The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-12-27
It vas Pearl, in the faIl flush of Aer young

speak, but he blushed and stammezed, and managed to do up pair of cotton gloves for the blithesome Pearl, all un- conscious as she was of her own charms, for she was no masher, having been led to believe from infancy that the salvation of her soul depended on her easing the old age of some one of the pillars of the church as his final matrimonial venture.
 Then Winston Dalrymple managed to secure from his bewitching customer the number and family heading under which she did her shopping and to properly enter the debit against Elder Jedediah Taylor, class B, (daughters) No. 78. But after this our hero was maudlin He awoke to the full sense of his senti- ment and to the hopelessness of his sit uation.
 He had sized up the elder but casually heretofore but he knew by repute that the elder was a man of sterling business qualifications one who was devoted to his church and its canons :; and a man in whom the welfare of his children, sis snug little collection of ofsprings, was a V .ak point.
 However, Winston resolved, in the nobleness of his eastern nature, to win the fair Pearl, or to perish while he was carrying out this same resolve.
 It so happened that few nights afte, this encounter between these two young people, who were perhaps destined to be so much to each other, that as Winston was wandering aimlsssly through the Fourth ward, the night itself calm and cloudless. with broad spread of moon light lowering about, as he was passing a neat but wide-spreading cottage o'er which the ivy vines were creeping with a clinging embrace, he suddenly petceived a lurid flame to leap forth from the matched roof.
 For moment he was panic-stricken but only for moment.
 Quickly collecting his thoughts, ever as the forke tongue of light was creep. ing rapidly toward an open window or the side of the cottage, from which pro ceeded snores sufficient to warn him that the inhabitants were unconscious of the peril which threatened them, he jumped the fence, burst in the door and gave vent to one fierce yell.
 That yell was enough. The snoring which was in heavy keys, though al evidently feminine, suddenly ceased The cottage was by this time filled with smoke. The startled sl .epers needed nc further warning: though at first though the idea had occurred to the five wive: simultaneously, who occupied this abode with their offsprings, that Elder Taylor was come to pay them his compliments Little did the brave Winston think tha in this burning structure was housed the object of his fond affections. Little did he think that she it was whose snore helc forth in that delightful treble high anc clear above all her competitors.
 Little also did he imagine that as hs saw the countless myriads of sparsely clad females who came rushing forth from invisible doors upon his astonishec and bashful gaze in as quick order a. females can, that his own Pearl alone though disturbed of her snore, slept on
 Now was the flame in her chamber Now this grim and horrid death crep ruthlessly on, destroying in its fell swooE the hoops, the hose, the skirts of this un conscious sleeper Now it leapt up ward and fastened its fiery clutch on tho downy couch! Anon it scorched a toe Pearl moved. It again scerched tho same toe and the halcyon dream in which the fair slumberer was indulging, { dream of a young and pure heart, ir which were blended the gray locks O Elder Jones and the malignant glance. of forty wives who were dished by her this dream was ended.
 "A piercing shrek rent the midnight air.
 Winston heard the voice and Iecog. nized his Pearl strange as it may seem from the fact that he had never heard hei shriek before. The snore of a few mo- ments previous had fallen listlessly upon his ear but this could not be wondered at when it is remembered how many many snores resounded in unison with her own.
 Love was quick to act Winston sprang quickly through the seething flames pushed his way fearlessly through the debris of the thirty odd pairs of shoes and the ct ceteras of the female apparel on through the labyrinth of rooms in which were scattered countless duplicates