VOL. 1.
GREENSBORO, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, fS7
o.
NO. 12.
POETRY.
For tlie JouKNAi/.
Build a Home.
Take root poniewliere, iellow-comrade,
Look O'lt for the rainy day;
Itoii’t float down t'.ie stream with driftwood,
’Along the slush tliat floats away,
Cea«e j’oiir dreaming of a castle
With its lofty spire and dome;
Steer for some prolific harbor,
Go to work, and build a home.
1‘iches iisTer come by wishing
Nor are castles built of dreams;
They are only gay and dazzling,
Like tlie bright sun’s golden beams.
T.eave your wishing, dreaming, sailing,
’Mid tlie bubbles and the foam,
nd select some spot that’.s pleasant.
Go to work, and buddaho.„e.
Fast are autumn days approaching,
Down tlie river lies the bay,
Where you’ll And not many landings
Aftitr youth lias passed away.
Tlieii, I pray you, take root somewhere.
It is time you cease to roam,
Say you will—that’s half the battle,
Go to work, and build a Imme.
Tom.
A.sheboro, N. C.
ing.’
Luke’s Love-Making-.
BY AMY EaNDOLPH.
“Oh, confound it!” said Luke Tressa-
3y.
Well I who wouldn’t have been tempt
ed to use rather a strong word, to stum
ble into such a maelstrom of soap suds,
scrubbing brushes and mops ? Cleaning
house, indeed—the words are .all insuf-
fioieut to express the forlornity of that
once cheerful little room.
“And this comes of boarding,” said
Luke to himself, when he was fairly in
the opev. air.
“If I wasn’t such a miserable poltroon
about such things, I would ask Jenny
Hope toh-.,ve me. I’ll take a little house
somewhere and get Jenny Hope to reoom
mend some nice old woman who knows
how to roast partridges and darn stock
ings, and make coffee, and iron shirts.”
And Luke Tressaliy proceeded merrily
towa: ds the browu-stone casket that
held ills hearts's dearest jewel, whistling
Yankee Doodle and stroking his brown
moustache in a very enviable frame of
mind.
Now, what was there in a tall, slender-
waisted girl, brown-eyed and pink-cheek
ed, with a mischievous dimpled mouth,
that should reduce a six-footer l,ke Luke
Tressaly to speechless confusion ? Yet
the dewy light of Jenny Hope's eyes
made a coward of him at once.
So he sat, twirling his fingers and watch
ing the shine of Jenny ,s needle, and won
dering what he had better say first, until,
at length, after fifteen minutes of embar
rassed silence, he plunged headlong into
his subject. .
“Miss. Jenny !”
"Well, Mr. Tressaly ?”
*Tm thinking of going to housekeep-
“Are you Mr. Tressaly ?” Jenny bent
lower over her work to bite off a refrac
tor)’ thread, and grew scarlet.
“Yes. The fact is. I’m tired to death
of boarding, and I think it would be a
nice change, and—and—I fancied you
might recommend a housekeeper.”
“A housekeeper ? what sort of one, Mr.
Tressaly 7”
“Oh, some nice old woman or other—
somebody who can make a snug little
home 1”
Jenny’s eyes sparkled, and her pretty
(.rows contracted -svith a momentary
twitch. Luke stared, a.nd wondered what
he had said to vex Miss. Hope.
“I think I can recommend the very
person you want,” said Miss. Hope, curv
ing her lip,
‘ Can you? Oh, Miss, Jenny, I shall
be a thousand times obliged to you. I'll
engage her immediately, and I can look
up the house afterward, you know. Who
is she ?”
“Well, it’s my aunt, Miss. Zeruiah
Plant—she's staying here now, and it has
always been her ambition to assume the
charge of a gentleman’s household. I’ll
call her at once and you can settle the
preliminaries as soon as you please.”
Miss. Jenny swept out ol the room with
the steps of a tragedy queen. Luke fol
lowed her with his eyes until the door
was closed, and then leaned back in his
chair with a deep sigh.
“I d give a thousand dollars if I only
dared ask that girl to marry me,”
Miss, Plant was feeding her gray par
rot when Jenny came into her room.
She was not young, moreover, she was
not pretty, and she wore spectacles and
a “false front,” ygt Miss. Plant was still
in the qui vive for a chance in the lottery
matrimonial.
■‘Aunt, dear,'’ said Jenny demurely,
“I have just received a proposal for you.”
“For me? 0, go Tong!" littered Miss.
Plant, dropping the lump of sugar she
was about to regale Pretty Polly with.
“No, but Aunt Zeruiah, I'm .n earnest.”
‘ Who is it?” said Aunt Zeruiah, put
ting her hand on her heart, and mechan
ically feeling to see if her glossy black
curls were all straight. ;
“Mr. Tressaly. He wants to go to
housekeeping, and needs some lady of
mature judgment to preside over his
household—so go in and see him !”
“Gracious me !” faltered Aunt Zeruiah.
“Wonderlf I hadn’t better put on my
green satin gown with the bugle trimmin.”
“0 p.sbaw—you’re well enough,’' said
Jenny ‘Besides, he's in a hurry—and
think what the consequences would be if
you were to miss such an eligible oppor
tunity as this !”
Miss. Zeruiah waited to hear no more,
Out made a dive for the door, leaving Jen
ny to finish the ministration to the gray
parrot at her leisure.
‘ You sent for me, sir,’' said Miss. Ze
ruiah, tripping into the parlor, and sink
ing with girlish conf’usion into an easy
chair opposite Mr. Tressaly,
“Yes,” said,Luke, unconsciously. “I
wished for a capable housekeeper. Do
you think you would be willing to take
charge of my home ?”
“Yes,” giggled Miss. Plant, hiding her
blushes in a lilac-edged pocket handker
chief. “That is, if you don’t think me
unmaidenly in so soon giving my con
sent.”
Jjuke stared—he thought Miss. Plant
a very odd woman—but, nevertheless, he
went on :
‘■I'm very particular about my coffee—
I suppose you understand all these little
details ?”
“O’ course I do,” said Aunt Zeruiah,
“I can cook fir.-l, rate, thoush I say it—
who shouldn’t.- ly it. My coffee’s as clear
as wine, and P.^j great on biled cakes.”
“Are you?” tid Luke rather puzzled.
“Well, I think we may consider this an
engagement."
“I calc’late so,” said Miss. Plant, again
taking refuge in her lilac-bordered hand
kerchief.
“I should like you to come as soon as
possible, as I wish to engage a house im-
m.idiately,” said Luke, rising.
“Oh, certainly,” smiled Miss Zuriab.
“When is it to be ?'’
“When IS what to be ?”
“Why—how embarrassing—the wed
ding 1”
“What wedding ?”
“Why—our s, to be sure! Ain't we
going to be married ?”
“My good woman,” said Tressaly turn
ing red to the roofs of his hair, “here is
some enormous mistake. I merely wish
ed to engage a housekeeper—I never
dreamed of proposing to you !”
“Well, I'm sure r shrieked Miss. Ze
ruiah, every false curl bristling with her
agitation. “I’ll have you to know that
I don’t need to go out to service—and I’m
as good as you be, any day of the week !
And if you calculate to insult a poor,
lone woman, you’ll find out you've waked
up the wrong passenger 1 I’ll prosecute
you, I will, you I'ood-for-nothin’, Stuck
up, hairy-faced dandv ! I’ll sue you for
breach o' promise—see if I don't!”
And Miss. Plant rushe.l furiously from
the room, leaving Luke in a state of as
tonished bewilderment difficult to de
scribe.
“Upon my word, here's a pretty mis
understanding,” quoth Luke aloud. “Fan
cy me married to that old maid. I'd
rather board by all odds, for—Hush i
What’s that ?”
It sounded like a suppressed giggle.
Luke waJked straight to the door whence
the mysterious sound proceeded, and
caught Miss. Jenny Hope’s two little re
sisting hands ere she could escape from
her ambuscade.
“Don’t. Mr. Tressaly !” said Jenny,
between her merry bursts of laughter.
■‘I will !’’ said Luke undauntedly. “It
serves you right for laughing at me !”
“And you vion’t want to marry Aunt
Zeruiah after all!” said Jenny, the brown
eyes beaming with fun. “Why I thought
you wanted a housekeeper 1” |
“So I do,” quoth the valiant Luke.
“Then why don’t you marry Aunt
Zeruiah ?”
“Because I had rather marry you.”
“Nonsense, Mr. Tressaly!’’ faltered
Jenny, turning rose-red, and trying des
perately to escape.
“No, it isn’t nonsense, Jenny,” said
Luke, stooping down to get a better view
into the blushing, averted face. “Seri
ously, Jenny, will you have me? No—-
you shan’t go until I have had an answer,
my heait’s little queen. Yes or no-—
will you marry me'!-'
“I—suppose—so,” said Jenny, -with a
miscliiovous sparkle through her down
cast lashes, “that is, if you and Aunt Ze
ruiah can't come to any understanding.”
Luke Tressaly paid Miss Jenny on the
spot for that arrow of sarcasm How he
did so, don’t particularly conceiu any
body. Does it ? All that we have any
thing to do with is the fact that Luke
Tressaly did set up housekeeping, some
three months subsequently, witn brown-
eyed Mrs. Jenny to preside over the cof
fee and partridges.
And he says he likes it better than
boarding.
A Poor Unfortunate.
“Get out of thatis the stern command
which now oftenest issues from the mouths
of local magistrates when a vagrant is
brought before them. No matter where
the wretch may go, so the cost of keeping
a stranger and an outcast is avoided.
This was what a judge in Milwaukee said
to a woman when she was arraigned for
vagrancy and drunkenness: “Just you
.get out of this town in twenty-four hours!”
So she went to the railway depot, but the
ticket-seller having no disposition to
help her to obey the judicial mandate,
she concluded to “get out” by throwing
herself under the wheels of an outgping
freight train. The engine was stopped in
tirne, and she was put off the track. Stil 1
she was bound to “get out of this,” and
wandering a little further cast herself in
front of another trai'i. Here, too, she
was rescued. She couldn’t “get out.'’
So she wandered into a neighboring marsh,
where she was found by an officer, and
taken in charge. What they did with
her then we are not informed. She cer
tainly had done her best to “get out.”
We haven’t overmuch pity for a muscu
lar and “cheeky” tramp, whose daily bn-
sitiess ]tis to Yfiov© on j” but suroly tor
a. wietched, hoineless, and half-frenzied
woman, some shelter may usually be
found.
An old lady residing in Ohio lost the
companion with whom she had jogged for
many years. She neglected to mark the
spot of his burial by even a stone, Nbt
long after coming into possession of a
small legacy, a sister of the deceased said
to her, ‘“I supposeyou will put up stones'
for Daniel ?” Her answer was a settler .•
“if the Lord wants anything of Daniel at
the resurrection, I guess he can find him
■without a guideboard.”