The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-11-27

nv ffsfs = nv tNiA
here! Here's a man kissin' me like mad
But the intruder had by this time dis
covered his mistake. and did not need the
indignant puInmeling and pounding Of thC
old Iady's respectable fist to make him re.
linquish his hold and race OFF as if pursued
by some ayenging fury.
Annie, nearly choked with smothered
laughter in spite Of her %trepidation, now
came to the rescue.
''Oh, ! never was so took aback in all
my born days! The mean scamp, Who
could it have been? Annie have you al
idea ?"
But the dutiful daughter was to all APP
pearanee as innocent and ignorant as an
infantile dove. She tried to sooth the in
dignant matron by representing that ii
might have been (?1 one of the neighbors,
who, under the potent influence of wee
droptoo much, had mistaken the house-the
housewife. She searched the entry for
the missing spectacles, arranged the crum-
pied cap ribbons, wound up the tangled
yarn, stirred the flre-all in the most amia-
BILE manner possible-and at last had the
satisfaction of seeing her mother subside
into her rocking chair with her usual tran
guilty Of spirit.
But Mrs. Moore was fully awakenow.
She had got a new idea into her head,
and instead Of settling herself for another
nap she pursued her train of thought and
her knitting both together, with wonder
full rapidity. at length, stopping and look
ing keenly at Annie over her spectacles,
she said:
at may be a queer notion of mine, An
ME; but I've a fancy that man was David
Winthrop"
Oh, butdidn'tA Annie face catch fire then!
You might nave lit any number of cand-
les by it.
The suspicious symptoms did not escape
the eye Of the skillful inquisitor, who
calmly continued:
Pears to me. cause them big whis-
kers put me in mind of his'n. and then the
awkward way he gripped me with his big
paws
No answer, but Annie was wonderfully
busy. She bent over her work and drew
her needle through SO quickly that the
thread snapped, and then she didn't have
time to talk she was so taken up with try
ing to coax the thread through the eye
again.
Inllexible Mrs. Moore went on. Il don't
believe that kiss was intended for me after
all. Do you. Annie? Well. of course it
wasn't. But then. | do wonder if you don't
know something more about it than You
see fit to tell >"
"AIe, MOTHER"
Yes, me, mother. You were mighty
anxious to get me an pap OFF to Aunt
Ruth's tonight: but I noticed you were
slicked up extraordinary, for ali yon weren't
going
Here Annie lost her needle and she went
down on the iloor to find ii.
Now, Annie, hermother went Oh I'm
gettin' old, l know that, but | haven't lost
my eyesight yet, o my hearin' neither.
I've surmised a little somethin' about these
COINS ON between you an David afore
now. What ar you a playin' possum far?
Out with it, | say. faint fair to b%etryin'
to come it over your old mother"
Thus adiured, our small, feminine friend
made a clean breast OF it, much reliev-
ed to find that mother had nothin' agin
him., anG would give father a talkin' to
about it an bring him round.
But, Annie says Mrs. Moore dryly,
in conclusion. Il want you to tell David
| I'd rather he'd not make such a mistake as
that again. Idon't like the feel of his big
whiskers about my face, and moreover, l
don't approve of promiskus kissin'.1
David never heard the last of that kiss
in the dark. Old Squire Moore, of course,
heard it, and used to take great delight in
abiding to the circumstance when all the
parties concerned happened to be present.
He would shake his burly sides with laugh
ter at David's evident discontinue and
his wife's tart replies, while Annie would
side with her father and poke sly fun at
her sweetheart, and then both of them
would laugh again at the other two until
the tears ran down their checks.
Never mind, David, Mrs. Moore would
say consolingly to the abashed lover, ''let
them laugh. He'd have been only too glad
to have been in your place thirty years
ago. He had hard work to get a kiss
from me then. hope the occurrence. viii
be o lesson to you and Annie agin the an
policy of underhand doin's Of all sorts,
seem as how they're liable to end, in sich
eases, in kissin' the wrong one i'll the
dark ."-HorGrd GlNndoR IN E1chaRqe.