Smyrna times., 1893-10-11
How a Pretty Young Girl and Pretty
Old Girl Learned to Ride Wheel
JENNIE VAN ALLEN.

As in everything else, pretty younl
girl has the best time of it in learnlns
to ride a bicycle. She always ha.
plenty of admirers who volunteer to
teach her, and, being wise beyond her
day and generation, she judiciousl,
makes her selection.
Then she tells him that he is perfpct.
~ lovely to take so much trouble. and
all the time the sly little mink knows
that the lesson will give him more
privileges than the maddest, merriest
dance. She knows that she will ueces.
sarlly tall oil, times without number
and that with careful management she
can double them, aud thea she will
need to be steaded and helped on and
OF, and 50, altogether, they will have
a perfectly blissful time.
Then she proceeds To work dress.
maker almost TO death, drives a clerk
to the verge of distraction when she
buys her shoes, exhausts the patience
of the milliuer, and makes the most
extortiOnate demands upon the laup.
dress. But she is serene aud sunny as
they walk out together 20 fnd the most
secluded spot to try the new wheel.
He holds it with one hand and keeps
her on the saddle with the other, but
when she begins to move she let's 90 of
the handle bar, and seizes him frantic.
ally about the neck lie instantly!real.
lzes her dangerous position, and is so
afraid she will fall, and wonders what
her papa and mamma would say if
their precious daughter should brake
bone. So he holds on to her with all
his might.
She RECEIVERS herself and is so sorry
and ashamed that she thinks she will
never try it again, but he coaxes her
until she is ready to rehearse the same
performance, and when they get started
she screams and clutches everything
within reach-except the bar. Then
she declares that she really must get
OIL for a minute; she feels so dizzy,
When she gets on her hair tumbles
down, and be has to help her pin it up.
After many Obs Abs she is seated
again, and, following his reiterated in.
functions, she firmly grasps the handle
bar like a small boys grip on a pen.
About two revolutions of the wheel
and she is sure the bones of her hand
are broken, for the vibration hurts her
50 cruelty.
She is as delightfully."- changeable aud
inconsistent as her sex and youth en-.
title her TO be. She is sure she can't
do it; she is crazy to try just once
more; she concludes to sell her wheel:
she is perfectly delighted to think she
bought one; when she falls off she
thinks there was never anythings so
hard as learning to ride; when with
their combined efforts she is able to
make little progress, she thinks it is
the easiest thing in the world.
She never looked so winsome in her
life as she does with her cheeks afame
with exercise, her hair tangled curl
ing mass, and her eyes bright with ex-
citement, and she knows it too. So
she laughs and screams and tosses her
head, and at last grows wildly hilarious
when she is able to ride quarter of an
inch without his steading hand.
She is so jubilant over her success in
mastering her wheel and actually be.
ing to ride alone at her first lesson, that
she suggests that he must be tired. but
he scofs at the idea. She insists, and
so they go back to the parental man.
sion, a radiantly happy couple, to talk
it over," though they never say a word
about the fact that he has run forty.
FIVE miles and lifted over seven thous.
and pounds, for she doesn't know it
aud he does not care.
The pretty old girl has to learn the
best she can, for she is too old to have
lover; maybe she never had one.
since when she was young she wasn't
pretty, so she had 70 wait until she was
old. and pretty old at that.
She always puts on her shabbiest
dress. possibly flaming, scarlet Han-
mel plentfully trimmed with black vel.
vet which serves the double purp ose
OF making her conspicuous and afford
ing beautiful hiding place for dust.
She has always to drag out her ma.
chine herself and it wiggles and writhes
as If possessed with seven furies and
each one determined to have its own
way.
She puts one foot on the pedal and
gives the other a chance to 20 out on
the road and perform the single shuttle
actin other words she rides on one
side and walks on the other. At last
she screws up her courage and tries to
mount, and for one ecstatic second she
is poised on high, and the next she
claws the air aud then crashes through
space like a meteor. She heroicallv
hangs on to the handle. bar, so there e
a perfect hodge godge Of pretty old
giFl and pretty new wheel.
Then she grits her teeth together
and tries once more. but the wheel
lurches aud she pitches sideways into
the sand aud lands on her head while