The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1896-12-30
WALKED THE PLANK.

a TWouv QuOou OeOr8ob you hu~e -
member that this took place many years
aRo, when was young and foolish. Tho
belle Of Fishponds at that time Wss Mar
jory Jones, the miller's daughter. She
was pretty girl, too, can toll you. AZ
you may suppose, she had plenty of sweet
hearts
"There was Jack Smith, the larkicst fel-
low In the village Wasn't he Wild In
our opinion Jack stood the best chance
with the fair Marjory. Jack was SUCK
Ing lawyer then; Bill Smith, his cousin,
Ted Whereat and were farmers, and Tom
Ruinins was "a dealer
"We five reckoned that Marjory ought
to belong to one Of US, and we formed
o league offensive and defensive Ono
night Jack and had staid till old
Jones turned US out, and as wo stood out
side the gate we heard her silvery laugh as
the old man growled at being kept ont o.
bed by passel o young wosbuds
"'George,' said Jack Smith, I've got
an idea You come to my rooms tomorrow
night, and I'll get Ted and Bill and Tom
to come In. Then, II they are agreeable,
we'll just make that young woman come
to n decision
1.-The next evening we settled down to
hear what Lawyer Jack had to say.
care you all In love with MarjoryP'
"A unanimous cry of Yes followed.
"'Look here,' said Tom Rumins, we
must settle this matter somehow or some
other fellow will be cutting us all out. Let
us each write her proposal and send at
the same time
"'Right, said Jack, 'and let's start fair;
let them all be put In the Same words.
"'We had better call for our answers
ourselves
"'What, all at onces'
Not exactly. One after another, and
we'll draw lots who goes first, and so on
"'You fellows will talk all night and 10
nothing after all, cried Jack. You leave
1t to me. / know moro about 1t than you
do:
"DRAR MARJoRY-Knowing, as you do, the
warm affection I have for you, you will not be
surprised il ask you to be- mir and mine
alone.
"will you marry me. dearest Will you be
the bride Of your devoted lover, -f
"P. 81 will come round to the mill on
Tuesday evening at - o'clock to know my
fate.
"'Therel' he continued triumphantly.
'Therel l think that ought to fetch her.
I've left tho name and the hour blank,
you see.'
"Wo were not quite SO satisfied with
the letter as its author; but, as we did not
feel we could improve upon it, we at
length decided to adopt it, and forthwith
sat down to copy 1t off. Next we drew
lots to see who should go first, and, as
luck would have it, we came out in the
following order: Myself, 7:30; Bill, 7:45;
Ted, 8; Tom, 8:15; Jack, $50.
"'Just my luckp said Jack, with q
groan. Not ha 'p'orth of chance for me'
"'Why nots' said l. She knows you're
coming, and-hsng it ALL wish wasn't
frstr
II was quite serious when said / was
sorry was first, and sat thinking it over
with the help of pipe when got home.
Suddenly thought struck me. jumped
up and cried, George, my boy, she's
yoursp Then went to bed.
81 spent good while after tea that
Tuesday in adorning myself, and WASH t
ready till z. 1t was only ten minutes
walk to the mill. but then / had some
work to do before I showed up there It
was In the early spring, and the days were
still short
"I must explain that all five of us lived
on the Fishponds side of the Froome, and
SO we all had to cross the footbridge, un-
less we went mile out of our way to
cross the stone bridge at Broom hill. AT
that time there was only one railing to the
bridge, and it was SO rotten that IL was
not safe to trust to IL. The bridge itself
consisted of three planks resting on some
piers, and these planks were somewhat in
secure.
"Now, this was my scheme: I would
Cross the bridge and then remove the mid
die plank. In the dark any one who came
after me would not notice the gap and
would 60 flop into the water 1t only
meant ducking, and that was what L
proposed to treat my rivals to-
"I was completely successful in displac-
ing the already loose plank, and at 7:30
precisely marched boldly into the mill.
"Evenin, Mariory,' said 1. could SEQ
she wasn't In the best of tempers, but
didn't appear to take any notice Of it.
'Evenin, Marjory. Did,
Look here, George Handbook said
ahe interrupting me. What does this
meanp Do you boys think you're going to
make fool of me by writing lot Of love
letters and making conspiracy against
mep Is that thing to be proud OFF Is 1t
manlyp Is it, And here she burst into
tears.
"'Now, now, Mariory, said, 'don't be
angry. We don't mean any harm
"'Harm,' she broke In, stamping her
foot on the floor 'Harm How dare you
you mean fellowsp
"After awhile she grew calmer and said
she would hear what the others said when
they came had hard work to keep from
laughing at this, but just then heard
splash.
"'Whats that asked Marjory.
"'Sounds like big pike jumping, said
/ and went on talking.
"By and by heard another splash, but
this time Marjory did not notice 1t. So
the time went on, and none Of the other
suitors put in an appearance You would
not yourself II you were wet through,
would your
"'No, said /, laughing.
"Well, by and by the miller came home
and wanted to know what was doing
there, so I told him I wanted to marry his
daughter. Well, to make long story
short, 1 made things right with the old
man, and left the house as Marjory's ac-