, 1900-02-24
HAD FAITH IN SIGNS
DECREE OF FATE THAT LED
MIRIAM TO MARRY HER
PETRUCHIO.
How Luck Guided All-Northern
Training of Husband Came to
Wife's Rescue-Baby Also Played
a Part in Throwing on the Influ-
ence of Queer Superstition.

ter-of-fact north. College-bred, mild
hammered, and good to look at, besides
being possessed of rather more thar
a fair share of this worlds goods, he
was a youth born to rule. where it
was not too much trouble. or the price
was not too high.
Miriam was a typical southern beau
ty, born, bred, and educated in Nir-
ginia. Business took Petruchio to
Virginia, where he presently met Miri-
I'm. The result was true love at sight
on his part, and the curse of it forth
with ran very smoothly for reasons
which will shortly appear.
One Tuesday evening Miriam had
dined out. This was not an unusual
occurrence, but the fact that her seat
at table was between a married cou-
Pile was. Being of the south, she knew
at once that she must be married be-
fore the year closed; unless, perhaps,
she should fall going upstairs, or acct
dentally knock over a chair and there
~ olN"n II ~ "oo oihbiA
wonder, then. since October was draw
ing to a close, that she should i'm
mediately take a greater interest in her
present array of s~uitors, and be pre-
with more care than usual.
The very next night she met Petru-
chic. At the moment of introduction,
made in the south's most cordial fash
ion, her hand clasped his across the
handshake of another pair. This other
pair were already married, therefore,
II was quite evident to the girl that,
unless something IL of the common
should occur to prevent, this nan was
to be her future husband. Nor did she
rebel, considering that his personality
was pleasing and his bank account not
prohibitive. Instead, she watched
out" for corroborative evidence and
took great care to do none of the things
which would change the tide of for
tune. Being late in the season for
four-leafed %clovers, her trials of matri-
monial signs were limited to pulling
apart the daisies which Petruchio
sent, and to the numerous devices Of
Halloween, but fortune always read
the same way.
The wedding was late in December.
To be sure, the term Of courtship was
short. but who ever heard of a bride
groom for whom 1t could be too short
and by every portent of prophecy,
from the brides point of view, it had
to be before the close Of the year. For
tunately. too, the wedding was set for
a sunny day. and the supply of rice
and old shoes was sufficient to guar
antee the longest and happiest mar
ried existence imaginable.
Then came the tug of war. AS be-
fitted the station OF the bride and the
circumstances of the groom the Pull
man drawing-room had been engaged
for the wedding journey. Miriam
was sufficiently well pleased with the
arrangement until she CHANGED to look
up and see the number above her head.
That ominous thirteen appalled, her
and her husband as we'll. A bride in
tears is not a cheerful sight, and even
the best natured and most open-hand-
ed man, having paid out money for
drawing-room accommodations, dis
likes to exchange them without appar-
ent reason for a mere section and get
no change. 1t was his wedding day,
and it must be said that Petruchio sub
mitted gracefully.
1t was the same all through the hon
eymoon. Miriam made her husband
rick up every pin she saw with its
head toward them and 60 yards around
20 avoid one whose %protruding point
promised trouble; he had to turn about
{ take her home whenever a four
looted creature threatened to cross
heir path with woe; and once there,
before starting out again, he had to
make a cross with the toe Of his shoe
and spit on it. At first Petruchio was
inclined to be cross, but it was the
honeymoon, and these little byplays re-
moved somewhat the inevitible mon
otony. and in time came to be vastly
amusing.
There is not space to tell how the
horses were chosen by the color of
their legs, or how servants who per-
spired freely about their noses prompt
ly got notice. There is nothing too bad
for such a person to do. Suffice 1t to
say that if she discovered that her hus-
band had bad luck in any business
transaction Miriam could always trace
it back to n of two happenings of
the Monday of hat week. He had Ell
Their neglected to take in any money
before 8 o'clock or else had had the
misfortune to meet and speak to a wo-
man on the street before he had met a
male acquaintance.
Thus the months went by without
bringing them to the poorhouse or
causing too frequent eruptions In the
domestic routine. Even when the ba-
by came and Petruchio had to carry
him upstairs the very first thing, and
get him weighed before he had had any
on, he was still indulgent and
amused. As the mother gravely ex-
planned, "The whole danger begins
you are born. To know what to
do and what not to do il everything.
For instance, it 10 all right to weigh
he newborn child, but all wrong to