The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-05-17

moved swiftly forward, thinking only, on IN
-on---on, as her steps beat time along
the dusty road. r
"Do you have many such trees as this
where you come from?" he asked, curl
ously, examining the carved handle of the
little sunshade. = / e III
s"Oh, yes, SIR. and Olive launched
into a long description of an imaginary.
tree.
at grows to enormous heights and
people cut these off to shade themselves
WITH" she was saying, when he interrupt
ed her by crying fiercely: "You lie to
me! This is of silken, texture. Though
the father Of lies, allow not my children
to speak them. You must die. l love
you, oh! SO dearly; but you must not
speak lies to me-" ~.
Olive saw her mistake too late. She
had never imagined that anything so
awful as this would ever come into her
humdrum working life, any mote than
you or now dream, in the monotony of
our lives, that we will ever need to plan
~ A0pANAy uS OANC lkdIlNI\l SllO, I'LL ulfl
second before she spoke.
"Do you love me?' she asked, looking
up at him, her heart beating wild
tattoo.
"More than my life! All, God! that
you must die!'
II will never lie again and will love
you always if you will listen to my plan ;
will you?'
"Yes, if you say that you love me.
You are beautiful and L cannot die with
out your hands to smooth my dying pill
low"
Olive thought sharply, as she
talked. Not half mile away Squire
Preston's house cleaned white through
the shrubbery, and Olive knew that at the
furthest they would reach the place in
ten minutes at their present gait; but
that she must shorten that time she knew,
for her nerves could not stand this terri
bic strain.
"Will you race with mc!'' she asked.
" 1 do love you, and the one who reaches
that big white gate first shall name our
wedding day."
"No; that will not do" he said sus-
piciously; but Olive was running as for
dear life, and he stood alone.
Only for a moment. On, on, ever on,
went Olive, and close behind her came
the horrid pulse of the madman's feet.
She reached the gate first, but could not
open it. She tried to climb over, but he
caught her.
"You shall not thus elude me, The cried
"See, now you shall dic!" A knife shone
out in the sunshine, and Olive felt herself
growing cold.
"Our wedding day!" she painted. He
paused, looking at her. esquire Preston
will marry us, and 1 name this tor our
wedding day-Come!''
She held out. her hand to the man, and
together they went up the graveled walk.
Cousin Egbert was reading. Floy was
curled up in hammock, fast asleep, and
Mr.. Preston was smoking lazily. They
stopped in the shade of the porch.
"For Gods sake" cried Olive, speak
ing swiftly in German, "bind this man!
He is crazy"
"Did you mention our business to the
squire, my dear?" The maniac looked
down at her with horrid smile; but
Olive sprang away from him, rs DR..
Preston held him FAST
By quick sweeping movement he had
pin;oned his prisoner, as he spoke, and
now was answering the question.
eyes, she spoke to the squire. Come
with u.s." The man appeared dazed,
and suffered the men to lead him quietly
away. Floy sat rubbing her eyes, hardly
wakened yet, so short had been the little
ao.ono onoofoA hoforo hor
Olive Harland did not faint. She never
had tainted in her life; but she did an in
tinitely worse thing. She had long run
of fever before she recovered from the
reaction of that short, terrible half hour
strain on her nervous system. There
were long weeks of delirium before she
knew even her mother, who came at once,
when Mr.. Preston telegraphed-"O Olive is
ill.,"
1t was the second day after the crisis Of
the fever, and she lay watching Floy, who
was tanning her, reading and pretending
to crochet all at once.
"What did they do with him?" she
asked, with shudder.
"Dey locked him up in de smoke house
cellar, wild the key trown down de WE'LL"
sang Floy. "Then they took him to an
asylum, or somewhere way off, and you
are never to speak or think of him in all
your life again; Cousin Doctor said so.
believe handwriting docs show character,
and Egbcrt was right when he judged
you to be sclf-rcliant and plucky little
piece"
Olive was too weak to wonder ut Flows
incohercnce, and only smiled |azily, as
she went to sleep.
No need for ME to tell the sequel. Of
course those days and weeks Of GONZALES
cence during which time DIR. Preston
learned to love the "plucky little piece"
whose sclt-rcliance he admired because he
lacked that desirable quality. suppose
Olive loved him out of sheer contrariness,
because he dared to say what she should
or should not talk or think about. No
mortal had ever done 50 before.
But, for my part, Notwithstanding Egg
bert's gcntleness and tenderness, and Of
ives docility, during those weeks before
she was quite we'll again, I never could
quite forgive Olive for marrying him be-
cause he did not go to the station to meet
her that hot August day.
Trotty's Lecture Bureau.
Easter Trotty climbed upon the bureau,