The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-22

l. just right for the outpouring of one soul in never dying assertions of love. Mary knew what was coming anG although she was in hutter, she trie to control herself and was formulatin what she would say to Sid when tn
 horse came to a walk and Sid's arm
 would steal around her waist, and h.
 would say things that never could b.
 parsed and were stumbling and broken
 after which he would kiss her and sea
 the bargain. Mary hopped into th' lsleigh and the old mare dashed off. Sic talked on this and that subject anc
 Mary was silent. The conversation Jagged and the old mare slowed down
 Sid shifted around good deal. The
 moon was beaming and the man in ii
 winked every time Sid looked up at him l and he began to pluck up courage tc
 say the word.
 Then it was that Sid's old infirmity came back to him. He tried to hold the mare With one hand. She was too iris ky for a time. Darn it all,i thought | Sid, but he didn't say it. He tried one hand and then the other, but it was no go. Finally the mare became quieter l and Sids left arm stole along the back
 of the seat and Mary settled percepti- 1 bly, toward him.
 Soon Mary showed signs of uneasi- ness and then of distress. She moved her feet restlessly and Sid asked her if the warming pan bothered her. She said it didn't, but she kept on squirm- ing. Sid couldn't ask her what the trouble was, because she volunteered
 nothing and he was afraid the answer
 might be embarrassing. Mary said
 Ouch once and then Sid peeped under the lap robe.
 What he saw there made him bite his lips and give kick. He reallWsaw the old cat that had hung around the barn. He couldn't say anything, for he had his suspicious and he knew it would be most embarrassing to talk on that subject.
 Then there was wee sound, sort of birds peep, and Sid picked up his ears. He told Mary that he guessed the sleigh runners were rusty and that they had struck stone. Now the snow was a foot deep and Mary knew that was lie.
 Mary kept wincing and Sid kept kicking his foot back under the seat of the sleigh and Mary got terribly ner- vous and kept saying Ouch with little screams. She drew away from Sid and began to steal alarming glances at him and then to glare at him. She moved her feet up and down and to vince eve ry hundred yards. The mare caught the fever and soon Sid had all he could do to hold her and to keep kicking un- der the seat.
 "At last Mary could endure it no longer Her hand stole down under the robe and then she let out a fearful scream.
 Let me out! Let me out!' she shouted. You monster, what do you mean? Let me out-'
 ''Sid tried in vain to hold the mare and he had to let her run while he reached down under the robe.
 GA snake! A snake' cried Mary. Its on my ankle'
 "Now Sid knew that there could be no live snake in that sleigh at that time ot year, but he reasoned that perhaps one had been hibernating there and that the warming pan had warmed it into life. Sid was a man not to stop on ceremony when a heroic deed was to be done. He threw off the lap robe and dived for Mary's ankle
 "'What do you mean, you brute?' she cried.
 "Sid said nothing but kept on grab ping and the old mare ran into gallop. Mary let out an awful yell, hit Sid a terrible blow with her hand, and leaped from the sleigh just as the mare ran away. Sid was simply paralyzed. He shouted:
 CT didn't mean anything wrong I say. Mary, I didn't I didn't, don't you know I didn't, r. but Sid's voice was lost in the distance and Mary sat down m a drift to cry. It was too cold to 1 nave hysterics and so she just grew an- sry and pulled herself together and started for home, the maddest woman. I suppose, that Connecticut ever produced ,n a love-making trip.
 well, that mare ran three miles and | when Sid got her under control, he | stopped to think. He was for turning | around and putting back for Mary with | III speed, but there was such a con1mo- | ion in the bottom of that sleigh that l le stopped to investigate Bless my | ,oul if that old cat hadn't had kittens. t was her claws that pierced Mary's lnslew until the blood ran.
 'The cat had pushed blacksnake whip that had been thrown into the leigh up around Mary's ankles and hat was the snake she had complained f But that wasn't all of Sid's trou- ,les. He looked further under the seat nd he found nest where that old hen lad been sitting and it wasn't full of ggs either. That pesky warming pan ad matched the chickens out and it was heir peeping that made Sid refer to the usty runners.
 "Well, there was Sid in a pretty mess. Ie hadn't had any luck in holding hings again. He had failed to hold fary around the waist and he had afled to hold her affections. He turned round-he couldn't be so heartless as 0 dump that old cat and her kittens nd those little chicks out in the snow and tried to hurry back to get Mary, ut the old mare was tired and wouldn't love much faster than walk
 "When he arrived where Mary had lmped she wasn't there. He saw by CT footsteps that she was trudging ome. He came up to her just as she 'as entering her gate. With frightful t1JI I,;, -l,o l