The age-herald., 1899-06-11
A Maid and a
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 care much for codfish. Do you? Well, I'll just ride over again today and see if 1 can't get one of the spring sort
 That was a very fair test of that young mans devotion, I think. He had ridden about forty-five miles the day before, and here he was going to do it over again, just to get better mouse trap for his ladylove. l know it made a deep impression on her at the time, for she told me as much. She told me that when the Honorable Tom that was his name-started out on his sec ond mouse trap expedition, they had it all pretty well settled that they should be married two weeks later in q quiet way. He said that he wanted to surprise his brother and all of them at home,' so he would not say a word about it beforehand just send them a cable to say he was mar ried. And l quite believe that Mrs. Berry would have given her consent; she liked the way the young man had acted in talk ing her into his confidence from the first.
 Well, that second time, he came back rather earlier than he had the night be- fore The mother and daughter were sit ting up waiting for him on the verandah. He had succeeded in getting spring mouse trap, and with it he brought great chunk of cheese, saying that cheese was the only sure bait for mice. And if that doesn't, catch em, he said, nothing will. You must pull down the house, or get into other quarters. Only, don't go away from here
 That night, when the trap had been properly baited and set there was a great commotion in the room next to Mrs. Ser rvs. Ethel described it as a sudden loud click immediately followed by a sound as if someone had piece of wood tied to a string and was whipping the floor and the walls of the next room with it. It between the raps and knocks, the two women heard 0 sound like dried peas shaken in a bag.
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 "And this was what showed the peculiar makeup of that girl; she wouldn't have gone into the room if mouse had been there but as soon she was quite sure it was a rattlesnake she gut on her slippers, lighted lamp and led the way.
 "By that time the violence of the snakes agonies had subsided. He had stopped whipping and threshing about. Only the faint tremor of his rattles kept up. You see, he didn't care for codfish, but cheese, being made of milk had a certain attrac- ton for him. He had gone to investigate the bait on that mouse trap and had sprung it just as if he had been a real mouse. The consequence was that tho spring, which was a good strong one had gripped him tight on the back of his head. And that was the end of him.
 "But, though Ethel could go into that room with a lamp and look at the snake. the sight nearly shocked her into hys- terics. She said she could never forget the looks of that dead rattler with its jaws wide open, staring at her in the corner of the room. More than that, after she had nearly dropped the lamp and set the house on fire she declared that she must get out and go to some other house. She could not stay in that house another hour.
 "Fortunately, there was a. sort of hotel in the town and the Berrys went to it, But it seemed very hard-at the time, at least-that during the next few days, while she was suffering from an attack of fever, the doctor would not let the Honorable Tom even send her a note. The fact is, she could not bear anything that reminded her of that hldeous night as she always called it.
 But there is where the Providence that watches over good girls comes in, l think. Now observe
 "A few days later when they were just going to start north, Ethel saw the young man and told him that their marriage must be postponed for some months, until she could forget all about. that horrible mouse trap affair. She said that, for some time to come the sight of him would al ways remind her of rattlesnake with its mouth wide open.
 He tried to talk her out of it, but one evening out in the moonlight she told him just how it was.
 Now, you may think that a very unkind think for a girl to say to her devoted lover, ana no WOiuef le uluIi S6SlA ho like it. But it was just as well that she did take that fancy.
 "She went with her mother to New York and thereby the merest accident, ebserve-she met another Englishman who knew the Honorable Tom. Then, in con- Versation 1t came out that the Honorable Toms brother had sent him to Florida on purpose to separate him from the Honora- be Mrs. Tom, who was a very undesirable perscn.
 "In fact, the Honorable Tom was the black sheep of the family In many ways he was not a bad fellow-never stole, or anything of that kind-but he had very light idea of his obligations in the way of marriage, evidently.
 He himself said, when he was asked about the affair, that he had come to Flor ida on purpose to escape from that wo- man'-meaning the Honorable Mrs. Tom, his lawful wife.
 "So you see, that mouse trap and that rattlesnake did one good turn for Ethel Berry then, and a second good turn. you may say, when she married the doctor who treated her for the nervous trouble that followed.
 And happen to know that the doctor has made her particularly good husband I know it by her looks. can always tell a happy wife,