No. 8.
A Common I'lack btouy.
021
ago and disposition been caught at mis
chievous pranks and depredations upon
neighbors' orchards and molon-patohos,
but as yet no punishment had been indict
ed upon the 3'oung culprits other than a few
sound lectures, and promises for " safe
lodgment" for a time, if they were ever
caught at the same trick again, but one
Saturday evening as a coterie, consisting
of John and some of his bosom compan
ions, were investigating the quality of a
bluff old farmer's watermelons, they were
ever' one captured by the said blull' old
farmer, and, to make a long story short,
Sabbath morning dawned to iind these
young gentlemen in jail. We need not
relate minutely how Master John Howard
and Co. were gotten out of this disagreea
ble scrape, nor give the reasons why the
bluff old farmer, his hired man and a few
other interested parties, kept so profound
ly whist about the matter that the story
did not leak out until several mouths after,
not, in fact, until after the ltev. John How
ard had gone to conference and been as
signed a new field of labor in the town
of W .
At sixteen John was sent off to college.
Here for two years he gave the faeuliy
scarcely less trouble than he had his fath
er and the neighbors at home. Hut dur
ing this time he succeeded in keeping
clear of the penitentiary, and at the end
of the two years the morning and evening
prayers, which had formany long months
ascended to the throne of grace from a
round the paternal alter for the absent
one, began to have some effect upon John's
wayward nature. One beautiful Sabbath
morning found the fellow converted, and
singing with all the joy of a full heart,
"Nearer my God to Thee."
A week after John Howard Sr.'s heart
was made glad by receiving an epistle
from his son which, among various other
more important matters, an oblirjue ref
erence was made to this simple affair.
After this event, nothing more worthy of
note occurred in the life of our hero, until
a year had passed and he had finished up
the Junior year at college and come home
to spend the summer vacation.
The first Sunday after John's arrival
at home (it is a common saying of John's
that everything notable in his life has oc
curred on Sunday) he went to church and
sal with his mother in a front pew. Hack
of the pulpit sat the choir, and among
the choir sat a ,oung lady, Miss Glecson,
who was reckoned by all odds to bo the
best, the most beatiful, and the most ac
complished young lady in town. To this
fact the townspeople had given evidence
onh a short time before, when at a church
festival they had given her a very large
majority vote in balloting for the most
beautiful young lady in the audience. The
tickets were sold at the rate of ten cents
each, and the whole amount which Miss
Gleeson's beauty brought in, was suill
dent to have purchased the Pastor a new
suit of clothes, had the money been used
for that laudable purpose. Who, then,
will say that " beauty is a vain, a Heeling
good," when it can be thus utilized?
Now, whether it was Miss Gleeson's
soft blue eyes and dark auburn hair, or
her sweet soprano voice, which so fas
cinated John Howard on this particular
day, I cannot say; but it is certain that
there was some magnctic-like attraction
about her which drew all this gentleman's
attention away from his father's excellent
sermon "Be strong and show thyself a
man " was the good man's text, but not a
word of his forcible logic was intelligibly
comprehended by his son.
Preaching being over, Hattie Gleeson
came to shako hands with Mrs. Howard,
and of course was introduced to John
and forthwith commenced an acquaint
ance. An acquaintance which had not
been in existence many days before John
Howard had eyes and heart for only one
lady in existence.
Just how long it took Miss Hattie to fall
in love with John, we are not prepared to
say: but we know that before the summer
vacation was far spent, this young lady's
friends were convinced that she had ex-