Connecticut western news., 1890-03-12

shooting in Norfolk. He did not wear his heart on his sleeve; all the same he, too, had succumbed to Mrs. Arthur's Vaccinations. s
 (" It is too badl" said pretty Georgie Anson to one of the daughters of the house as they stepped from the window on to the lawn for final game of tennis. It is Stars and Stripes to the front, and all the rest of us no where. l shouldn't grudge it her, if she deserved it; but whst does she do? Nothing, nothing, nothing. If she could ride, or play tennis, or even play or sing; but she just sits under her palm-tree, making all the men run about for her."
 "Yes, inGeed," said Lady Mary; sand if 1 try to make people flag for me my brothers all say it IS bad form. but everything she does is right" |. "And do you know what that old idiot of Duke has thought of now?" said third malcontent, who had just joined them. s.Our Yankee friend has been raving to him about the cooing of the poor wood-pigeons in the High Wood, so, by way of making them coo still more, he is going to get up little shoot tiere tomorrow"
 "We have done that before there," said Lady Mary. "You know the wood-pigeons are SO very shy the shooters have to hide themselves in huts; it is great fun if you are only in the right one. They are very small, but if there IS room for one there is generally room for two."
 70, but know how it will be this time," sighed Georgie Anson. "All the guns will want Mrs. Shearer in their hut, and we are certain not to have much fun, anyway"
 The next morning was beautifully fine, and after tea party of half-a- dozen men, and as many ladies, started for the High Wood, over which the by no means unottendi g wood-pigeons would be pretty sure to pass about sunset on their return journey from tie cornfelds.
 In the minds of two at least of the party any idea of sport was lost in their anxiety to secure Mrs. Arthur for a companion. That lady was looking her very lest, and it seemed quite un- fair that she should cut out her rivals here, too, and beat them, as it were, on their own ground. They would tie ,rly have liked to have seen her start for the woods in unsuitable fnery, but they did not know the resources of Ann B. Shearer. In dark green costume she looked like a woodland nymph, and her small felt hat with its cock's-tail plumes suited her charm ing face exactly. Colonel Damer had not waited til now to ask her to fol- low his gun, or rather 10 lie ill wait for the pigeons in his society; but the Sprite had managed to steal march on him and was beforehand.
 He headed the procession with his lovely companion; he had no eyes for the beauties of Nature; like the French man of the story, he might have said, .'Jeless abhorre." Mrs. Arthur was equally callous, otherwise they might have found much to admire in the Hi.h Woods. No sound was heard but now and then the monotonous coo of the wood-pigeons they had come to laughter; and at the edge of little glen, down which trickled a tiny brook, they found their huts, if one can SO call a mere collection of oak boughs prop ped up and twined together, but thick enough to hide those inside from the way birds.
 The Sprite and Mrs. Arthur took possession of one, and the rest of the party d sposed themselves in the others, which had been placed at regular dis tances down the glen. Georgie Anson fell to the lot of Colonel Damer, much to her annoyance, as she did not fancy bel 2 taken on suferance, and she knew he had neither eyes nor ears for her. It is annoying to si- almost in the pocket of good-looking and find you might as we'll be wooden dummy for all he cares, and that his thoughts are centred on another pair we'll out of sight.
 The Sprite alone did not fire once :; his gun lay on the grass beside him, and one of his companion's tiny hands was in his. They cid not talk at all :; he kissed the small hand now and then passionately, and gazed on the lovely | face with all his eyes. Ever her heart | beat quicker. It was only passing fancy on her part, but it was real while it lasted. It wa not in her na- turo to feel like him, but she could feel | for him.
 He was lying at her feet, and almost with feeling of pity she touchad his fair curly hair; she meant nothing by the action, but it was like putting a match to tow. She did not blame him much afterwards, though he almost roughly seized her fair face in his two hands and kissed her repeatedly with wild passion and fervor. All her life long she had indeed been "much lovcd," but she had never been SO nearly frightened before.
 Poor boy! the trial had been too much for him. A moment after, and lie had repented of his violence, and still more so when from the entrance of the little hut he perceived Q wo- mans figure. She ha! al e.dy passed few yards, and was looking straight before her; but he knew as well as if she had told him that Georgia Anson had been 8 witness of the scene. He felt sobered at once. His first idea was to point her out to Mrs. A thur, but an instinctive feeling that she would never speak to him again pre- vented his doing so. He realized that, though she might have felt for him a moments pity, or weakness, or even fondness, self-preservation was the first law of her nature.
 The Sprite was by no means in his