Denar Bellefonte, Pa., November 29, i901. THE OLD REFRAIN. Oh you may have yeur table-dote, with all its ter- ry-pins, An’ turtle soups, an’ fishes briled, or baked with tails an’ fins, An all its ducks with canvas backs, an’ frozen lemmernade, Ef you'll jest {fetch me some o’ them boss pies that mother made! An’ you kin have them kaffv-teers, with isters in the cans, The way they come all lickered up, from the Creator's han’s! Er frickerseed, er parley-vooed, in eny er shade, I'd like a corner on them pies, the pies that mother made ! size I do not keer fur swallerin’ French with vittles eny-how, puddin’ deep-lo-matteek, “pud” I'vow, Tnen one that’s made o’ bread-crum’s (one o : the highest grade). But shucks, it doesn’t shake a stick at pies that mother made! An’ ain’t no better So keep your flummididdles, marryin’-glasses an’ sooflays, Yer bowls to wet yer fingers, for the folks thet has the craze, To be eatin’ what ain’t vittles, (ef they kin an’ aint afraid), But I'd like a quarter-section o> the pies that mother made! —Lillian W. Rountree, in * What to Eat.” A DULL FELLOW. Iam a dull fellow, and you are all very kind to take the trouble to explain things,” he said when the point of a story had been defined for him, and the smile which ac- companied this admission was so good humored that only one of his hearers sus- pected the pain it concealed. ‘You should laugh when the rest of us laugh, Mr. Britton. That is the simple recipe with which many of us concoct a reputation for quick wits,” Gertrude Grant declared, looking up at the man sitting on the veranda railing beside her chair—the man who had been horn to greater wealth, nearly thirty years since, than most mil- lionaires acquire in twice that period of laborious achievement—the man for whose complete subjugation her grandmother had brought her to this Maine coast paradise, and whose unexpected echo of the verdiet usually pronounced upon him awoke a pang of pity in a heart accustomed to een- sider itself inaccessible to the soft emotions. ‘But then I should sometimes miss what you really mean, and I wish to understand my friends,” he said in a low tone asa gen- eral laugh followed her advice. ‘According to their explanation of them- selves, instead of your own guessing ?’? she smiled. Isn’t that very much like throw- ing away a sword, which is vour only weapon, though perhaps not a keen one, and marching through a strange eountry, trusting its inhabitants neither to rob nor murder you ?”’ The blue eyes, which regarded her stead- ily, were distinctly puzzled. *‘I was speaking of my friends; he said slowly. “They would not be my friends if I did not trast them.’” He paused and added gravely : ‘‘Of course, I have heen taken in no end of times,and shall be again to the end of my chapter, but, so far, I ean blame only my own dullness toward obvious fraud, not any treachery from those in whom I put special confidence.” : ‘What is this about confidence? Or am I indiscreet to ask?’ a pleasant voice de- manded asa young man appeared beside Nicoll Britton. \ Gertrude was aware that she liked the . glance Britton turned to the newcomer, though she did nct approve its recipient. “I was saying that my confidence has never been betrayed, except in cases where it was hastily given,” he said. ‘‘You should endorse me cordially, Otho, as I am usually wise enough to follow your coun: -sels.”? Otho laughed. “Miss Grant's eyes assert that she is not wont to consider me a Men- tor. How do you consider me, hy the way ?"" he added audaciously. ‘As an obstacle between me and the ‘moon at present,’”’ she answered serenely. ‘SMr. Britton’s shoulders left me a glimpse .of her, but you have obscured her utterly.’’ 'Otho laughed again, and came nearer while Nicoll arose. : “There is the first of the waltzes my aunt promised us, and which I must dance ‘with Miss Wynne,”’ the latter exclaimed as three or four people deserted the veranda for the drawing rooms. *‘Is there any use in asking you for the next, Miss Grant?” ““Not a bit ! I did not come to Maine for waltzes after a winter of cotillons and danc- ing classes,” she declared.” “But you will find me in this corner if you return within an hour.” : ‘I will surely return,” he asseverated. and ber gaze followed his tall, strong figure as he disappeared through a long window. “I like our host,” she said, bringing back lier eyes to Otho, who regarded her somewhat.cynically. ‘‘He is popular—for reasons,’ he mur- mured. : ‘That is not well spoken by his chiefest friend,” she commented coldly. “It sug- gests curiosity as to the reasons, which are possibly in proportion to the extent of the iatimacy."” = 25 i ‘We bave been chums since we were small boys atsehool,’’ he said with asperity, ‘‘and if his muscles saved me many a lick- ing, my brains ‘did many a task for him.” *‘You who dislike tasks?’ i ‘I work harder for him than ever I have worked for myself,’” he protested. One re- ‘quires sharp wits in constant practice to Steer a gullible millionaire, with an appetite for pictures and curios,among the big deal-. rs in Paris and: London—and you may have heard what the art enitics in New York said of the collection he has just bestowed upon the Metropolitan Museum 2’ he nodded, looking at him with iuter- est. FEAR) “I take credit for the value of that col- lection, as without me Nieoll would have been swindled in the purchase.” 1 must tell my: grandmother,” she laughed. ‘‘She has. heen coufident that popular rumor underrates Mr. Britton’s shrewdness, since Levi in London assured her, as an old customer by whom he pre- fers not to be considered an extortioner, that he bad received only half the sum for the Raphael which the New York papers announced.” | ‘Levi is a professional liar I’ Otho ex- claimed angrily. For once the newspapers told a straight story, and you may so re- port to Mrs. Grant.’ . dtilini o i “Suppose you report to her yourself, She says that you are as charming as ‘detri- mentals’ are apt to be 1"? : “A ‘detrimental 2’? Otho repeated. ‘Even your grandmother cannot accuse me of any empty pockets —and they are filling 1’ *‘Are they ?’’ she smiled ‘‘Here come pockets which are fall but emptying. Dear me! Mr. Britton, there was no need for such hurry when I told you I should stay in this eorner an hour !”’ At the gates of this particular Maine paradise there is a tidal river which rushes between wiliow-shaded banks for a course of some eight miles, and divides the devo- tion te old ocean which is the chief attrac- tion of the place. Nor indeed can anything more beautiful be conceived than the row up through crimson-tinted waters toward the sunset, unless it be the row dewn again, with the moonlight casting silver eclipse over the vanished gorgeousness of color. When this double delight,however,must be won by battle with the tide, either go- ing or coming, an indelent or weary holi- day-maker postpones it. But Nicoll Brit- ton was neither indolent nor weary. His great physical strength rejoiced in exer- tion, and the fact that he thus got a mo- nopoly of Miss Grant’s society, during an hour when some instinct taught him that she was more soft ef mood than her wont, and he himself at his modest best, render- ed blissful to him a canoe expedition to- gether on the following evening. They had floated on the incoming tide beyond the third bridge before she com- manded their return, in that dim interval between sunset and moonrise. He obeyed without demur, though the dimmness did not hide from her the regret which crossed his face. She divined that obedience with- out demur, in the fulfillment of any bond to which he had agreed, would be natural to this silent young man, who had pledged forth. Go slowly, Mr. Britton,’”’ she said graciously. “I fancy that, if we should be belated, those arms of yours would easily master the tide. ‘*‘We have matched each other often, to my advantage,”” he laughed. ‘‘Bnt there is little need for special strength any long- er.” he added wistfully, after an instant. “During the Middle Ages a kpight or a man-at-arms could acquire, by physical force, the distinction which nowadays,even in the army, is achieved by brains——"’ ‘Yet a name was mentioned in dis- patches after San Juan whose owner calls himself a dull fellow,’’ she interrupted. ‘‘Nove the less dull because he was fortunate enough to have the chance of ‘helping his wounded captain thrust into his hands!’ he exclaimed, while his happy eyes looked their fill on the sweetness of her smile. “Is it dull, too, to choose pictures, and bestow them, as you do?!” *‘I like pictures, though the best of them does not mean so much to me as this river to-night,’’ he answered; ‘but Otho chooses them for me.” “I am going to ask you a most intrusive question—a question on the reply to which I have a wager,’’ she said. *‘Did you really pay that awful amount of money for the Raphael which the newspapers announced?’ “I really did,’’ he admitted apologetical- ly. ‘‘It seems a sum which would be het- ter spent en more practical necessities than a museum, but Otho was eloquent about the uplifting of the art-sense of our coun- try, and he assures me that I did not pay a penny beyond the Raphael’s value.’’ ‘‘He attends to such purchases for you ?’’ “He is good enough to play ‘go-hetween,’ 80 that I may not be unmereifully robbed.’ ‘Gertrude made a sudden movement—al- mest as though she would touch the brown hands clasped upon his paddle. His start, half ineredulous, half eager, was more vio- lent than her movement. Their frail craft swayed, dipped, avd, with a storm of splashing, turned over. Gertmde, who could swim.a little and possessetl abundant courage, realized at once that she was a mere feather in the mighty tide which bore her whither it would. Then an arm, stronger than the tide, upheld her, and a voice cried elose above her head : “Don’t struggle! You shall be on the bank 1 a moment.” Nobody thinks quite clearly inan instant whieh may well prove his last, yet, even in the midst of that rushing river, she wondered at the absolute eontent of her self-suirender to Nicoll’s knowledge, as utterly as to his strength. - When they presently scrambled up a gravelly little beach they sat wordless and (1ipping side by side, during a space when breath seemed a more difficult matter than when the tide water had raced past their lips. ? He was on his feet again quiekly, how- ever, looking a young giant in the moon- light his drenched flannels clinging to him. “Can you. walk or shall: I earry you?” he panted. ‘Yon must get dry at ouce, aud there is the brick-kiln close by with a five all night.”’ “Ican run almost as well as you ean swim,” she began gayly, but, as his fingers clasped hers to help her rise, voice and eyes grew sweet. ‘‘The Middle Ages may bave possessed vobler uses for the strength you despise than the saving of a girl who has upset your canoe, hut you must not ex- pect ber to think so !? ‘A shining fair head was bent suddenly; quivering lips touched her hands. ‘‘Auy wan who could swim would have got youn out,”” he muttered. ‘Only you could make it worth—all the years of my life to me.”’ ; : “Don’t 1" she cried sharply, and’ with- drew her hands. A slow fellow may stride too rapidly,’ it appeared, along ‘a ‘road where his guide was not ‘quite certain of the way ! “Shall we rade?’ she added lightly. “The brick-kiln fire is a capital idea, for I am shivering.” : words as they sped across fields to the curve in the river which the brick-kiln de- faces. When they reached it Nicoll broken- ly narrated their accident and their needs to a stolid watchman, who, when the dis- jointed story was concluded, led them to a blanket for Gertrude’s wrapping, and a coat of curious cut that spoiled Nicoll's. picturesqueness. possessed a telephone, and Nicoll was able ter’s safety, and to order his heach-wagon sent over for their return. Then, while they waited, a silence fell upon them, which she explained, without contradiction from him, to be due to sleepiness. She smiled as she mentally depicted the different use which most men of her acquaintance would have made of the role that kindly fate had bestowed upon him, and for, which after the first moment he seemed to have lost inclination, He looked pale, despite the he sat with folded arms in his corner of the bench. Perhaps he was sleep really? She remembered the sound of his voice as his lips touched her fingers, and repented the jibe, witha rush of feeling she called— pity ! They could not, however, sit there dumb- ly until the wagon came for them, with the scrutiny of their equally dumb host keep- ing watch of their mariners for future gossip qualities belonging to that type, except obedience to her ever whim. when they set bench beside the fires and produced a. Luckily, too, the kiln to inform Mrs. Grant of her granddaugh- ruddy glow cast on him from the ovens, as | among the natives ! Nicoll had done her a good turn; he deserved something in kind from her, and, surely, to reveal the sur- rounding of upsuspected treachery must be a good turn from keen wits to dull? Her dislike of Otho Villars, founded in her per- ception that he opposed Nicoll’s admira- tion for her, had become distrust of his honor and honesty since her grandmother bad repeated Levi's tale, and every new detail of the cousin’s positionsin that busi- ness ripened her distrust. She moved restlessly. ‘‘Are you chilly ?”’ he asked at once. “Am I a Salamander? ‘Let us turn our other cheeks to the fire, as though we were apples roasting on a string, and I will tell you what I was about to say when I upset the canoe.’’ His eyes adored her mately despite the disheveled locks and mantle of scarlet blanket! Certainly his way of sitting quite still and speechless, when other men would have fidgeted and babbled,gave him individuality" *‘I asked you whether you really paid that enormous sum for the Raphael, be- cause old Levi assured my grandmoti- er that he had received ‘only half the amount.” ‘‘He lied,” Nicoll answered smiling. ‘Otho says that something in the combi- nation of the Jewish instincts with the bric-a-hrac trade produces the most brazen liars on record.” ‘Mr. Villars hasa pretty wit,’’ she said impatiently; ‘‘but Levi is too clever for easily detected lies, and he told my grand- mother without restriction as to repeating his statement.” ‘Nevertheless I paid the sum the news- papers mentioned.” “By check 2’? He frowned with a puzzled glance. ‘‘By check, of course, bnt, nos for the ex act amount of the picture’s cost, or made out to Levi,”” he answered slowly. ‘It covered several purchases Otho chose for me in London, and was paid to his account at Brown's there.” ‘“Then Mr. Villars can suppress Levi's story by showing his own canceled check, if vou demand it?’ 3 The sudden color in Nicoll’s counte- nance was redder than any reflected glow could bring. , ‘I am sure that you would not suggest that I should ask my cousin for proof of his fair dealing,” he said gravely. ‘‘He might think that I suspected him of hypothecat- ing mauy thousand dollars—* ‘I hear wheels !I”’ she interrupted, rtis- ‘ing abruptly. The explanation concerning the check had satisfied her last doubt of Levi's story. Yet she hesitated to go farther, because of a new perception that to destroy his trust in the friend of his past would be crueler to Nicoll than to conceal the treachery,and permit that false friend to swindle his fu- ture. “It is awfully good of vou to care whether I have been cheated !” he exclaim- ed hurriedly. ‘‘Otho says I need a special Providence to look after me ! But this is ‘not so much a question of Levi’s honesty as of —"’ He broke off as Otho, debonair and con- fident, and followed by Mrs. Grant’s maid, appeared in the shed doorway with an armful of wraps. The newcomer was at the cost of the con- versation during the homeward drive, hat it was at a cost never difficult for him to defray. Nor was it until Nicoll reclothed, entered the smoking-room at the cottage, where only himself remained, that he showed any consciousness that he had been delivered of half an hour’s monologue, to the accompaniment of two horses’ ¢ hoofs. “What happened to you and Miss Grant, besides an upset and a swim ashore?’ he asked, staring at Nicoll, who was filling a pipe. t 7%; ; **A good deal of talk’? ‘Obviously. You neither of you had an idea left by the time I—?’ **Yet some of the talk concerned you,” Nicoll interrupted, turning his eyes from his pipe to his cousin with the look of blended affection and puzzlement with which Otho had been familiar since their round-jacket days. ‘I’m afraid vou and I were cheated about that, Raphael.” ‘‘Has Miss Grant been repeating to you Levi’s attempt to square his case with that astute old lady, her grandmother?’’ Otho laughed. “‘She bad already spoken of it to youn ?”’ **Of course, and to many mutual friends! Her thoughts are too constantly busy with the condition of your exchequer not to find this tale of absorbing interest.” There was no dullness in the flame with whieh Nicoll’s eyes blazed, only as blue eyes can. i “‘It is my purpose to ask Miss Grant to he my wife,”’ he said very low. ‘ What- ‘ever her answer may be, you must under- stand that I will not hear her spoken of again as you spoke just now.”’ ‘‘Dear boy 1”? Otho smiled. ‘‘Your an- nouncement has no more surprise for me than Miss Grant’s reply will possess.” **You think there is no hope for me? I am not a likable fellow, I know—-"" “You are most likable to me, and to those who find you out, you dumb spirit !”’ Otho cried warmly. “And Miss Grant's acceptauce will be partly for that worth, and partly for another, which no girl, brought up to make a wealthy marriage, can possibly disparage.’ Nicoll stretched his strong young arms ahove his head with a gesture of tragic force. . ‘‘D~—— money !”’ he muttered. ‘‘I wish I had been born to stone-breaking.’’ “i‘‘Then yon would have missed more pleasure than pain—including the ac- Neither had breath to spare on farther. | 49aintance of Miss Grant 1” Nicoll leaned against the frame of an open window, and gazed out at the moon- lit ocean. ' “We have got a long way from Levi and his lies,”’ Otho said presently, while his arm went about the other’s broad shoul- ders. ‘‘Shall I silence them by producing ‘my canceled check? It must be among my last winter’s belongings in town.’’ *‘I have not deserved this question from you, ’’Nicoll said gravely, holding out his hand. ‘‘but if my mention of Levi's farrago has hurt your feelings, I beg your par- don.” * : : : : Their aquatic adventure did not absorb comment at. breakfast next morning, as Gertrude feared it would. It was divided in interest by an errand upon . which Otho intended going, and wbich had humorous aspects as related by him. The cottage which hospitably sheltered them every one knew to be rented by Niec- oll. ‘They knew also that he was in treaty for the site npon the ‘‘cliff-walk’’ which made the fashionable end of the village, and which was defaced by the shabby homestead of the local miser, a worthy famed for his ignorance and eccentricity. These attributes manifested among other ways, in a distrust of bank accounts and check books, which accord- ing to popular rumor, had induced him to bury the proceeds of former sales of por- tions of his farm. These proceeds had allbeen themselves, | paid in gold, and it was to bring five thousand dollars in gold, insisted upon for the impending sale, that Otho’s journey Was necessary. This announcement was followed by a chorus of questions. **Does old Newton go with you to bring back his treasure in a potato sack ?’’ some one demanded. . “I hope you do not mean to keep the money in the house over night, Nicoll 2”? his aunt asked anxiously. “There were burglars at the Stuarts’ last summer !”’ a girl exclaimed. ‘‘Nohody will suspect our wealth,”’ Nic- oll said smiling. ‘Otho intends to bring it himself in his dress-suit case.’ *'Of course, some rumor from the bank night reach the roughs who always infest such a railway centre as the town,’’ Otho conceded. ‘‘But Nick and I take turns in watching to-night, and tomorrow the pay- ment will be made.’ “Why not to-night, Mr. Britton ?’’ Ger- trude asked: **Newton is harvesting !I”’ Nicoll laugh- ed. ‘It will take him until dark to get in his hay, and he refuses either to delay his work, or to count the gold except by day- light.” Whereupon on Mis. Britton’s sugges- tion, every one agreed to keep silence un- til to-morrow, lest the servants, overhear- ing, might spread the story in the village, with disastrous results. Then thev sepa- rated for the wonted variety of morning en- gagements at the seaside. Gertrude waited, upon one excuse an another, until all had departed, because she wished to avoid Nie- oll so long as she had not discovered the answers to certain questions as to which a wakeful night had brought no counsel. With anovel and a golf cloak she made her way te a bit of shingle, sheltered from possible observers at the cottage by lofty rocks,and there began her selfconfession. She had been accustomed to the opinien that she was a young woman of purposes as well defined as her principles, not given to the inspection of a desired object from con- flicring points of view—bhut to-day she wa- vered iu that opinion. : She had come to this pretty place pie- pared to accept Nicoll Britton’ if he asked her—an ‘if’ inserted merely for euphony, thouglyshe had only known him a few weeks. She intended to make him an ex- cellent wife to watch over his lack of as- tuteness, and to see that his dignity was maintained by the respect which his char- acter, if not his intelligence, deserved. But since last nighh misgivings assailed her. ' Would this decorous loyalty from his wife entirely satisfy him? Sincere, unsus- picions as he was, would not her accept- ance include to him such love as he cifer ed ? When he found such love lacking from her bond, would he not feel that gen- erous faith of his defranded ? Would he not suffer far more cruelly than if she had forced upon him the knowledge of Otho Villars’ dishonor?—a task from whose sternness she had shrunk—- **You are not reading?’, the man of whom she was thinking asked, close be- hind her. ‘‘May I sit here with you for a little 2”? 2 It must be, then she told herself, with an odd pang at her heart, while her de- cision came to her. Better hurt him sharp- ly now than crush the faith out of him month by month, year by year, in the long future he might live with a wife who did not love him ! Silently she drew away her white skirt that heshould find place beside her. She fancied he was:likely to encounter senti- mental dangers: as unhesitatingly as he had rushed up San Juan Hill--nor did she misjudge him. “I am not good at words,”’ he begau at ouce, and though his voice was low she thought its steadiness would carry him through with that which he meant to say as he went on; ‘‘but somehow I believe you undeaistand me pretty well without words. It should not ‘be difficult, for I am not subtle, yet I like to feel that youn wake me out better than any one else She did not speak as he halted an in- stant, and be continued more hurried- ly: : ‘I ama slow fellow, but this has come to me quickly—I have known you so brief a time! yet [ seem to have loved you so long—I am not worthy of youn in any way, but I love you—I love you!" During another moment she did not speak—yet he added nothing more. Somewhere in her consciousness was a smile—or perhaps a sob ?—that this mil- lionaire should be so unsuspicious of the motives for which she bad intended to mar- ry him; that his plea was only “‘love’’— as though they were dwellers in Arcadia! But his folly had so far infected. her that she resolved to answer him after his own fashion—divining that she should hurt him less if she left his ideal of her undim- med by hint of the mercenary intentions which this ‘new reverence for him had abandoned. : She rose. he rising, also, wordless and without effort to detain her. ‘I am glad, and I am sorry, I am proud and I am ashamed, that you should say this to me,’’ she said softly. “Iam glad and proud that a man whom I respect so highly should care so much for me; I am sorry and ashamed that there is not love enough in me to give you what you de- serve.” He neither spoke nor lingered as she stepped back to the path, and they walk. ed.up the steep little lawn mutely to the veranda. There he held out his hand. “This is ‘good by’ to more than I shall ever hope again,” lie murmured.‘ Though of course, Ishall see you often, and love you always.” ; With this he went away. Gertrude did not appear at luncheon,and her grandmotheris maid brought a cap of tea toa very real headache at five o’clock. ‘But despite an unhappiness which she could not entirely explain to herself by the mocking assertion that she dreaded a neec- essary confession to Mrs.: Grant, she came down to dinner in a becoming gown, and a beauty rather enhanced by her pallor. Nicoll seemed neither more nor less quietly cheery than his wont throughout dinner. But he withdrew, at its con- clusion, to the library, with a laughing excuse of the need to do ‘sentry duty’’ be- fore the closet in which, as the cottage possessed no safe, the gold that Otho had brought from town was locked for the night. Among his guests the usual summer evening followed. Half a dozen, including Otho, departed for a moonlight ‘‘trolley ride,”’ which that season happened to be the chicamusement. The others lingered gayly in the shadowy veranda, whence Nie oll’s bent head could be seen by one ob- servant pair of eyes as he wrote, letters be: side the library table. About ten o’clock off to bed at once, declaring that lie should relieve Nicoll’s watch at two. A little lat- er Gertrude also went upstairs feeling that she had given sufficient evidence of seren- ity. But when her pretty haii was braid- the trolley party returned, and Otho went | ed, she paused before taking off her dress- ing-gown, gazing at the white hed with sudden disbelief in its suggestion of re- pose. The easy chair beside the open window, through whose partial draping of honey- suckle she could see the moonlit ocean, would better suit her wakeful mood. She never knew if, perbaps. the slumber she deemed so distant had lightly wrapped her for a while, when she was roused by phys- ical discomfort. She sat upright, and realized that her oppression was produced by an odor of ether, which eclipsed the honeysuckle, the sea saltness, and the sweetness of the summer air. She was startled. Somebody must be ill. Yet, though she listzned intently, the stillness of the house was unbroken by the commotion which sudden illness would have cansed. Swiftly,silently she descend- ed the stairs. She had remembered the gold in the library closet, Nicoll’s solitary watch, and the talk of burglars. Noiselessly she opened the library door, and her first glance assured her that be- side the table where a lamp burned low. Nicoll lay asleep in a big chair. The room otherwise was empty, but the closet door stood ajar, and its broken lock lay upon the floor, Her next movement brought her to Nie oll’s side. He did not wake. She touch- ed the hand which lay on the arm of his chair—it was cold as snow, and bending nearer, she saw his deadly whiteness, and her cheek. almost touching his lips, felt no breath upon it, though the odor of ether dizzied her. Gathering his band to her breast with a passion of tenderness and terror, she rose erect and fae-d Otho, who entered from the vera ida in his stockings, carrying a parti- ally filled pillow slip,slung weightily across his shoulders. His ghastly siare of discovered guilt was not needed to tell her what had happened. Yet an instant told her also, though the her clasp, that Otho had meant no person- al hurt to his eousin. ‘He is dying from the ether you have {given him,” she said. “There is a mo- | ment, perhaps you cau save him. Open the {other windows.”’ “Dying I”? he echoed. ‘‘He is as strong as a bear——"" With chattering teeth he gazed down at the deathlike figure before him. “As God sees me,” he muttered, ‘I would not have harmed him—for all his .illions I”? She had flung some roses from a vase,and was splashing water on Nicoll’s brow and lips. : “Stand back.” she whispered. care for him now !”’ “You will not betray me?’ . It was the first note of self which Otho’s glance or word had shown since he had realized his consin’s danger, but, though that remembrance came to her later to condone a perversion of justice, she was moved to her reply then, only by a won- drous tenderness for the loving heart be- ginning to throb strongly again under her hand—and which no pain for another’s shame must disturb. ‘It would kill him now to hear what you have dove—jyon are safe,’’ she mutter- ed. ‘But later? Have mercy ! © I was push ed to this! You suspected the picture business—it was only a question of time when my influence with him would yield to yours—I had lost the picture money at Monte Carlo—other debts are hounding NE? ‘‘Hush ! He is stirring.”’. ‘‘Promise not to tell him—for his sake! The gold is in this pillow slip. I meant to carry it upstairs and hide it among my lug- gage—but it shall be found. in the garden beside the empty portmantean—as though the burglars had thrown it away when they heard the house aroused —-"7 - ‘‘For his sake I promise,’”’ she said, and then in a tone her voice had never before uttered, the tone which brings more con- viction to a lover's ears than any words, and which thiilled with half conscious rapt- ure through Nicoll’s rallying senses. “You are better,’” she murmured to two blue be- wildered eyes, in which life and love were kindling swiftly. t . Thus was made astory, fragmentary ver- sions of which supplied talk to this gay fraction of the summer world for many a day. That‘the odor of ether should have reached Miss: Grant, when separated. from it by the width of the house and two clos- ed doors, was a wonder not of physic but of telepathy. : : Such was the aspect of the- story which engrossed the sentimental few among its discussers, while the practical majority were entertained by Otho Villars’ dramatic narrative of his coming to take his turn at watching the gold, of his assistance to Miss Grant in reviving his cousin. and of find- ing the gold in the garden, where the burg- lars had thrown it away as he approach- ed. : ar Two regrets were added to the story be- fore the fashionable colony fled to its win- ter habitations. Vigorous detective effort had abandoned hope of discovering the bur- glars, and Otho had turned his back upon American society for several years, by de- parting for Italy and the study of art. There will, however, soon be but one memory unconsoled for him. Nicoll, in the midst of his great happiness, misses the. friend of all bis youth, and that Ger- trude does not lament him has caused their only difference—a difference for which he knew how to be forgiven. : “If'T do not like him as well as you do,” she said, ‘‘your. liking for him has helped to make me love you !”’—By Ellen Macku- bin in the Saturday Evening Post. HI will There Are Others. a skull so thick that a bullet would: not enter it. He first tried to shoot it with a.22- calibre rifle, but the bullets glanced off without hurting it. He next tried a 32-calibre revolver, but with no better re- sult, and finally procured a 38-calibre re-: volver from a neighbor and shot it se eral times. By this time the hog began to tire of such treatment aud jumped out of the pen and ran away. It was finally ecaptur- ed and knocked in the head. After it was dressed it was found that the skull was formed in a sort of a V shape and not one of the bullets which struck ‘it had pene- trated, : Big Timber Deal. Seth T. Foresman returned to Williams- port Friday from Louisiana, after complet- ing the purchase of 109,000 acres of timber land in Avoyelies county for a company of Williamsporters, among whom are Mr. Foresman, former Attorney ' General Me- Cormick, former Mayor Mansel, Daniel Brown aud others, capitalized at $2,000,- 000. There are 5,000,000 feet of hard wood on the tract. The land ‘will be valu: able for farming after it is cleared.” = © J wrist of the man she loved lay pulseless in | ri Tr i d A Hog With a Skull so Thick a Bullet Coul " ‘Not Be Shot Into It. t , Haury Beatty, of Punxsutawney, killed "a hog the other day with A True Story of Politics. He faced the beautiful creature as she stood before him. She stood before him, as she had heard tbat was the proper thing, and Lewseal Oleomargarine O’Flin figured on doing the proper thing always and for- ever. *‘Has it come to this?’’ he hissed. | *Yes,” she replied, shrugging her beau- | tiful shoulders. | “Woman, would you drive me insane ?”’ he cried once again, not forgetting to hiss. With a cruel, cold smile she murmured : “You wouldn’t bave to be driven far.” This blow staggered him and for a mo- ment he stood as one in a trance, but pres- ently a fiendish smile chased itself into the region of his ears. *‘T suppose you think I have no reason to talk thusly 2” he queried, raising his eyes with an effort. ‘‘None whatever, ’” she replied haughtily. At this the husband, for such he was, gave a fiendish ery, and bending toward her asked hissingly : ‘You ask for money, woman! What did you do with that fifty cent piece I gave you last month ?*? ‘I spent it for groceries,’”’ she admitted, and then fell on her knees and became a woman, instead of a cold and impassive statue. Dear, patient reader, their honeymoon had been placed upon the shelf some time and she had only asked her generous and noble mate for money to buy sone actual necessities, with the above result. After which, the man went down town and blow- ed in $10 on a sap headed galoot of a cheap politician who handed him a boguet, say- ing: ‘‘You are the party’s logical candi- date.” Dear, kind reader, is not this a true story ?— Denver Times, Grover Cleveland is out of Danger. Family Physician Says Crisis Was Safely Passed on Thursday Last. The condition of former President Grov- | er Cleveland is much improved. This af- ternoon Dr. Wikoff. the Cleveland family physician, made the following statement : *‘The cold contracted by Mr. Cleveland on his recent trip to the South is pract:cal- ly broken up aud the sick man will be en- tirely recovered inh two or three days. Al- though the danger is past, Mr. Cleveland has been a very sick man. On Monday he walked eight miles on a hunting expedi- tion and caught a severe cold. which was attended. wits chills at night. The next morning the party broke up aud Mr. Cleveland started for Princeton, arriving here Tuesday night. Wednesday he was very ill with the cold, but was not confined to his bed. Thursday the crisis came, and he was very sick. I was called in on Thursday afternoon and I found Mr. Cleveland in a high fever, and attacked by severe chills. He is now resting easy and is entirely out of danger.”’ Dr. Wikoft’s said that only a part of Mr. Cleveland’s right lung had heen at- ‘tacked. Rescue Party Perished in Ill-Fated Coal : ne. Eight Prominent Officials Overcome by Gas and Bodies Cannot be Found. v All hope of finding the eight mining of- ficials who entered the West mine at Poca- hontas, Va., Saturday to search for hodies entombed by the recent explosion in the Baby mine, has about heen abandoned. Up to 1 Sunday nothing bad been heard from them, : : A rescuing party entered the mine Satur- day afternoon but were able to proceed only 300 yards. They found the coat of Super- intendent O'Malley hanging on a peg about 200 yards in the mine, hut discovered no other trace of the party. : The mining: experts now have de- cided upon a plan of attempted rescue, hut the minegofficials refuse to give any infor- mation to the public. It is said that an- other effort will be made to enter the mine. Hopes had heen entertained up to this ‘morning that the party had escaped through the Tug river outlet, ten miles distant, and messengers were dispatched at an early hour to that point. They failed to find any trace of the party. a Assistant Superintendent King, who led the rescuing party yesterday, and who was overcome by black damp, has entirely re- ‘covered. He says it is impossible for a human being to live fifteen minutes in a mine in the condition in which was the one his party entered yesterday. It has been raining ha:d since early morning and the main entrance to'the mine presents a gloomy appearance, with the friends and relatives of the missing men standing around. A ————————————. fHiow a Clearfield Politician Dug Po- totoes and Worked His Wite. Not long ago the wife of a Clearfield county politician asked him to lay aside polities long enough one day to dig the po- tatoes in the garden. He agreed to do it. After digging for a few minutes he went into the house and said he had found a coin. He washed it off and it proved to be -a silver quarter. He put it in his jeans and went back to his work. Presently he went to the house again and said he had found another coin. He washed the dirt off. It was a silver half dollar. He putt ‘in his jeans. “I have worked pretty hard,”’ said he to his wife. “I guess I will take a pap.” When he awoke he found that his wife had dug all the rest of the potatoes. But she found no coins. In then dawned upon her that she had been worked. s 1 - * » a Serious Charge. . > Lairdsville Woman Arrested for Giving: Children Poison: i... ... . “ip Y Mrs. Carrie Cox, of Lairdsville, Lycom- ing county, was held for court Friday. Mrs. Cox is charged by William McFadden of that village, with. attempting to poison his two children, aged 3 and 5 years. He alleges that the woman spread poisoned jelly on a biscuit and then gave the chil- dren the biscuit to eat. Shortiy after the children became ill, and the physicians had a hard time saying their lives. The gener- al opinion among Lairdsville residents is that the arrest is the result of a neighbor’s quarrel. . s Sclected Site for a Home. The Odd Fellows of this state at a meet- ing in Allegheny city on the 8th inst., con- sidered offers of twenty-two sites for the proposed home for aged and homeless mem- bers of the order,and selected a farm of 150 acres near Grove City Mercer county. Grove ‘City will give a cash bonus: and “will also furnish free electric light and water to the institution. The associa- tion will levy an annual per capita tax of twenty-five cents for the maintenance of the home. The building will cost about $100,- 0060 towards this the town gives a bonus of $4,000 cash, with freedom from taxes for ten years- i . hae : 3
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers