Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-05-22

blue, limped eyes. Surely, you cannot
have failed to discover how deeply |
love you! Hereafter you are mine!'
Miriam Green, young as she was. had
often dreamed of the pathway in which
love should come to her, but it had never
seemed like this!
But, she stammered what will YOUR
uncle say?'
What would he say?' calmly retorted
her lover. Ford Court is mine. Nv
uncle is only my beloved and nonored
guest. Besides he loves me so genuine
" that my happiness cannot but be his.
And-But what is this?
They had BY this time reached the
solid stone wall which divided the ground
of Ford Court from the woods, and there.
perched up on its height-a feminine
Stylites-was Aunt Jane with basket
in her hand, half full of the barbarries
which she had gathered from the huge
bushes that made scarlet-dotted screen
inside, while prone on the grass at the
of the wall lay old Major Ford's mon
ster bloodhound, Gelert. He looked
around and wagged his tail slowly at
the sight of John, but did not stir other
wise.
Aunt Jane, said Marian, what are
you doing on top of the wall?'
II only wanted few barberries to
put in my cucumbers pickles. stammered
Aunt. Jane, ready to burst into tears.
'And-and | didn't suppose there was
any harm in gathering them here. I've
picked pecks and pecks of barberries off
them very bushes, and nobody said a
word. And | was just reaching up for
the finest, when up comes cross old
savage and asks me what ! mean by
stealing fruit and leaves me here with
this horrid, snarling brute to watch me
Just as it | was tramp-while he
goes for constablcl / never was so
treated in my life! And the more |
try to jump off, the more the dog shows
his teeth at me, and growls He'd tear
me in pieces if | stirred foot in any
direction, / believed
My Uncle Ford whispered John to
Miriam. He is positive monomaniac
on the subject of fruit theivesl The
park bristles with man-traps, and there
is dog chained under every apple-tree
on the premises. But it's too bad that
he should have taken your aunt for one
of the village purlioners! Gelertl come
here this instant, sir! | assure you, Miss
Green Ito Aunt Jane, who between her
fatigue was ON the verge of fainting).
my uncle will be the most grieved Of
any one, when he learns what mis-
apprehension he has been laboring under.
Allow me to help you down. Take care
don't spill the barberriesr
Dear Aunt janet soothed Miriam.
receiving the old lady in her arms, how
frightened you must have beenp
oh, Miriam, forgive met sobbed the
old lady, behind her sunbonnet. II
didn't know how dreadful it was, or |
never, never would have pulled the lad
der down and left you therel It's right
eous retribution on me; that's what it
ISL
oh, aunty,. don't fret about it said
Marian, ,radiantly. It's-all right now.
MIR. Ford came along and put up the
ladder again, and-and I'm engaged to
be married to him. Don't look so sur
prised, Aunt Jane! | know I've told it
in a jerky sort of way, but it all hap
pened as naturally as possible. Didn't
it, John?'
And then followed congratulations
and explanations, and finally the hum
BILE apologies of Major Ford, testy old
gentleman of sixty years, who just then
arrived on the scene, accompanied by the
village constable.
I'm sure | beg a thousand pardonsl'
said Major Ford. But how was | to
know? I'm a stranger in these parts,
you know, and half the fruit-trees were
stripped last night
And Aunt Jane received his acknowl-
edgment in fridgid silence.
"A lady is lady, she said to her
niece, afterward, even if she has climbed
on a stone-wall to gather barberriesl
And no one but semi-barbarian could
mistake her for anything elsel'
And Miriam Green was too happy in
her own newborn felicity to ague the
question with her aunt.-Helen Forrest
GrdueS.