The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-06-17

gan to chlde her for her hckleneSS. She
flushed up and made a sharp reply.
Simeon, very much hurt and quite
heartbroken, said:
"All right, Susie, go an marry the
Teller from town. You're tired of me,
n / kin see it. Don't let me stand in
the way. Susie. You amt mine, an
haint been since you seed him, but I'll
be always your friend"
And SO they parted. Susie was too
happy to shed a single tear, but poor
Simeon wept copiously on his pillow
that night, and. after dropping into a
ftful sleep, dreame ed that it was not SO
at all, and hat Susie was the same to
him as she had been before she saw
Tom Sanderson. Susie told Tom, and
the night after hat he came in rather
late, laughing:
I've done the grand act, old boy he
said, beaming at me as happily as a fell
low might who had made a love con-
tract which he intended to keep. 1--WE
proposed to Susie, and she wilted right
away and fell into my arms. She told
me afterwards hat she knew / loved
her the first time / saw her. It's funny,
amt it, how little it takes to fool a
woman" We had many a hearty laugh
over Toms engagement, and roared
when we thought of the rare stories we
would have to tell the boys about it.
A few days later l felt twinges of re-
morse of conscience when l saw Susie
and Tom together and noticed her alb
solute faith in him. / saw then that
Toms diversion, as he called it, would
have lasting results so far as Susie was
concerned. She loved Tom. That night
l cautioned Tom of the seriousness of
his position and advised him to give
it up.
II thought it was very funny, like
is frightfully real. You'd better stop,
Tom
"Pshaw." laughed Tom; "you are
foolish; she will soon forget when l am
gone. Women are quick to forget.
Anyway, you suggested the joke, and
since I have begun it l am going to car
ry it through"
1 told him it would be a sad thing to
break a girls heart, just for idle pas
time, and painted a very graphic pic
ture of Susie all alone, weeping her
very eyes out for him. His face grew a
shade more serious.
sit would be bad, mean. wicked to
really break her heart" he said.
Susie is a good little girl. She's not
like the rest of them up here-she's
different. If l thought she really cared
l would leave here tomorrow. But l
will wait and hope that she will get
over it all right"
A day or so later he repeated to mo =
conversation he had had with Susie.
She told him that her friends feared
that he was only fooling her and did
not intend to marry her at all. II
don't think hat at ALL" she said. Il
never doubted you, Tom. But / wanted
to ask you since we've set a day for our
wedding and all has been fixed. that
you buy the marriage license so 1 can
tell them and they won't doubt you
any more"
Like a fool to humor her I bought
the license. There can't be any harm,
can there?" Tom went on. People
are not obliged to use licenses when
hey buy them. are they?s
The joke had indeed grown serious.
Tom had not only appointed a day for
the wedding, but had purchased the
license, and we had not yet been in the
mountains five weeks. And the worst
of it was that the wedding was to oc-
cur on the following Wednesday even
ing at seven o'clock. 1t took but little
fr~r- 49, T~~
that he would have to leave the noun
tains before that time. "Of course, we'll
slip out quietly on that very day. Susie
will soon forget"
Toms wedding day came around re-
markably quick, it appeared to me. l
made all the arrangements with Hank
Hester for our baggage to be carried to
the station late hat afternoon and eau
toned him to say nothing of our in
tended departure. Tom went over to
see Susie the last time, while 1 was
packing the trunks.
Phil" said he, coming in just at
twilight, Its tougher than I had any
idea it could be. Susie is thinking OF
nothing else but the-to-night. She
has all her things ready and would put
on her dress for me to see. 1t gave me
the cold chills. / kissed the little girl
and left with something like a tear in
my eye. Poor little thing-she didn't
think it was the last kiss"
Darkness settled over the mountains
and the vicinity of Haunts Bend was
wrapped in a dreamy stiffness. Our
train passed the station at a quarter be-
fore eight o'clock. Hester had gone
ahead with our trunks and we followed
on foot. We walked very rapidly along
the mountain road, talking as we went