Arizona republican., 1899-03-07

Phil looked amazed for moment,
 knocked the ashes from his cigarette
 and smiled very bland smile.
 "Is this joke?'
 eI'm in dead earnest"
 "Well, to be truthful, I think that
 Alice Clark is queen, but that's about
 as far as it goes with me. We are old friends, and good friends. You under
 stand?"
 I heaved a little sigh of relief, took a
 long inhalation of the subtle smoke and
 said, very laconically: I'm glad of it. g
 ''Why?'' Phil asked.
 'Well, n'importe; just follow me- 1
 replied, with a relieved and knowing
 smile.
 l One August, when I was ten years
 old, my old bachelor Uncle Bob, d
 great sufferer from hay fever, went up to Mackinac island, that haven for hay 1 feyerites, and incidentally took me with him for a travelling companion. Well, Phil, I was star! Poor Uncle Bob was relieved of his hay fever, but almost contracted paresis worrying
 over me. In the first place, it was devil ish rough on Lake Huron, and Uncle Bob, besides being afflicted with maA de mer in its most hideous form. caught me smoking a sly cigarette. Really, I thought that he was going to have the blind staggers or something equally as horrible. After that I used more discretion and fewer cigarettes
 "Two days after leaving home we steamed up to the dock at Mackinac- Uncle Bob climbed out of his nest, and after giving his wings preliminary flap or two, grabbed me by the hand and toted me ashore into that unholy mass of noisy porters, sottish Indians, drunken cabmen and fippant hotel waitresses that surrounded the gang plank. Uncle Bob picked out a re- spectable looking cabby, who drove us in his ancient carriage to the Grand hotel, grand only in proportions and name. Here we engaged two rooms, great sepulchral chambers, as gloomy and hideo ously bare as a receiving vault in a potters' field. The atmosphere pervading the entire hotel was as gloomy as our rooms, for cold north eastwind was blowing hard, enyeloping everything in a dull, damp mist. I was miserable. All day long I strolled $ ting into a fight with Reginald Snyder, the son of a Detroit brewer; smoked 8 sly cigarette and was terribly home sick, until I cried myself to sleep at night.
 T was standing one morning with Uncle Bob on the hotel veranda, just in front of the main entrance, as a very swelI-looking carriage drove up, and a handsome woman, accompanied by her little eight-year-old daughter and a French maid, alighted and came mp the steps toward us. l was a rather blase youth, but I'll bet my eyes popped out at the sight of that little girl. She was a perfect little princess; not one of the seraphic kind. but a rognish-looking, blonde-haired little beauty, and her mamma was perfect queen. Before I could collect my senses this little party of beauty had passed into the hotel. Uncle Bob was visibly affected. but I was absolutely swept off my feet.
 After that I began to get pensive. Instead of reading Nick Carter I read | 'Anderson's Fairy Tales and imagined 1 myself saving my little princess from | all sorts of rufians, giants and wild |
  ing heaven earnestly for a chance to save her from some terrible calamity i and carry her trembling to her fond | arms. forgot that I was wicked, and almost forsook Hoboken ! Hank. Uncle Bob thought that I had and consequently had much peace for four or five days.
 "Not content with moping, I devoted | myself to dress, and the time spent tying my sashes and bows would have been credit to Brummel. I used to wander around the hotel veranda when the princess was strolling up and down with her nurse or mamma, every day becoming more forlorn ad discouraged lest I should never meet her. But one lay success was mine. While walking around corner of the big veranda with her nurse, sharp gust of wind took the princess little black hat and rapidly xhirled it toward me, tumbling her gold hair ruthlessly about. Picking up he darling hat I darted forward. and with very stately bow, one I had been 1racticing for three or four days, I presented it 70 the little blushing beau y, who gurgled out an abashed Thank 7ou.' The nurse laughed right heartily t our juvenile formality for fully a minute, while the princess and I waited What is your name, little nan?' she asked. Willie Williams eplied, with as much formality as possible. The nurse laughed again, but cry kindly this time. Then, making ! playful courtesy, said: MT. Willie Williams, my protege, Miss - But
 mustn't tell you the princess name ow; that would spoil the whole story. Anyway. we became the best of friends. ''Every afternoon we would stroll up nd down the hotel grounds or along he beach; or, what was better. drive round the island with mamma. As xe were both discipIes of Hans Ander-