Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-16

| w hat are iuesS W US. w
are Seth jealousies, Uncle Ben's and
masters foOlishness, paw and NAV S
quarts and tantrum's to you and me
dear? What is it what they think, what
they reckon, what they plan out, and
what they set themselves against-to us?
| We love each other, we belong to each
other, without their help or hindrance
From the time we first saw each other
| it was SO and from that time paw and
NAV and Seth and Masters, and even
| you and me, dear, had nothing else TO
| do. That was love as | know it; not
Seth s sneaking RACES, and Uncle Ben 5
Sneaking conceit, but only love. And
knowing that, let Seth rage, and Uncle
Ben dwadle, and Masters trifle-and for
what? To keep them from me and my
boy. They were satisfied, and we were
happy
! Vague and unreasoning as he knew her
speech to be, the rapt and perfect con-
viction with which it was uttered stag
| gered him.
"But how is this TO end, Cressy?" he
! said paSsionately.
| The distracted look passed and the
slight color and delicate mobility of her
| face returned. ''To end, dandy bOy?'
! she repeated lazily. ''You didn't think
| of marrying me-Gid you?''
! He blushed, stammered, and said
Eyes albert with all his past vascilla-
ton and his present distrust of her trans
| parent on his cheek and audible i'll his
| voice.
mo, dear, - she said quietly, reach
| ing down. untyiug her little shoe and
shaking the dust and pine needles from
its recesseS, emo! l den t know enough
| to be Il wife to you, Just now,
and YOU know it. And / cOuldn t
keep n house fit for you, and you
| couldn afford TO keep me without
it And then it would be all known, and
it wouldn't be us two, dear, and our
lonely meetings any more. And we
| couldn I be enga@ed-that would be too
much like me and Seth over again.
That 5 what You mean, dandy boy-for
you re only a dandy boy, you know, and
they don t get married TO lakewood
Southern girls who haven't a niger
to bless themselves with since the
war, No, - she continued, lifting her
proud little head SO promptly after
Ford had recovered from his surprise As
to make the ruse of emptying her shoe
perfectly palpable, ''no. that 5 what
we've both allowed, dear, all along.
And now honey, it : near time for me
L
60 Tell me that you love me as You
used to-tell me how you felt that night
ut the ball when you first knew we loved
each other. But stop-kiss me first
there once more-for keeps
CHAPTER XII.
When Uncle Ben, or Benjamin Dau-
bigny, Esq - as he was already known
in the columns of the ''Star, - accom-
panied Miss Cressy McKinstry on her way
home after the first display of attention
and hospitality since his accession to
wealth and position, he remained for
some moments i'll state of bewildered
and smiling idiOcy. 1t was true that
their meeting was chance and accidental
it was true that Cressy had ac-
cepted his attention with lazy
amusement; it was true that she
had suddenly and audaciously left him
on the borders of the McKinstry woods in
a way that might have seemed rude and
abrupt to any escort less inyincibly good
humored than Uncle Ben, but none of
these things married his fatiuous felicity.
1t is even probable that i'll his gratuitOus
belief that his tinid attentions had been
too marked and impulSive, he attributed
Greasy S flight to maidenly coyness that
pleasurably increased his admiration for
ucI anu Ills COlluuSLCc III HllllstIl.
In his abstraction of enjoyment
and in the gathering darkness he ran
against Il fir tree very much as he had
done while walking with her, and he COIL
fusedly apologized to it as he had to her,
and by her own appellation. In this way
he eventually overran his trail and found
himself unexpectedly and apologeticalIy
i'll the clearing before the schoolhouse.
IN ho np1a
miss, - ne said, and then stopped sud-
denly A faint noise in the schOolhouse
like the sound of splintered wood at
tracted his attention. The master was
evidently there. If he was alone he
would speak to him.
He went TO the window looked in, and
in an instant his amiable abstraction left
him. He crept softly to the door, tried
it, and then putting his powerful shoul-
der against the panel, forced the lock
from its fastenings.
He entered the room as Seth Davis,
frightened but furious, lifted himself
from before the masters desk, which he
had just broken open. He had barely
time to conceal something in his pocket
and close the lid again before Uncle Ben
approached him.
''What mount We be dom here, Seth
Davis?'' he asked with the slow deliber-
alton which in that locality meant mis-
chief.
"And what mount you be DOM here,
Mister Ben Dabney?' said Seth, resum-
ing his effrontery
"'Well, ''returned Uncle Ben planting
himself in the aisle before his opponent;
81 ain t dom no sheriff's posse bust
ness jest now, but l reckon to keep my
hand in far enuff to purtect other folks
property, - he added with a significant
glance at the broken lock of the desk
"Ben Dabney, - said Seth in snarling
eXpOstulation 81 hahn t got no quar'll
with We.
"Then hand me over whatever you
took just now from teachers desk, and
we IL talk about that afterwards, said
Uncle Ben, advancing.
81 tell ye hahn It got no quar'll with
ye, Uncle Ben,' continued Seth, re-
treating, with a malignant sheer;
land when you talk of protectin
other folk IS property, mebbe We ID better
protect your o1n-or what ye'd like to
call so-instead of quar- Him with the
man that's helpin' ye. I've got yer the
proofs that that sneaking hound of
Yankee school master that Cress McKin-
stry's hell bent on, and that the old man
and old woman are just chuckin into her