The Mena weekly star., 1897-11-10

| coming" We'll, Uncle Thomas followed
 closely on his letter; and, true, enough, his affairs did not seem to have four
 ished, for his clothes were quite thread
 bare and his luggage of the scantiest.
 Like most girls of the present day, my great ambition was to own a bicycle,
 but, unfortunately, the buying of one
 was quite out of the question, although
 I could ride we'll enough, my compan- | ion, Florrie Floyd, the doctors only
 daughter, having let me learn on hers. So, after once more discussing the
 matter over with mother, had to re-
 luctantly give up all idea of joining the picnic, and had so longed to go; for
 one thing, it was the first time Sir Wal
 ter's demesne had ever been accessible, and that in itself made me more anxious to see the beautiful grounds that had always been so jealously guarded from intrusion. Sir Walter had died six months before, and the heir that lie had never seen had given permission for this special party to hold their meet in his demesne; and, by the way, he had not seen the place himself, but was ex- pected to arrive at an early date. Per haps I ought to have said that his agent had given the doctors party leave to see the grounds, and not he. Well, after mother had succeeded in convincing me of her inability to get me even d second hand mount, Uncle Thomas had unex- pectedly chimed in by saying: "EyVellii ell, Kathie, if you don't mind having a very first-class bike, I'll get you one" Twas both astonished and delighted, and kissed the old man effusively and went to bed quite happy; and now, just be- fore the day of the meet. he had brought this monstrosityl We'll, must not be too hard on the old man, but wished he had bought himself a new coat instead. The collect for rain was unanswered; so was my desire for sudden sickness. I never felt better in my life, and the sky was cloudless, so there was nothing for it but to put bold face on the ineyita- ble, and at the time appointed I started, watched from the gate by my evidently admiring uncle. Creak, creak, went the old ramshaclle. It was awful! What should l do when I joined the others, every one of whom owned first-class mount? Should I turn back and pre- tend that I had spill? Oh, there was no pretense required, for, giving an extra groan; my mount collapsed and it and I rolled over into the dust below. When I picked myself up found the rim off and the spolSes all twisted and broken; there was nothing for it but to drag the remains back to the cottage pd fotx ,t. .ls,il lx Ir1ff Ia feeling sorry for uncle's disappoint- ment, 1 could not but rejoice at my es- cape from the criticisms of Florrie and her friends.
 Still, there was no use hurrying; the day was lovely. So, dragging my wheel to shady bank, I sat down and began to make daisy chain, and had almost completed it when gig drove rapidly round the corner. was on the wrong side of the road, and right in it's track It took the driver all his time to pull up to escape driv- ing over me, and jumping quickly to my feet I tried to get my unfortunate bike out of the way, but it was use less; it's ruin was complete. Quickly descending, the driver showed great concern at what he called his stupid ity, but I only laughed, and informed him that he had only completed the wreck; and, almost before l knew what I was about, told the whole story of my uncle's gift and my dis appointment. He seemed quite amused at the recital, and then told me that he himself was just going to Cliff Court, Sir Walters demesne, and would have great pleasure in driving me there. was not hard to persuade, and after he had helped me to place the remains of my bicycle carefully behind the hedge, off we started, passing on the road the doctor and his guests. So after all it was l who got the first glimpse of the beautiful court, and stood on the terrace among the strut ting peacocks when the others arrived, flor all the world" Florrie said, as though I owned the place. and was waiting to receive them as guests" I should say my companion en route left me on our arrival, saying his busi- ness was with the agent, and just as the others arrived he returned. saying the agent had given him permission to take us not only over the grounds, but through the court itself. Such thing had never been heard of before and caused great excitement among us. It would take me a week to tell of the beauties of one of the most stately of "the stately homes of England.'
 We all wandered at will through the magnificent picture galleries and SUI perb reception rooms; and then to our intense surprise found q choice