Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1885 — Courting by the Firelight. [ARTICLE]

Courting by the Firelight.

Uncle Davy was giving the boys some advice in their love-making affairs, and one of them asked him how the young people did when he was sparking. “Them was great times, boys,” he said in reply, “great times. We didn’t have no gas, nOr no keerosene, nor no newfangled notions, and we done our sparkin’ by a plain tallow dip; but most frequently by the firelight. Firelight is warmin’, boys, and flickers just enough to make a girl’s eves shine and the peach blossom glow in her ,cheeks. It’s, mighty soft and purty, too, and kinder reaches out and melts two hearts together in a way none of your gaslights knows anything about. Sometimes the fire shined up a little too powerful in places, and the young man would git up, without sayin’ anything, and put a shovelful of ashes on it. Then he would cuddle up to the girl in the shadows and she would cuddle some, too, and it really didn’t «eem like there was anything else in the whole big round earth to be wished for. Purty soon the fire would git obstreperous again, and the little flames would twinkle in and out, as if they wanted to see what was goin’ on, or had seen and was laughin’ and winkin’ about it and havin’ some fun too, and the young fellow would reach for the shovel and the ashes and cover the bright blazes all up. And sometimes —remember, now, only sometimes—the girl would get up and put ashes on, and then—well, boys, when the bluebirds come in the spring, and the fishin’ worms crawled ont of the ground, and the boys set on the green banks of the little creek waitin’ for a bite, and the johnny-jump-ups nestled in the sunuy places, there was a weddin’ in the old house, and the purty bride wore apple in her hair, and the awkward young fellow blushed in his store clothes and tight boots; and when the winter come again they set by their open fire, and the shovel and thefashes was out of a job.”— Merchant Traveler.