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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1877)
imatMlli.l III Hi' ( 1,. I I .PVH ltKCIIMtOCATRD MAXIMS. 189 wlml long, but I could have listened to him for tin hour longer nml llibii not have been weary of it, ho was .so eloquent, and hud such grand idoas to advance." " What was his name?" queried the old lady. " McKce," replied Nellie, "Judge Mo Kce of (J ." " MoKoe," mused the old lady running her lingers through her gray locks; "Mo. Keo, let me see, L wonder where I have heard that name before. Oh! wasn't that fellow's name Molvee that got up such a desperate llirtation with you, some, well let me see, it must have been some eight or ten years ago; about the time Susan's oldest child was born I think, little Jim my you know, the one that died when lie was about eight mouths old. Poor child! 1 always thought he favored Susan most, but Susan would have it anyway that he lavored his father. ' looks just like him for all the world' she used to say a dozen times a day. Poor Jimmy ! Susan thought the world of him, and I suppose if he had lived to have grown up, Susan and Jacob would have spoiled him, seeing that he was the llrst one so, and they set so much by him. Poor little Jimmy!" Itut while the garrulous old lady was re counting for the oncjmudredth time the sad fortunes of "poor Jimmy," Nellie had taken oil' her things and seated her. self by the stove. Aunt Jemima glanced up at the clock. It was half past nine. All thoughts of that "fellow MoICeo," and of Susan's llrst-boin tied from her mind. Half past nine! that was half an hour later than she hud been up since Jane ( Mrs. Raymond) was sick. She ad. justed her spectacles several times to gel as good a view of the clock face as possi ble, and mako sure that she was right, and that there could bo no possible mis take in thelnatter, for Aunt Jemima was a very punctilious old lady.'in fact almost a clock in herself, and this little infring. ment upon her bed hour could hardly lie pardoned. After satisfying herself that it was reully half past nine, she arose in great haste, put away her book and spec, tacles, and went oil' to bed, leaving Nellie alone with her thoughts. Man loves companionship. Few wo think would willingly become Alex, ander Selkirks, and live only with their own thoughis, however much the story of Robinson Crusoe may have charmed the adventurous imaginations of their youth. Vet there are times, man' times, in every one's life, when he desires thnt.no greater favor shall be shown him, than that he be left alone with his own thoughts. He longs to converse with himself, to argue with himself; to inhabit his pretty air-cas. lies; and to whisper pre It) tilings into his own ears, that he wouldn't whisper into any-body else's, not even his sweetheart's. How often does 'it happen, too, that when litis much-wished-for solitude is obtained we cannot think collectedly ami discreet ly, we can only feel and our wild distract ed thoughts go'with our feelings. So it was with Nellie Raymond when site had been left alone, she could only feel, imagine herself a school-girl again, and let her thoughts go back unrestrained to that one year of her life, when she had known Howard McKoo, and whoso events wore still as fresh in iter memory as though they had happened but yesterday. Pleased, she would close her eyes and muse upon this period of iter life, just as when one awaking from a pleasant dream, and being loth to leave the beautiful vis. ions behind in dreamland, closes his eyes again and muses upon what ho has dreamt.- For a long time Nellie sat in front of the cheery hearth, wholly given up to her own thoughts and feelings. Suddenly, however, she was aroused from her revcry, and became quickly conscious of present existence by hearing a loud halloo in the street directly in front of the house. Starling up, she ran to tho front window and peered out from behind the shutters. It was bright moonlight without, ami site could see that an omnibus had broken down, uml that the driver was bending I t 1 1 ii
