Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1886-04-01

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they were intending TO keep the appoint
ment with Misc Perrivale. Eliphalet went
home and pondered upon the matter. he
reflected that, if Clorinda were intending
to make her choice from q superficial ex-
animation of some ten or twelve young men
dressed in their Sunday clothes and gotten
up to "kill," he would stand q pretty poor
chance. If there were only some way OF
getting rid of his rivals! If he could think
of some plan to keep them away ON the
eventful night, and make it appear to Clo-
rinda that they cared less about her than
they did about nights fun in Marbray,
why, his suit would be as good as won, for
a girl of her spirit wouldn't stand snubbing
by the handsomest and most agreeable
young man that ever walked, Eliphalet
put on his thinking cap, and drew IT tighter
than he ever did before. He concocted oil
serts-af- schemes, but rejected them one
after the other as impracticable. All OF q
sudden he started up as if he had been sit
| ting on box of dynamite. "By the great
| horn spoon!" he exclaimed, striking his leg
with the palm of his hand, "Iye got it
| now" He nodded SO emphatically that his
| hair tumbled down over his forehead, and
gave him the appearance of very much
exaggerated sky terrier, "Pve got 1t, sir!
| I've got it," he repeated, in louder tones,
himself whether he meant he had the de-
| lirium tremens or the secret of perpetual
motion. He then danced all around the
room on one foot and ended up by taking q
running Jump on to the bed and bringing
down the whole structure in one confused
mass Of Stats, pillows, blankets, and bed
posts.
Any one lettering around the Babbitt
| farm house at about eight o'clock on
the evening of the 4th of July, 18-, might
have seen a tall, gaunt figure, neatly array
ed in black, emerging from the shed door
| with tin-pail in one hand and a short
handled bush in the other. That figure
belonged to Eliphalet Babbitt, and that
pail to his mother, and in that pail was lard.
Now it happened that the regular path of
Clorinda Perrivale's suitors lay across the
vast meadow aforesaid, over the fence and
across a good-sized brook by means of q
single log. They took this path because it
brought them to the rear of the house, and
relieved them of the disagreeable necessity
of saying good-evening to Mr.. Perrivale,
who usually sat on the front porch at the
evening hour, smoking his pipe. Ut is to
be noticed as q universal fact in love affairs
that the suitor, however we'll received,
| always keeps shy of the girls male parent }
Eliphalet Babbitt was aware of the GUS
tom of his rivals, because it was one that
he himself habilually practiced, and to-
night grim smile sat upon his lips, as he
pursued his way across the fields in the soft
summer twilight, lard-pail in hand, and
with his love- speech already made out in
his heart. The shadows of early night were
| Just closing round, as he climbed the fence
and approached the log bridge over the
brook. Looking carefully about him to see
that no one was witness to his deed, he
| flung himself astride of the log, with his
| back to the Perrivale cottage, opened his
pail, dipped the brush in the lard, and pro-
Ss:ssdsed to aggly libersl coating IF it t9
opposite bank. When his task was COM
pleted he hid pail and brush under the
bank and fastened up the path to the cot
tage. Clorinda was sitting in her little
| work room with the vine window
as he drew near, and she merrily bade him
come in without knocking. Oh how beauti-
| full she looked rocking back and forth in
the dusk-hght, against tle background of
the vine, her pure white dress of muslin but
half concealing her round white arms and
marble shoulders! Eliphalet shyly sat down
on the edge of a chair, and turned his bell
crowned hat round and round in his nerv-
Gus hands. They talked-or rather, she
| ltalked-pleasantly and quietly for a little
NullcJ hSOcullB III lllS phuseS W tne mon
otonous chirp, chirp of the cricket and the
croaking of the frogs on the banks of the
brook. Deeper and deeper grew the shad-
ows, till the figure in white seemed like
substanceless thing seen dimly in vision,
and the figure in black had almost melted
away into the darkness of the inner room
The girl had ceased to talk much. Her face
was turned away from Ehphalet and she
seemed to be looking out anXiously, as she
rocked, through the narrow spaces of the
vine. AT length dead silence prevailed.
Eliphalets tongue was so dry that he could
not speak, and his wits were drier still of
words to speak to the beautiful girl, with
her thoughts apparently so far away from
him. Suddenly there was heavy splash
from the brook below. "Oh, my!" cried
Clorinda, starting as if suddenly wakened
from dream. "That rock has fallen out
of the bank-I knew it would"
"What rock, Clorindy?" asked Eliphalet,
hitching his chair little nearer in the
dark, under cover of the sound of his voice
"Do you mean the big rock by the bridge?"
"Yes," answered Clorinda. "Did YOU
notice it?"
II guess l did," exclaimed Eliphalet,
glad to get upon a subject of conversation
in that trying moment. II lowed that rock
was going to fall one of these days. / told
father so. Did it frighten you, Clorindy?"
Here he started to hitch little nearer, but
his chair creaked, and he forebore.)
"Yes, it did," admitted the girl. 81 must
have been thinking"
Splash!
"Gosh. what mushrat!" exclaimed
Eliphalet, the cold sweat starting out all
over him. swish I'd been there with
gun!"
"Was it muskrat?" asked Clorinda,
curiously. at didn't sound like stone"
"Yes, il was," asseverated Eliphalet,
roundly II know mushrat splash, every
time. Did you ever see a mushrat,
Clorindy?' (Creak, creak, from the chair.)
mo, l never did," exclaimed Clorinda;
"but have seen their holes"
"So've /, soye IL" exclaimed Eliphalet,
immensely tickled at the coincidence.
"when the brook gets down real low and
hayins over, so there won't be anybody
round TO bother us, I'll show you more'n
fifteen or sixteen of EN-, all in a-n
Splash
"fhat was fshl" cried Clorinda, posi-
lively.
$50 twas! so 'twas!" assented Eliphalet,
and his chair made long, scraping noise
on the floor. "Say, Clorindy, do you like to
fish2"
ayes, do-ever so much"
$50 do |! uh, nh. So dol" Eliphalet
was sucking the rim of his bell-crowned
hat, and bending forward, and looking up
sidewise through the darkness ut the figure
in white. "Clorindy-will you 90 fishing
with me, some timer"
perhaps so, Eliph-Mr. Babbitt."
"He, he, hel" from Eliphalet. Scrape,
creak, creakl from the chair