, 1896-08-03

going % meet. prepared n rope, and as
the sides Of our great bags touched I
threw n end into the oncoining basket.
As the other %aeronaut Strengthened up
from making the end fast l was further
astonished when my eyes met those of
q beautiful young woman.
"The line was holding us only 10 or
IL feet apart. took off my hat and. as
q total stranger, apologized for address
ing her. but hoped that the unusual cir
cumstances of our meeting would excuse
my apparent rudeness. Besides, l fan
cied that her face seemed familiar,
though this, Of course, was a fiat lie.
She smiled and gracefully accepted my
apology. She was young. bright and, l
thought, the handsomest girl l had ever
seen. She was ta%stefully dressed in a
fancy costume, with skirts reaching just
below the knee.
"We were o o chatting pleasantly
together. and ! learned that she had
gone up Cor come up, rather. } that after
noo from Melbourne, and had hcen
driving before the wind above the stol Il,
as 1 had myself been doing. 1t was, she
said, only her third ascent, but she was
perfectly cool and laughed gayl.y over
our somewhat strange meeting. l hap
pened to look closely at her balloon, and
suddenly it struck me that it answered
the description of the IL the signor
had lost. l asked her delicately where
she got it, and she said that it had come
down one day in her fathers front yard,
and after a diligent attempt to find the
owner by advertising in all of the Mel
bourne papers and putting up a notice
in the pest Office she had decided to be-
gin making asconts with the balloon
herself, since there was a heavy mort
gage Oh her fathers farm and danger of
his losing it if $500 was not raised soon.
"SEe was much embarrassed when |
told her that l knew the owner of the
balloon, and instantly said she would
return it to him at the earliest possible
moment. | vas by this time SO taken
by her that l told her she should do
nothing CT the sort; that rs the sigl!Cr
had got another balloon l would see
that she was not dispossessed, though
had not the least idea how | should ever
pay for it.
"At this she blushed, thanked me,
but said that mamma would Tot allow
her to accept such II gift frcm II Ccn!par-
alive stranger. l was deeply touched by
her dclicacy i'll the matter. but resolved
that she should own TIE balloon never
theless. Intact, to tell the truth, l was,
as you may guess. falling i'll love with
fhn uir1 met q . ,.untI1y no IL - v,Ss,I,l,
for any man TO fall in love with any
young woman.
and, to make Il long story short, by
h time the storm was over and we he
gan to descend l was engaged to her,
subject to the consent of her parents.
As we settled toward the earth and ]
gaZed across into her great, liquid eyes
and saw there the light of awakening
love l was the happicst nan above the
Australian continent. But one dark
thought crossed my miId-that of my
utter poverty.
"We oon reached terra firma, and a
delicious thrill shot through me as l
touched her hand for the first time in
assisting her from her basket. then
turned and picked up IL ton to use in
stalking down our balloons. l saw some
thing CLEAN on it. l examined closely.
Gold! A glance showed more all about
on the ground. l used my stakes in
marking out IL claim. 1t became the eel
ebrated Gas Bag mine, of which you
have heard, and IA month later l sold it
for E2OO, OOU. We were married in
WoolloOmoollCo."
"See here, judge broke in the
dominic, 81 thought this story was Co-
ing to introduce an incident to prove
that lying is not demorulizing!'
81 promised nothing of the sort. ;" re-
turned the Judge. '"This story is m cX-
ample, not an incident to prove any
thing. However there may be proof in
it after all. | have told it. and I'll
leave it to any II here if I.;n demoral-
lied. Hayden Carruth i'll Chicago
Post.