The Worthington advance., 1900-10-05

drew back.
whats alive?" gasped Iona.
Her darling snowAower tho
child" he painted.
THE child!" repeated Iona, with q
shrek. "a baby in that basket" y
Her cry attracted the attention Of
the people hurrying for the trains.
Many paused. Acrowd gathered-aug-
mented.
"Here-here!" cried a portly police.
man Fastening up. "What's all this
about?"
Its a child!" Its baby!" ITS
tied in that basket" Here's a loop.
hole for air!" "Who does it belong to 2"
THE man was abducting it,"
The cries increased in number. Ex.
CARNATIONS of horror resounded. A
couple of railway officials passed
through the throng. And meantime
the basket rocked away on the bench
in an uncanny fashion that sent shiv.
ers down the back of the least imagina.
tive.
II don't know anything about it,"
protested Merrivell in an agonized wall.
"A lady gave it to me to hold until her
return. l."
Lowering looks met his. A threaten.
ing growl arose.
"That's all right, sir!" grunted out
q man apparently panoplied with au-
thority. We'll attend to you. Off.
Ger, keep your eye on this fellow! I
am going to open this basket"
He whipped out knife-bent down.
The curious crowd pressed closer. Not
one of that breathless mob moved as
the knife snipped-snipped along the
taut lines. Suddenly the lid was jerked
upward. There was a cry from the
basket-not the cry Of child. It was
ye2p. A woolly white poodle poked out
his head and looked inquisitively
around.
The howl that went up from the OBJ
servers caused the hurrying suburba an
ties on the iron staircase to-. stand
aghast. The big policeman burst into
a below. He took his hand from Mer-
rivell's arm. Iona laughed through her
frightened tears. And, just when tho
hubbub was at its height, q frantic
woman burst through the throng: She
plowed her way to the bench, to the
basket, her black eyes flashing fire.
"You are fine gentleman to trust!"
she screamed. She had turned on Mer.
rivell in fury. Letting those horrid
railroad men see my Snowfower! Now,
they will not allow me to take him in
the passenger car! And I shall not
have my beautiful little love shut up
in the baggage carl I gave him the
tiniest Whit of choloform to keep him
quiet until we should have started. I
went away to get trifle more. He
would have slept the whole way! But
you-you impostor! You have be.
trayed me! You have abused my con.
fidence!" She stormed away at a won-
derful rate. 20, my precious pet!" she
walled at last, catching the drowsy
canine to her bosom, Its astonishing
that he didn't try to steal you!'
IL didn't know it was dog!" pro.
tested Merrivell, weakly. She flung
fiercely around. what did you think
it WASP" she demanded.
! Whereat the crowd roared again.
"Oak Park train-a-ll a-b-oard!' -
bawled the starter.
Merrivell and Miss Wray sat together
all the way out. They laughed i'm
moderately. He was assured he mieht
call. He did-in fact, he is still call
ing. To be explicit, there is a rumor
that-but this may be gossip. ANY,
how, the girls in the mail order de-
partment smile when Iona's work takes
her to the cloth goods aisle. And Wills
fellow-workers are guying him for TAX
ing down Navajo blue when she asked
for sunburnt rose. At oil events, these
young people seem to be happy to-
gether on their free Saturday after
moons. Best Of all, Bobby, by some
mysterious process, has been concili.
ated. As chaperon, self-satistied,
ubiquitous and decidedly superfluous,
he merits commentator, and gets
nickels, dimes, and sometimes even
quarters.-Chicago Tribune.