THE HESPERIAN
J,
i
gavo a concert. Perhaps you have hoard
mo speak of that boforo. I appoarod in a
couple of numbers with my violin the
tiddlo that I used to play tho "sfuc-saw-hkr-ii
aw tunes" on when you and Carter woro
trying to study Analytics. Winnie was
accompanyiBt to almost evory number, and
tho concort was a howling succoss. After
it wns over I rode homo with tho accom
panyist. MiiBic alwayB has the effect of making mo
fool blue. Woll, not oxactly bluo, but sad
and mohmcholy. Visions of tho past you
know, and what not? So on this occasion
1 was unusually silent and unsociable.
Really, I was thinking of peoplo and places
in Bouth-oast Nebraska. Winnie was very
quiet also, but I did not notice it then.
Only when thinking it over afterwards, I
was astonished that 1 hadn't remarked it at
tho time.
. Wo wont along slowly and silently, she
busied with hor own thoughts, I with mine;
until wo were more than half-way to the
"Bar-Gross-U," hor father's ranche. Wo
had left tho main trail and wore now follow
ing a path over trailing juniper vines,
beneath thick cedars whore tho darkness
waB intonBO. Suddenly she roinod hor pony
in very close to mino and said softly so
low that I had to lean over to hear:
"Jack," (it is tho custom hore to speak to
evanjbody with their christian names) "Jack,
this is leap yoar, isn't it?"
"Yea," I answered, absently, "I guess it
uiuBt be."
"Well Jack," and her voice, though
nearly in a whisper, trembled; "Do you
do you care anything for mo?"
i roincd ray pony to his haunches with a
jork, and ho commenced to dance. I felt
as if I had fallen oil my horso while asleep.
I was dazed scarcely know whoro I was.
Then in an inBtant there Hashed through my
mind "ii proposal, a rofusal, tears, heart
aches, rogrots, and a foarful jumble of
.other disagreeable things." I know then
how a girl must f6ol who is proposed to by
some fellow whom she hardly knows.
I whoolod my pony, dug tho spurs into
his Hanks, and flew along undor tho codars
so fast that tho lower branches cut and
scraped my faco like knivos and whip
lashoB. I Hod liko a voritablo coward, not
knowing why not knowing anything much
until 1 camo to a cloarod opon in tho
cedars. I was half-way across it whon I
hoard a whiz and folt a ropo sottlo down
ami burn liko a hot snake around my shoul
ders. As tho nooso tightened, and as I
folt tho sudden strain on tho ropo, I brought
my poor littlo pony to a stand with a cruel
jerk that nearly dragged him backward; and
stopped in time to keep from being dragged
from my Baddle. The strain on tho ropo
slackened, and 1 throw off tho noose; but
Winnie was alongsido. Planting hor pony
across the trail, she said anxiously, "Oh
Jack, aro you hurt? I did it beforo I
thought. But, Jack, wont you hoar mo,
please? I'd do as much for you."
What could I do? I got off the pony and
sat down on a log. She sat bosido me and
told mo that sho loved me, Ted. Told mo
what it cost her to ask mo what she did, told
me that sho had beon waiting to lovo some
one with hor whole hoart over since sho was
a little girl, and that someone waB vie; and
I had been blind and would have left hor
not knowing of hor lovo.
Sho told mo of hor prospects and of mino,
told mo that sho would be happy with mo
miserable and forlorn without mo. Sho told
me thut sweet story I had so ofton read
about, but nevor heard boforo; and as sho
spoko in low sweet tones, "surely," I
thought, "no sweotor story was over told."
And whon sho put her soft arm about my
neck and pressed her warm cheek against
my cheek what could I do, Theodore?
Whon wo reached hor father's ranche, thero
wore two pink roses on hor cheeks ; and hor
eyes glowed, and I I walked, no flonted
on air.
'Tis a strange, strange world, Toddy.
Ted, when this reaches you, 1 shall bo a
married' man.
AyWJEDEKSHEN, JaoK. ,
,J. M. JR. (by permission).,
(per Ted.)