The Monticellonian., 1895-07-12
FOURTH COUSINS.
BY CHARLES D. WILLARD.

There was such a rosy 1uSn on her cheek, so bright gleam in her eye, and on his face such an utter abandon of joy, that anyone-eyen man could have guessed the truth.
 Fortunately they had chosen the hill road, the least travelled of all the ways that lead down from the Montecito valley into Santa Barbara, and for the first half-hour after the event they met no one.
 It was what the inhabitants of the Channel City call genuine Santa Barbara day. The sun shone warm and bright, and soft perfumed breeze came out of the west. There was June in the air, although the calendar was set for midwinter. The birds sang in the trees above them, the squirrels chirped from the hillside, and their horses, wandering at times from the road, sank to the knee in waving sea of flowers.
 First of all," she said, breaking the silence of a whole minute, you must tell my father"
 Certainly" said the young man. "Who'a afraid?a
 You have never seen papa do the role of the cruel parent, said the girl; The can be quite dragon. Asyou are a ldnsmaa, however,"
 VA fifth eousin,r cried the young man, with laugh.
 Well, fifth cousins are better than nothing, aren't they?'
 Truly; how else should we be here to-day?" Then the young man added with peculiar and significant emphasis 'I am inclined to pride myself on that little scheme.n
 The girl brought her horse to a sud den stop and turned her clear brown eyes half opened under their long ]ashes, upon her companion.
 That little scheme, she repeated, slowly. "I don't understand"
 The young man laughed uneasily. "Why, Catherine, said he, you don't mean that you have believed in the en- tertaining fiction about cur great great-et-cetera-grand
 "0ld Ebenezer Strong!" exclaimed titious, when saw his portrait at my own grandfather's.
 "As your ancestor, my dear one, he Is an undoubted reality-but as mine, I regret to say, he is merely figment of your worthy fathers imagination. In short-I would fain break it to you as gently as possible-w are not fifth cousins at all, but just plain ordi- nary"
 Not fifth eousins"
 ''No, darling; and If you are going to faint, please fall on this side, with your head right here on my shoulder. ,"
 II won't! Wretched boy, how could you deceive poor papa SOP"
 T didn't deceive him. He deceived himself. From the very beginning of our acquaintance he seemed deter mined to locate me somewhere on the Weston family tree, and you aided and abetted him in the attempt"
 Richard Strong, how can you!''
 Fl have sweet and gentle disposi- tion, and when he asked me if l was not descended from Ebenezer Strong, of West Brighton Center, and you looked at me SD appealingly@"
 "l didn't any such thingW
 ''Why shouldn't l assent? I have doubtless had several hundred ances- tors named Strong, and l took the chances that some one of them re joiced in the prenomcn of Ebenezer. It is just the sort of name that my for bears were given to putting upon them selves, as an effective and continuous modification of the flesh. A horsehair shirt, now, would be nothing to it. "
 "You may laugh, if it pleases you," said the girl, severely, but if papa had known you were not relative we should not be riding alone together. He generally disapproves of the east ern people who spend the winter at the hotel"
 If you really feel that have been guilty of false pretenses, said the young man, drawing his horse a little nearer, suppose we begin all over again"
 Keep your distance, sir" exclaimed the girl, steering to the opposite side of the road. If we are to start afresh, let it be from the very beginning, three weeks ago"
 NOW, as to your father, resumed the young man, II think l understand him pretty well, because my one and only parent, the governor himself, is constructed on much the same plan. Wherever he goes he is continually in search of the lost tribes of the Strong genealogy. The last letter had from him in Colorado, where he is spending the winter, contained the announce ment that he had unearthed four or five new cousins-choice specimens, 1 doubt not, that he will expect me to meet and embrace on my way home.
 Perhaps it was wrong he contin- ued, after a moment of reflection, ito play upon that little peculiarity of your fathers, to get into his good graces, but you must consider the ex- traordinary provocation, dear It seemed like my only chance-are you sorry l took it?"
 She looked her answer, but did not speak it, and then, avoiding the hand extended to seize her own, she struck her horse a light blow and dashed down the road ahead.
 A long, even canter in silence fol- lowed. and they were again well into town before the conversation began again Then, fearful of observation, they spoke in commonplaces.