The Press., 1896-01-09
MISS MADAM.
By oPIB READ. TCopyright, 1895, by F. T. Neely.1 CHAPTER I.


 An old man and an old woman, a pale young fellow and a girl, sat at a table placed upon long veranda.
 "Now I wonder who that can be?'' said the old man, craning his neck and looking down the road The girl and the young fellow got up that they might ob- tain better view, and the woman, with an air of keen curiosity, leaned over the table, gazed down the road, and, with woman's quickness to discover intention, declared: "He's goin to stop. See, papi'' clutching the old man g arm. "He's goin to come in at the big gate"
 "He's not goin to do no sich of a thing" the man replied. "He's-hang- ed if he ain't. Wonder who he can be. Ridin putty good stock, anyhow.
 The horseman who had thus turned @ quiet noon hour into speculation ot deep concern rode up to the yard fence and, following time set fashion of that part of tbe country, cried, Hello P'
 "Git down and come in, the old man answered. He had arisen from the table and was advancing to meet the stranger. "Come right in, suh, and make yo'sef at home. '
 The girl vanished. The young fellow hung about and stole an occasional peep at the visitor. It was evident that strangers were rare in that neighbor- hood.
 I've have jest been eatin snack, !" said tue old man, when he had shown the stranger into the house. Wont you eat a mouthfuI or so? Don't reckon, however, that you will find much to yo' taste.'
 "Pap," the woman suddenly inter- posed, appearing in the door and wiring ing her apron in embarrassed conscious ness of the temerity of thus presenting herself, Eff he'll wait mint, I'll kill a chicken and bake some biscuit, for, goodness knows, we ain't got nuthin that is fitten for a body to eat. "
 "Oh, don't let me put you to any troubleP' the visitor protested. "1'm sure that anything you've got is good enough for me"
 He was so easy in manner and so cordial of voice that the woman, yield ing, though reluctantly, it could be seen, said: "Waal, if you think you can put up with it, you are perfectly welcome. Pap, fetch a cheer for the gentleman. "
 They seated themselves at the table, but the girl and the young fellow did not reappear The girl, peeping from behind the ash hopper and speaking to the young fellow, who had taken refuge behind a corner of the smokehouse, said :
 "He looks mighty fine, Little Dave. |"
 "A fiddle ain't no whar to him, " the boy answered.
 "Little Dave," the old man called, "why don't you and Miss Madam come along here now and finish eatin yo' din ner?'
 Don't want no mo-.
 The visitor looked up, and the girl and young fellow dodged out of sight.
 In some parts of the country this would have been regarded as an odd family, but in certain wild region of Kentucky old man Bradshaw's "folks" were quite conventional The head of the household was somewhat of a neigh borhoood character. He was tall and gaunt, with 8 large, pioneer sort of nose, and with an uneven, grayish beard. He had backwoodsman's ideas of the ludicrous, that broad estimate of fun which, when refined, but not too much toned down, approaches the es- tablishment of a distinctive class of American humor, and emphasizing his conception of the ridiculous, as though an atonement must be offered, there was pathetic note somewhere in the gamut of his voice. When young man, he had built house on a hillside, near a spring that gushed from under a rugged bluff, green the year round-eternity s moss covering the rock of ages. Here he and his wife had spent many year of toll, and it was here, in an old orchard, that they expected to be buried.
 The woman, too, was, in her way, a type. She had two great fears-one that she might not possibly have received enough of the Spirit when, years ago, she had sprung up from the mourners' bench and shouted in the almost fren- zied ecstasy of her souls deliverance from torment. She was supremely, she thought divinely, happy for months aft erward, but gradually she began to fear that her conversion had been too vio- lent. and that satan mnst either have