The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-22
MBeEafed....
III OppoNunitp.

Chicago News.
March was coming in like bedraggled
lion when Alonzo Jackson. the stage
driver. drew UP in front of Miss Jane
ParmeIee's gate and sat patiently waiting
until she should make her appearance.
The wind roared through the Ieafless
trees. and Alonzo's rubber coat resound-
ed with the beating Of the heavy rain.
Shouldn't wonder If she backed out,
after ALL" he unused. STOPPING to let his
hat brim discharge its pent-up flood
Amt many women who would start out
II storm like this, just to go a-visitin,'
H they had made all their arrangements
and wrote they was comm"
But all doubts as to Miss Jane Parme-
lee strength of will to carry out what
She had determined to do were presently
dispelled by the appearance Of that
SpinSter at the door of her cottage, with
a large glazed traveling-bag in one hand
and an umbrella In the other She sci
the bag down on the stone doorstep,
spread the expansive folds of the um-
brelia over her head. took a key from
her pocket. and carefully locked the door.
The stage driver got down from his
wagon, opened the gate, and came rust
ling up the gravel walk in his rubber
coat
= ''No need Of your comm for that
satchel. LChzo." cried Miss Parmelee
through the roaring wind, as she turned
and put tho key in her pocket, after
final test of the locked door, i've got
a free hand, and I reckon 1 could carry
it all right"
'BIebbe you could" replied Alonzo
cheerfully. "of course you could, Jane,
but t amt my way to let lady passengers
tote their own baggage"
The quiet Familiarity with which Alonzo
Jackson addressed Miss Parmelee as
Jane and her quiet, unsurprised ac-
ceptance of it bespoke g. closeness Of
friendship which was we'll understood in
the community, and which had now last
ed for twenty years or moreover since
they Were young folks and Alonzo had
been said to be waiting on pretty Jane
Parmelee.
Every body supposed that they would
get engaged and married in due time, Ike
other young couples with a marked pre-
ference for on another. But years passed,
and for some reason AlonZo failed to get
to the point"
Some said 1t was because the awkward,
bashful boy could not summon up enough
courage actually to pop the question.
Others declared it was because he was
Jealous of a young fellow from the city,
who had boarded with James aunt DUR
ing the summer, and used occasionally
to see Jane home from church or take
her to a Sunday school picnic. At any
rate. time passed without any formal
declaration from Alonzo and in the mean
while James parents died, and she went
to live with her widowed aunt.
Then her aunt died also, and Jane was
left alone in the world, save for a
brother who was miner in the far
West. Jane converted the little property
that has been left her into money, and
bought a small cottage on the outskI Is
of the village, where she now lived IN
genuine old-fashion.
Alonzo. who was forty-three years old
stlI lived with his aged parents, and
cared for them. For ten years he had
driven the stage between Gilead and
Gilead StatiOn-where a remote corner OF
the township was intersected by a rail-
road.
He had never been to see Jane Parmelee
since she moved into her own cottage,
but they were still 'Lonzo' and "Jane'
to each other whenever they met, and
the memory of a faded romance did not
, sesm to embitter their present friendship
Jane indeed som etines wondered, with a
choking sensation in her throat, why
Alonzo Jackson had never asked her to
over the keen anguish of her girlhood
disappointment, and schooled herself to
believe. that since God willed 1t so, 1t
was ''all for the best"
On this stormy March day Jane Par