Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-24

mice care much for Goldfish. Do you?
Well, I'll just ride over again today and
see II l can't get one of the spring sort
THAT was a very fair test of tina young
mans devotion. l think. He had ridden
about As miles the day before, and here he
was going to do 1t over again, just to
get a better mouse trap for his lady-love.
I 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
second mouse trap expedition, they had it
all pretty well settled thai they should be
married two weeks later, in a quiet way.
He said he wanted to surprise his BROTH
err 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
married. And I quite believe Mrs. Berry
would have given her consent; she liked
the way the young man had acted in TAX
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 We're sit
ting up, waiting for him On the verandah.
He had succeeded in getting a spring
mouse trap, and with it he brought a
great chunk of cheese, saying that cheese
was the only sure bait for mice. And if
that doesn't catch EN- he said, nothing
will. You must pull down the house, or
get lntO OlnoF quarters. Only, OOn go
away from here
That night, when the trap had been
! properly baited and set, there was a great
comlnotion in the room next to Mrs. Ber-
rvs. Ethel described 1t as a sudden loud
click, Immediately followed by a sound
as If someone had a piece of wood tied to
a string and was whipping the floor and
the walls of the next room with it. In
between the raps and knocks, the two
| nr,,n hoo ri a sound lilo lrinI rnnc
shaken in a bag.
Then they knew what it was all
about.
And this was what showed the peculiar
makeup of that girl: she wouldn't have
gone into the room if a mouse had been
there but as soon as she was quite sure
it was a rattlesnake she put o n her Slip
pers, lighted a lamp and led the way.
"By that time the violence of the
snakes agonies had subsidized. He had
stopped whipping and threshing about.
Only the faint tremOr of his rattles kept
up. You could see he didn't care for cod
fish, but cheese, being made of milk, had
a certain attraction 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 the 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 hyster-
les. She said she could never forget the
look of that dead RATHER, with it's 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 ven to 1t.
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 hideous night as
she always called it.
But here is where the Providence that
watches over good girls comes in, I think
Now, observe.
"A few days later, when they We're just
going to start north, Ethel saw the young
man and told him that their marriage
much be postponed for some months un-
til she could forget all about that horrible
nous trap affair. She said that, for
some time to come, the sight of him would
remind her of a 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 un
kind thing for a girl to say to her de-
voted lover, and no wonder he didn't seen
to like it. But it was just as we'll thai
she did take that fancy.
"She went with her mother to New
York, md thereby the merest accident
observe-she met a:other E~nglishmar
who knew the Honorable Tom. Then, IL
conversation, it came out that the Hon.
orable Toms brother had sent him tC
Florida on purpose to separate him from
the Honorable Mrs. Tom, who was a very
undesirable person.
I'm fact, the Honorable Tom was tho
black sheep Of the family. In many ways
he was not a bad f~ellow-never stole, OF
anything of that kind--but he had a 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 tC
Florida on purpose to escape from tina
mountaineering the Honorable Mrs
Tom. his lawful wife.
$50, you see, that mOuse trap and that
r~attlesnake did one good turn for Ethe
Berry then, and a second good turn, yor
may say. when she married the doctor
who treated her for the nervous trouble
that followed.
"And I happen to know that the doctor
has made her a particularly good hns
band. I M it by her looks. l a al
ways tell a happy wife,