Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-03-17


II am sure mildly commenced
Miss Haven.
"Oh, don't make any apologiesw
said little Una, with her retrousse
nose in the air and two red spots on
her cheeks. ''And tell your broth-r,
Miss Mary, that am as little anxious
to make his acquaintance as he is
mine.''
| And exit Una, not without some
slight emphasis on the closing of the
door.
''How pretty she has grownI' said
Mary Haven, in admiration.
''Do you think SOP" said Ellice, a
little doubtfully. "She is SO dark
and so abrupt. you know; and then
she has no charm of manner-poor,
dear, little Una!"
Junius Haven laughed little when
the younger Miss Jocelyn's defiant
message was brought to him.
''She need not be alarmed" he
said. 'There is no sort of probability
that we shall be brought into contact
with each other"
But "Man proposes and God dis
poses," says the sparkling little prov
erb, and the week was not out before
Mr.. Junius Haven, strolling among
the picturesque woods, found himself
in ruined saw mill, where tall, sweet
fern bushes grew through the yawning
crevices of the mouldering floor, and
sunbeams sifted like misty lines of
gold between the cracks in the roof
above.
"There must be q view from that
springing up slight ladder, which
reared itself from beam to beam, he
picked his way across the perilous
flooring to the window, which looked
out over breezy stretch of vale and
upland, where the blue windings of a
river flashed in the sunshine, and the
undulations of distant mountain
chain seemed to close up the horizon
with it's purple gateways.
AS he stood there, feasting his eyes
upon the prospect, a slight noise below
attracted his ear; he hurried to the
edge of the floor only in time to dis
cover that the ladder, his sole means
of escape, was walking off upon the
shoulders of stout, silver-haired old
man, who whistled cheerfully as he
went.
''Halloa!'' shouted Junius. "Hold
on there, my man! Where are you
going with that ladder?"
No answer-no response of any ma
ture.
SIS the man deaf?" cried Junius, in
a sort of frenzy.
That was precisely what old Hans
Diefendorf was. AS deaf as the pro-
verbal post.
Pretty Una Jocelyn was waiting for
him on the edge of the ruins, holding
up one pretty finger.
Hush, Hans!" said she. ''Don't
you hear some one calling?"
''Me not hear noting" said old
Hans, whose dull ears could catch
Una's clear, sweet voice, when all the
shouting of the farm hands was inau-
dible to him. ''It must be de cat
birds OF some one who shoots squir-
rels in de glen, may happen.
"No," said Una, crisply; cit is a
voice calling. Stay here, Hans, until
1 come back"
Hans stood still, contentedly, with
the ladder on his back, while his young
mistress hurried up the steep bank as
fast as she could.
''Who is it?" she cried, in voice
sweet and shrill as thrush's warble.
''lt is I!' responded Mr.. Junius
Haven. plaintively. 81 climbed up
here, and now some one has taken the
ladder away, and can't get back. ]"
Una stood there, tall. brown-cheeked,
with her hands clasped behind her
back and the wind blowing her chest
nut curls about, while mischievous
light scintillated under her long, dark
eyelashes.
"Oh," said she,"I understand! You
are Mr. Haven?"
"And you are Miss Una Jocelyn?"
said he, coloring and biting his lip.
Exactly" responded the girl.
"And here is an excellent opportunity
for me to beavenged. You have called
me an Amazon, farm boys assistant
all manner Of names, and you are at
my mercy now."
"Yes," confessed Mr.. Haven, peni-
| tently; 'tit's all true"
"Don't you think it would serve you
right" went on Una, severely, 'if !
sent old Hans home with the ladder,
instead OF recalling him to your assist.
ance?"
''Of course it would" said Haven.
ESQ do l." said Una; ''but I mean
to be magnanimous. Hans! Hans!
Clear and fute-like her voice
sounded down the glen, and old Hans
husky accents replied:
| ''Yaw, yaw! I ish coming"
| Una Jocelyn in the meantime STOOD
looking at Mr.. Haven as coolly as i
he were Sphinx or an obelisk Oh
some such marvel of the universe. Mr.
Haven regarded her on his part with
sort of meek Precipitation, and wher