Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-04-12
A TWICE TOLD TALE.
BY JAMES FRANKLIN FITS.

SHALL I tell you a story?" asked
Veracious johnson of me, in hot hour
when the sky was cloudless, when the
fish wouldn't bite, and our respective
thoughts were turning away from our
present employment, which, by a kind
of oilers courtesy is called sport"
Yes, Verax, was my reply; stell me
q story am in mood to listen; and
as you have said nothing for the last ten
minutes, you must be full of some sub
ject. Only, let it be true. I do not
care to sit here on this warm rock, pre-
tending to be diverted, and to have you
continue the fiction by telling me some
absurd and impossible thing, and ask
me to believe it, I can invent my own
romance; do you give me fact, if you
give me anything"
It'll do it, quoth Veracious What
he said. in substance, is now to be set
down.
1t was about pair of lovers, or people
he called by that name, who had been
for some months doing the things that
inevitably lead up to matrimony, and
who were now about to embark upon
that unknown sea. johnson did not
use the metaphor; it crept in here it.
self.) Yes, of course-the story was
about love and marriage; what story
can have those ingredients out?
"You are going to bore me, verax," I
feebly protested, when he had got fairly
launched in the narrative. "Do you
want me to sit here in the sun and listen
to that tiresome chestnut about a
fellow and girl who -"
Peace, bubbler! Wait till 1 have
finished, and you will say it is new"
1t was rather.
1t related to a certain Mr.. Worth
ington and certain Miss
jsNowbay. He was rich and middle
eaged, and good-looking enough, as men
go; she was ten or twelve years
younger, very attractive, and before
Worthington came along had several
-beaux. He had been captivated by her
beauty, her grace, her vivacity, ct
cetero, and had gradually monopolized
her. The girls parents were delighted
with the prospects of so excellent q
match for their daughter, and helped
on the affair to an engagement by every
means possible. Things had gone so
far that the wedding cards were out,
:, and the day was only week distant.
= There was one Of the young sellows,
Mr.. Mallory, he may be called, who en-
joyed the lady's society with the others,
and who did not, like them, appear dis
posed to entirely abandon the field
upon its occupation by Mr.. Worthing-
ton. The latter saw his affianced more
than once walking on the street with
her former lover, which he thought
nothing of. He heard of their
waiting at the house of mutual friend,
and he kindly demonstrated with her
about the improperly of it, The lady
pouted, and said nothing Next he
learned from one of those little dicky-
birds that are always about at such
times, that Mr.. Mallory and his af-
fianced were exchanging notes through
the postofdce, and in week he was to
marry this girl.
Mr.. Worthington was, to be sure,
very fond of Miss Mowbray, and of an
ardent temperament; but he was also of
3 serious and reflective turn of mind-a
'snan, who, in the expressive slang of the
day, was "level-headed. That very
evening, when alone with the lady, he
told her Of his discovery, and with "a
ocountenance more in sorrow than in
anger" asked her how he was to con-
strue such conduct on her part. The
only answer she made was to burst into
tears and leave the room.
Now, what should man do at such a
crisis? Here is what this man did. He
went out into the back parlor, where the
parents OF the betrothed were sitting,
and plainlystated to them all that he had
learned, and what had just happened.
81 am very much afraid" he said,
- chat your daughter does not love me
we'll enough TO be my wife. 1 fear that
we have been making terrible mistake.
Ii so, it must be corrected now, when it
can be corrected. desire you to send
Cor her, and learn the truth from her
own lips"
She came down, redeyed and sob