Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-12-17

M
whose advent in the place some month
since, with dry-goods stock of some
what extravaganza richness, had beef
hailed with rejoicing by the feminin,
element, and regarded by the commun
ity, generally in, the light of tribut,
to the growth and prosperity of tn,
place; and had it not required tn,
strength of four men combined to pre-
vent him from immolatiD himself upo1
his own burning goods and making o.
his flaming shop funeral pyre? Thu
query he 40. gently advanced could re-
| ceive but one answer:
Jack Willoughby."
Bah! Away with the thought. The
genial young fellow they had received
in their own home, whose industry aud
good nature had won him the kindly re-
gard of the whole community. Mon
strousl lncreditable! How dared Mar
shall make such a suggestion!
where is the lad? Let him speak
for himself"
Momentary silence ensued, then an
old mans voice, weak and querulous,
responded.
HE went off up to his shanty nigh
an hour ago. Whistlin' an singin'-
pretty capers for night like this"
"Who has been complaining all sum-
mer of dull times and no work2"
MarshalPs reminder aroused dormant
recollections. To be sure! To be sure
Jack had growled savagely about the
scarcity of building operations. and
gone SO far as to threaten that he would
abandon his claim and, pull up stakes if
no one started up before winter. But
how could the boy ruin his best friends
for the sake of getting ahead in life IN.
less-unless-he were different from
what he seemed-what they had thought
him; the fair exterios and pleasant ad-
dress but cloak for a treacherous ma
ture. One reads of such things every
day. What did they really know of the
man after all, aside from his advent
with the birth of the settlement less
than two years before? Whistling and
singing in the face of universal disas-
ter. Who would have thought it of
Jack Willoughby?
The seed of distrust had been planted
and sprang into full-Aedged life. Only
one among them was bold to demand
sounder grounds for the speakers insin-
uations. This was Graham, the man
who hod boon &-et to ek,1t.l.. ------.-
@Have care, Marshall" grasping the
merchant somewhat roughly by the
shoulder, *have care how you blast a
mans character without some evidence
to bear you out"
Many who beheld the scene recalled
vaguely, and without connecting the cir
cumstance with present occurrence, that
the merchant and as we'll the man he
accused had both been suitors for the
hand of fair Eleanor Graham, the speak
er's motherless daughter and the queen
lest girl for hundred miles around T.;
they recollected, too, that Graham had
been favorably disposed to Marshall
from the first, while openly discounte-
nancing the attentions of the mechanic.
Furthermore, they did not connect the
fact with the present occasion, and
failed to appreciate the fathers fine
sense of justice which prevented him
from accepting, unchallenged acousa-
tions of the man who had not been his
favorite. To be led captive of Eleanor
Graham was, indeed, an ordinary affair.
Few who came within the girls circle es-
capped the influence of her charm.
II saw him at ten minutes past
eleven pass out through the back door
of his shop. A quarter of an hour later
the fire broke out at that end of the
row." Marshall launched this intelli.
gence with telling force, but Willough-
by's self-constituted advocate remained
firm.
"Pish, mani That fellow owned his
shop, and his building and tools went
up with the rest"
"A wel.played game, my friend. How
many new kits of tools do you suppose
the profits from our new buildings will
provided"
An angry chorus responded:
HE shall never build them"
Through the closed shutters of the neat
adobe cottage hard by a girl had been
listening with throbbing heart and
hushed breath. At this ominous cry
her woman's lealty mastered every 9TH
or emotion, and throwing open the door
she stole along the walk with its bris-
Ting borders of cactus, Unattached the
gate, penetrated the circle of men and
stood by her fathers side.
1T is not true," she cried. ~You
have no right to judge him so. He was
with me all the evening and went down
there to get this ring-it was his mothers
and he kept it in q drawer of the little
desk he had made" High above her
head, that all might see, she raised q