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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1884)
THE WEST SHORE. 11 REVERIES OF A BACHELOR. OVKK A WOOD-FIllE. I liiivu got a quiet farm-house in the country, a very humble place to be Bure, tenanted by a worthy enough man, of the old New England stamp, where I sometimes go for a day or two in the winter to look over the farm ac counts, and to see how the stock is thriving on the win ter's keep. One side the door, as you enter from the porch, is a little parlor, scarce twelve feet by ten, with n cosey-look-ing fireplace, a heavy oak floor, a couple of arm chairs, and a brown table with carved lions' feet Out of this room opens a little cabinet, only big enough for a broad bachelor bedstead, where I sleep nxn foathers, and wake in the morning with my eye upon a saucy colored litho graphic print of some fancy "Bossy." It happens to bo the only house in the world of which I am bona fide owner; and I take a vast deal of comfort in treating it just as I choose. I manage to break Bome article of furniture almost every time I pay it a visit; and if I cannot open the window readily of a morning, to breathe the fresh air, I knock out a pane or two of glass with my boot I loan against the walls in a very old arm chair there is on the promises, and scarce ever fail to worry such a hole in the plastering as would set me down for a round charge for damages in town, or make a prim housewife fret herself into a raging fever. I laugh out loud with myself, in my big arm chair, when I think that I am neither afraid of one nor the other. As for the lire, I keep the little hearth so hot as to warm half the cellar below, and the whole space between the iambs roars for hours together with white flame. To be sure, the windows are not very tight, between broken panes and bad joints, so that the fire, largo as it is, is by no means an extravagant comfort As night approaches I have a huge pile of oak am hickory placed beside the hearth; I put out the tallow candle on the mantel (using the family snuffers, with one log broke); then, drawing my chair directly in front : the blazing wood, and sotting ono foot on each of the ol iron fire-V;.H (until they grow too warm), I disown my. self for an evening of such sober and thoughtful quietude, as I beliovo, on my soul, that very fow of my follow men havo the good fortune to enjoy. My tenant meantime, in the other room, I can hoar now and then, though there is a thick stone chimney and broad entry between, multiplying contrivances with his wife to put two babies to sleep. This occupies thorn, should say,' usually an hour; though my only measure ol time (for I never carry a watch into the country), is tli blaze of my fire. By ten, or therealxjuts, my stock of wood is nearly exhausted; I pile njmn the hot coals what remains, and sit watching how it kindles, and blazes, and goes out even like our joys! and then slip by the light of the embers into my bod, where I luxuriate in such sound and healthful sluml)or as only such rattling window frames and country air can supply. But to return. The other evening it happened to be on my last visit to my farm-houHO whon I had exlinustod 1 the ordinary rural topics of thought hnd formed all nrts of conjecture n to the income of tlio your; hud aimed a new wall around one lot and the clearing up of another, now covered with patriarchal wood, ami won- ered if the little rickoty house would not bo after all a snug enough 1hx to live and to die in, I toll on a midden into such an unprecedented line of thought, which took such deep hold of my sympathies - sometimes even start ing tears that I doter mined, the next day, to set as much f it as I could recall on paper. Something it may have boon the homo-looking blaze am a bachelor of, say, six-and-twenty ), or possibly a plaintive cry of the baby in my tenant's room - had sug gested to me the thought of marriage. I piled upon the heated fire-dogs the last armful of my wood; and now, said I, bracing myself courageously lotwoen the arms of my chair, I'll not flinch; I'll pursue the thought wherever it loads, though it load mo to the - (I am apt to le hasty) at least continued I, soft ening, until my fire is out The wood was green, and at first showed no disposi tion to blaze. It smoked furiously. Bmoko, thought I, always goes before blaze, and so does doubt go before decision; and my llevorio, from that very starting point, slipped into this shape: I. SMOKE HIQNIFYINO DOU1IT. A wife? thought I; yes, a wife! And why I And pray, my dear sir, why not why? Why not doubt; why not hositnte; why not tremblo? Does a man buy a ticket in a lottery a jioor man, whose whole earnings go in to secure the ticket without trembling, hesitating and doubting? Can a man stako his bachelor rospoctability, his inde pendence and comfort upon the die of absorbing, un changing, relentless marriago, without trembling at the venture? Khali a man who has boon froo to chaso his fancies over the wide world, without lot or hindrance, shut him self up to marriage-ship, within four walls called home, that are to claim him, his time, his trouble and his tears, thenceforward forovorinoro, without doubts thick, and thick-coming as smoke? Shall he who has boon hitherto a mere observer of other men's cares and business moving off whore they made him sick of heart, approaching whenever and wher ever they made him gleeful - shall he now undertake ad ministration of just such cares and business without qualms? Shall ho, whoso whole life has Itenn but a nim ble succession of esonOB from trifling difficulties, now broach without doubtings that matrimony, where if diffi culty beset him there is no pseajwi. Shall this brain of mine, careless working, never tired with idleness, feeding on long vagaries and high gigantic castles, dreaming out beatitudes hour by hour, turn itself at length to such dull task work m thinking out a livelihood for wife and children?