The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-01-30
I took my scolding like guilty

GU ought to be thumped," he
said, when I had been helped down.
Haven't you grain Of sense left?'''
''Plenty of it; it was the horse that
was lacking. I was all right as long
as he let me stay on"
"Oh, you were'--with fine sarcasm
-'Well, I suppose you're. good for a
week in blankets to pay for it..
Knocked your good appetite silly,
didn't it?'' - .~~s
"Come in to supper and I'll show
you. I'm good for anything, from
pate de foie gras to boiled dog
It was three full days, and I had
.ennuyed myself into state of coma,
before Macpherson would let me try
it again, and when he finally con-
sented we went together, amb]ing
the length of his small kingdom and
pausing only when the horses of the
settlement came in sight from the
brow of low hill dominating the
clustered farmsteads and the engi-
neer's camp at Valley Head. I want
ed to go on, but Macpherson shook
his head.
''No; you've had enough, and moro
than enough, for one day. You for
get that the nearest undertaken is
at the fort.''
II forget nothing. Give me that
glass;
When I had focused the field glass
he said: "What do you see?'
II see the promise of a remarkably
beautiful sunset
"Is that all?"
"No; see log cabin which I take
to be a schoolhouse. The door is
open, and there is someone standing
on the step-a young woman,
should say I dropped the glass
and turned upon him quickly enough
to surprise the beatifc eagerness in
his face.
cts she," he said, rather sheepish-
ly; and then: do you really think
you could manage another mile or
two and make out to get home
alive?''
I laughed. His usefulness was
beautiful to behold. 81 can do better
than that; can find my way back
alone"
"And get thrown again-not much
you don't. Besides, I want you to
meet her,
"Do you? It's much better as it
stands. You can tell me all sorts of
affectionate little fctions about her
and I shan't be able to contradict
them"
II wish you'd stop devilling me
long enough to say yes or no. he
growled.
For answer I led the way west
ward at a double, and ten minutes
later we were climbing the school
house knoll. The gallop had been
wrought out in silence, but while the
horses were breasting the hill, Mac
pherson said: "Of course, you under
stand that what told you about the
about the fracas with Wykamp
must be as if it had never happened?"
my dear boy! Was I born yester-
day? But you've seen her since,
haven't you?'
"No; I thought she would I
thought perhaps it would be better
to let it age little, you know
Here was embarrassment made to
order, but I found comfort in the re-
Election that the chapter of acct
dents, helped out by little tact
full design on my part, would
doubtless give me an oppor-
tunity to efface myself after the in
PRODUCTION.
Knowing Macpherson and his sterl-
ing worth, and remembering the pro-
verbal blindness of lovers in gener-
al, I was prepared to criticise the
school-mistress as the facts might
warrant. But when she came to the
door to greet us, I went over to the
enemy, horse, foot and dragons. I
had pictured her as a young woman
of the attitudes, schooled in the in
nocent little man-entangling arts of
the girl-graduate; a woman of the
broader world only by courtesy of a
high-school diplomat; a young person
who would be careful to make the
distinction in pronouncing "rise'' the
| FCIU, I1Sc Guc perhaps,
with a cheerful disregard for the
weightier solecisms. So ran the pre-
conception, and when she came out
to us the revulsion was sharp enough
to be painful. More beautiful women
than Winifred Sanborn there. have
been, doubtless, but never another
more instantaneously lovable. She
was of the chastened Puritan type,
with personality of grace rather
than of strength; a young woman
with face and figure which might
have been a replica in flesh and
blood of the calm-eyed maiden in the
pictured idyl of Priscilla and John
Alden. Gentleness, and high breed
ing, and an localized standard OF
purity were hers by right of birth,
one would say, since the witness OF
them was written large in every line
of the sweet face and in the un-
ashamed gaze of the steadfast eyes