Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-01-19

than N hit have been looked lor'
Miss Pendleton carried herself as
one used to homage, and made use,
mercilesslv, of her swains. Pret SOM
s,s. surnamcd pretty" because he
was ugly enough 10 scare team Of
Texas ponies into running away, spent
week up in the breaks of the Cana
dian hunting; letting all the boys get
ahead of him while he was gone, as ne
bitterly realized when he came home
with the mountain lions skin she had
expressed a wish for.
The boys brought her so many pol
ished steer horns, deer's-hoof INK
stands and such like, that she might
have set up store for the sale OF
Texas curiosities when she went home,
had she felt so disposed.
Prarie City, the county seat OF
Harter County, consisted at this time
of name and three buildings. The
main cne, modest 'dobe structure
with a frame porch, contained the
store, postoliice, and in the backroom,
which was also the storekeeper's bed
room, liquors were dispensed with the
primitive aid of tin cup.
This store was the gathering place
for the gay and gallant element OF
Harter County. One evening about
three months after Miss Eula Pendle-
tons arrival, its circle o. loungers was
electrified by an announcement from
the storekeeper.
He had felt of late that he was falling
behind the younger men in the race
and he spoke in personally aggrieved
tone. as though the entire matter
might have been arranged to compass
his defeat.
"Do you know gentlemen, he said
"that Miss Eula's goin' to leave us!
She's agoin' home next week.
"Well, =" said tall, thin man who
claimed to hail from Indiana, and was
suspected of having been lawyer
back in the East, 81 say that is the
fault of this crowd, all and severally. "
Don't see how you make that go, -
rrowled Pret Somers, from where he
Law on the counter. "She's had her
pick of Harter County, and none of
Harter County don't suit her-that's
all see in it. y
"Now really" said the Indiana man
argumentatively, edo you think she
has had her pick? I'm not a marry
ing man myself, but it really seems
to me that you gentlemen fell over
each other and stepped on each other
and naturally stood in eGch other s
light in trying TO please the lady. Can
didly, have any Of You asked her to
stay?'
There was a somewhat blank silence.
"Ah," said the Indiana man, 81
thought as much. I-thOught-as-
much
"You see, each one of you has been
so afraid that some one else would get
ahead of him that you've done more at
trying to defeat each other than at ad-
vancing your cause
Clocks SO, said the storekeeper
deiectedly.
"It might be, now, said the Indiana
man insinuatingly, that if the lady
was asked she'd settle here.
The company looked furtively at one
another, as though each one were Gov
ertly calculating the chances of being
the first to slip away and get chance
to put this momentous question un-
hindered.
The Indiana mau laughed. "No,
he said, "you're all in one boat now.
You're ell watching each other and
nobody's going to get the chance to go
out to the Bar alone.
'The best thing for this yer crowd
t'do." said old Hank Pearssll, from a
back seat, where he had beeT quietly
smoking, sis to come long 'ith me in
body up to the Bar 6. Most all the
available matrimonial timber o Harter
County'sAyer. I'm well 'quainted 18th
the lady an I'll engage t ask her, free
an conGdenshull, if there's ennything
in the lot she can make out with. "
"We really ought to go over to say
goodbye" said the storekceper anx-
iously. "You boys can come in my
room here and fix yourselves up" g..
If the storekeeper favored the plan
because he thought it might help him
to dispose Of curious drift Of gents
furnishings on his shelves, which
seemed to have accumulated there
some time during the pliocene period,
he was highly successful.
Purchases were solemnly and judi
cially made.
The basin, towel, broken mirror
and blase comb in the corner we're in
constant and violent requisition, and
for half an hour the rear end of the
store looked like the green room of an
amateur theatrical troupe. Then the
shutters we're put up, the lights out,
ponies mounted and the cavalcade
took its way, with courage that ebbed
at every step, TO the Bar 8.
Miss Eula seemed somewhat awed
and astonished, not at the visit such
calls had been common during her
siay-but at the manner of her Wis