Year: 1865

COURTSHIP OF WILL WOODHOUs1


Mr.. William Woodhouse was natural
ly very timid man. Not that he wa
lacking IN moral or physical courage, bu
he was afraid of the women. On all o
ther occasions he was usually equal t.
the emergency, be it whatever it might
but place him tete-u-tete with woman
and, to use vulgar but expressive
phrase, he was done for.


His mother had long ago settled down
to the uncomfortable conviction that VIII
liam would never marry and the girls
had arrived at the same conclusion ii
had become quite the thing to say, in
making comparisons, GAS great fool
as Will Woodhouse."


For-take note, bashful gentleman
however much ladies may admire modes
ty III the other sex, they invariably des-
/ plse man who has not heart enough to
say to the girl of his choice, ~ love you"


Will admired all the girls in his way,
but ne looked upon them very much as
sensible people do upon hornets nest
as curious piece of architecture. but
not safe to be familiar with


SO he kept his distance, and in the
meantime arrived at the mature age of
twenty-three Then he met, for the
first time, at a picnic-party, Adelaide
Browne. We believe people with the
stoniest hearts fall in love at picnics, and
from that hour poor VIII had no comfort
Of his life. Sleeping or waking, his
dreams were full of the beautiful Miss
Browne. Surely there never was another
of the numerous Browne family like her!
Blue eyes, white muslin dress; with
knots Of pink ribbon-brown hair, red
lips, pearly teeth, snowy hands-all dan
ced together in a miscellaneous ''all hands
round before his distorted vision.


Adelaide, all unconscious of the trou-
bic she had caused, went her way, break
ing the hearts of most of the young gen.
tleman in Highbridge, and trying hard
to fracture the few that remained whole


She was visiting her aunt Hooper, and
it is an undeniable fact that ladies always
take best where they are not known
This is no libel on the sex-no, indeed
for with gentleman this truth is still
more applicable.


Mrs. Hooper was widow lady of no
small personal attractions in her own es-
timation, and if she was not so young as
she might have been, she thought she
vas, and behaved accordingly. She still
affected short sleeves and profuse ringlets
Of gl0ssiest black-though envious in
dividuals persisted iu it that her curls
were made at the hair-dresser's. The
same persons also believed that she was
anxious to supply that place of the dear
deceased as soon as possible.


For week after meeting with Ade-
laide, Will bore up bravely The second
meeting destroyed all the stock of COM
posure he had been boarding up. He
took desperately to the Muses., and walk
ed the whole night away, to the infinite
destruction of shoe-leather and the infn-
ite disgust of his practical papa.


He met Adelaide now quite frequent
iy. Highbridge was very gay. There
was a singing school, lyceum, "soci-
ety." and then the folks got up excur
sions to the surrounding hills-for it was
yet early autumn, and nature was in her
robes of state.


There was an excursion to Mount Gil
bio, one fine day, and there Will had the
ccstatic pleasure of treading on Adelaide's
dress, thereby throwing her headlong in
to pile Of brush, and while Laura Blake
picked her up and helped her pin her
ilounces, he stood by frightened out of
his wits, and momentarily expecting the
mountain to open and swallow him up.


From that time he pined rapidly. His
appetite was thing of the past. His
mother thought him in quick decline,
and dosed him with hoarhond and Dr.
Perkins patent pacific pills. He grew
worse and worse.


At last, thinking himself near his end,
he confessed to his mother. She was
thuuderstruck at first; but afterwards,
like sensible woman, she advised him
to put on his ''t'other clothes" and go
right over and lay the case before Miss
Browne. It couldn't kill him, she said,
and then if she refused him-why, there
was as good fish in the sea, etc.


viii took three days to consider, and
at the end of the time his mind was made
up. He swallowed double dose of
blackerry cordial, donned his fame colored
vest and black and blue plaids, brushed
his hair till it shone like ebony, covered
his head with his fathers ten dollar bca-
yer, and made the best of his way to Mrs.
Hooper's. Not that he intended to ask
Adelaide-but Mrs Hooper. If he could
only get the aunt won over to his cause,
and employ her to state the condition OF
his heart to her neice, he should be hap
py. He felt assured that he never could
| live through confessing himself to AIDE
L cor 4, n