
And do you rememher''-was the
almost regal rejoinder-"whaL my re-
ply was?"
Yes, do. But whether IT. proper
or rot. it's so. I'm IN love-"
Why, the things sheer foolishness,
Thle isn't anybody in the village as
.y'au could fall in love with"
1T amt anybody in the village"
1T can't be any one in the town, |
don't take you down there much more
than dozen times a year, n1 purpose
tc k,cp yer awaE from all suon foolish
hess" .,
1t amt anybody in the town so tc
say: at all events. regularly"
~ or the Lords sake, who is It then ,''
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