The Opelousas courier., 1892-03-26

ltanfofd, had quite captlvated ner, ana
the boys, perceiTing this state Of affairs,
discreetly withdrew and spent theil
evenings as Of yore.
All but the Undressed Kid. He, be
ing from Boston-Miss Brooke's home
also ea,ne III Tor a share of her smiles anG
conversation; but, as he showed no signs
of change in his youthful ways, we didn't
pay much attention to him, except te
consider him much in the same light a:
one might & nuisance in kits. He wa
in the way, OF course, but he didn't caast
lis auy worry.
TO be sure, We wondered low it was
that Miss Brooke could tolerate his non
sense and chatter, for she wag.Somewhat
staid in her ways, and 9 person whom
one would hardly suspect of a liking for
levstE, The boss and | were both sure
that the Kids constant presence would
begin to pail very soon-briefly, he
would make Miss Brooke tired, and we
two could fight it out solely between our
selves.
But, somehow, this state Of things
did not come to pass, The Kid man
aged to get 10 AS many calls as did the
boss and !, and, what was worse, usually
had Miss Brooke pretty much to him
self, worse luck to the old folks; and it
made Fleming and myself very weary to
hear her laughing at his time-worn jokes
until the tears rolled down her cheeks.
That the Infant had serious Intentions
never entered cur heads. OF course, it
was u%ndeniable that Miss Brooke liked
him; but that, we assured ourselves,
was in a spirit of mere good natured toll
erance. Besides, who ever knew Of the
Kid ever having a. sweetly solemn
thought2
Providence came ID Our aid about the
middle of July in the shape of a tele-
gram, stating that the Kids wealthy
father, with whom he had net been On
very good terms-thst is, no terms at
all-had cote the way Of all humanity,
and that the Kid must come home at
once to look after affairs.
We we're at the Hanfords', Fleming
end I, that evening, when the Kid, who
had preceded NC by an hour or 80, took
leave of Miss Brooke. He was not Sc
ing back to the ranchs having had his
things sent to town, in order to start
early in the morning, ana he left shortly
after we arrived.
Even if we had expected otherwise,
there was nothing touching in the Kids
leaveetaking. While not paite SO light
in his speech as usual, he could hardly
have been accused of seriousness, and he
shook hands with Miss Brooke in the
same hearty way as with the rest Of is.
Well, the Kid was oH-if not for
good, for several weeks, at least, and
tde boss and I were alone in the field,
and both resolved to make hay while
there were no clouds obscuring Sol. We
spent a delightful evening, barring each
Others presence. and the departed Kid
was only mentioned once, and then By
Miss Brooke, who laugaingly related one
Of his remarks, adding: "What a jolly,
whole souled boy it is, to be sute!"
As.we rode home, not much was said;
but when We came in sight of the lights
at the "HA.,n Fleming reinei up his
horse, cleared his throat, and said, husk-
lily: s'Scribe, my boy, ! reckon we're in
the same boat, and we might as well be
frank about it. I've'-Qle cleared his
throat again}-''maie up my mind to
have Mary-Miss Brooke-for my wife
if she'll have me. Think you're in the
same fix
nodded, not being able to answer,
and Fleming went on in the same queer
voice: "They say all's fair in love and
var, 1 don't believe it. Nothing is fair
but justice. We are even, now, | think.
Let Us be fair with each other, and may
the better man wiz"
And thus il cam about that, without
any more words, we gotto calling at
Hanford's on alternate nights-and-
oh, these womeni-each fondly believed
himself the favored one, if favor there
was. Mary-so | thought of her always,
now-talked football with Fleming, who
was an ex-member of the Princeton
team, and talked books and so forth to
NE, and we were both as happy as IN
fortunate man ever can be under like
circumstances.
September first came, and with il a
telegram to Fleming, from the Kid. I
was in town, and received it, opening it
as ! always did the boss kilograms and
business letters, to see if it was anything
requiring immediate attention. The
message was dated from Omaha, and
read.
j. Il. FLEMING. HX. ranch, -, Neb:
.sWiI arrive OF thirdto stay few days.
tSignedl A. Il. WHEELER.n
I leaned against a telegraph pole and
poadered. Coming, eh2 No more I'm.
tranmeled calls for Fleming and me.
Novel;, it was high time to be up and
doing. But there was the boss, and
this was his night!
/ felt like q martyr as I rode out to
the ranch and silently handed Jack the
telegram. He read it, and looked at
me.
Yes, your night it is said +; .but
I've got to see the Colonel about that
joint shipment we're going to make-so
I'll go, too. I'll let you alone. though"
As we rode over to the Hanfords', we
tried to keep up a s~enlblance Of CONVEX
sation, but it was not much of q success.
We were both thinking very hard.
| had finished my business with the
Colonel. and we sat down ia his den to
smoke. the Colonel holding up the 0 n
versation. The lamp burned low, and
the old gentleman took il away to be re-