The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1892-12-03

me to despair when l contemplate my
own raiment"
"Bctter set mp q clothes brush: 1t"
cheaper than-any other arrangement"
interrupted Kate.
Tom groancd an emphatic assent TO
this prop ,sition and Mac finally mount
ed his pony and took his way across the
hot prairie toward the distant timber
line which marked TIE course of the
Nez Pique.
This was in early June, and the Nor.
tons saw no more of him during the
month. Carter, Macs foreman, whom
Tom saw in town, reported: "Mr.
John sho' Gwine to beat hisself plumb
out, dc way. he's gwine on. He's at
dem ar pnnps<and levees early an
LATE Say, if de hull rice fiat amt
feodedby du Fo'th o July de debbil
himsclf gwine be to pay"
1t was in the dusk of one of the first
July days that Mac rode to their gate
"Good-by," he called, without dis
mounting.
They left the porch and came down
the moonlighted walk for explanations
which he did not at once offer.
What is that?" he asked at length,
respectfully indicating with his whip
the fieecy affair in which Kate had
wrapped herself against the chill of the
gulf breeze.
IA shawl. Nell made it for me at
Christmas" she said, holding up a cor
ner for his inspection
I've always thought of shawls as
ugly, checked things" Mac comment
cd, and then abrupt ly: I'm going
north to see-mother and the boys"
There was a curious pause in this
announcement. as if its ending had
been reconsidered. Macs usual quiet
seemed reinforced tonight by an added
constraint, and after a little he rode
away into the soft radiance of the
southern moonlight.
The latter part of the week Kate re-
ceivcd her usual letter from her sister
Nell. The week after there was none,
nor the week after that. HeT vexa-
ton was becoming serious sOlicitude,
when Tom brought her the following
letter:
MY DEAL KATE: We've been 50 busy since
| Mr.. McRae came there hasn't bcen q moment
10 write letters. Ii was awfully nice Of you &c
suggest his stopping OF 10 see Us. He talks
to father by the hour about the country and
10 mother about you. He doesn't talk 10 me
much. but watches me as il were somethin:
unusual.
Father and mother seem 10 like him. but ]
don't much. Ill write more next tine
He's going tomorrow. Love to Tom, NELL"
p. S-He's the strangest man I've ever
seen. Yesterday / left him discoursing to Fl.
Their on red rice high lift pumps and all the
rest Of it, and betOok myself 10 the hammock
! under an old apple tree.
Presently he followed me with a plan OF
your hoCse he'd drawn for mother. There
wasn't any place 10 sit excep: in the hammock
or on the grass, and you know how ! loatte
, bugs and worms; so ] made room for him in
the But before he sat down he
leaned against the apple tree and laughed and
laughed ill I felt like a fool. He tried 10 make
il up with me afierward by saying he rcmem-
bered something you said 10 him once about
swinging in a hammock II must have been vc:y
funny. don't think | like him at all. y.
"P. S.-Mr. NJ couldn't seem 10 rcIncr1.
Der any closets in your house. l asked him
where you hid things. He said il must he OF
top of the arnoir. What's an armoir: y"
Kate had barely time to catch her
breath before Nelrs promised letter
came. 1t was rs follows:
DEAR kATE Mr.. McRea didn't go To-
day, after all. but he is really going to-mor.
row. And is coming back in November. And
we're 10 be married thea. Tom, don't you let
Kate write to know how it MI happened, for
! don't know myself yet: only, mother has al.
ways said some of us ought TO go down there IL
keep Kate company, and you know how self.
sacrificing l have always been ! Just told
John I was writing to you. I'd give half my
rice crop he said. to see Mrs. Kites face
when she reads your letter GoOd-by.
NEIL.
"P. 81 think / do like him after ala lit.
tia y"
N. q. Times Democrat.