Connecticut western news., 1902-02-20
MAJOR By Martha
 ~ McCulloch BORUM Williams AND THE THIEF
Copyright, 1901, By Martha McCulIoch Williams.

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 Old man Buckley, one of Marshall towns three tnveterate topers, was trying to sober up against his daugh- ter's wedding. When he had his com. plement of drinks, he was to outward seeming as sober as a judge. Lack of them set him reeling upon his horse and guiding the sagacious beast in let ter S's all over the road.
 "LookP' Major Borum said to Molly, his niece and adopted heiress. That's what I'm trying to save you from-the thing which biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder"
 You needn't try to make out poor link is a snake" Molly said spiritedly. "I'm sure he wouldn't crawl, not even to get me-"
 "Oh, hol You think it was his inde- pendence that kept him from signing the pledge when I demanded 1t of him." the major said, with a fine, lofty scorn- Again Molly tossed her head.
 "I would have said I Y to him if he had signed it." she said. "Why, link was never drunk but once in his life. and that was in the way of business. If he had not drunk to match that Long Hollow crowd, his pa would have lost all their trade, and it's worth a thousand dollars clear profit every year."
 The major groaned. He was a round, pursy man, rosy faced, with lit- tie eyes twinkling through smothering fat. He had come back to his native town the year before breathing out a vague aroma of riches and ready to give advice offhand to anything from divine Providence to the town coun- ell. Marshalltown folk said he was cram full of crank notions, which he had had no chance to spend properly in governing a wife or bringing up chill dren of his own.
 He struck Marshalltown a teetotaler of the first water. the second water and also the third. Water was indeed his creed and rallying cry for the time being. His mind and heart were set upon organizing a temperance knight hood after ideas peculiarly his own.
 Marshalltown would have none of the knighthood. It was so temperate, letting the single saloon languish ex- cept at Christmas time and the Fourth of July, that 1t resented organized tenn perance much as 1t might have resent ed the organization of an antisteallng brotherhood. To It's mind a man ought to drink when he felt like 1t and had good liquor handy, but should never be tempted into swallowing stun he did not really care for by giving 1t the tang of forbidden fruit. So 1t heartily ap- plauded link Travis refusal to become the first fruits of the majors enthusi- asm. 1t was fine thing, everybody admitted, seeing how matters stood link as good as engaged to Molly and Molly's heiress-ship contingent on her marrying to suit the major.
 Jink and Molly had been lovers time out of mind. It was all settled that they should marry when link was talk en into the firm. But the major came down upon them three months before the sign, Travis & Son, Groceries, Hardware, Provisions, Liquors, Whole sale and Retail" went up upon the big block at the head of the main street Molly had eight younger brothers and sisters. Her father could not hope to do more than feed and clothe them. So the major and his fortune had to be taken into account, especially when he asked to have Molly the same as his own child.
 That was where the pinch came. For herself and link. Molly could have bid den the fortune go hang. But the chill dreni She could not shut ont her moth CTS anxious eyes, her fathers patient. troubled face. AS long as she did not rebel openly she was free to help with both hands. So she contented herself with vowing she would die an old maid ing her sweetest at link himself when ever she got the chance.
 link could not well be SO patient. He wanted a wife, a home of bis own and Molly for that wife. He was ready to do anything reasonable to get her. He might have gone in for that knight hood foolishness if he had not known she would be the first to despise him for 1t. He might even have done 1t and tried to square himself later with his sweetheart if he had been sure the major was honest in his crankery. Somehow the majors enthusiasm rang false to him. Under and behind the flow of words he saw something in the unctuous lips, the beady, twinkling eyes, which made him suspect that the major, like other self deluded mortals, was more anxious to pose as 0 great moral force than to rule strictly his own appetites.
 Indeed, as Dan Brown put 1t, 'tthe cut of the majors jib gave him away for blamed old hypocrite." Dan Brown was Jink's chum, the head man at the new electric light plant, which Travis & Son had done so much to get installed. Of course, their own store was the very first to be wired and lighted. All the first week afterward Jtnk himself did nothing much but march around with swarming rural customers and flash lights into every dark hole and corner from the third story to the cellar. In the flashing he Incidentally made them sure there was no danger of getting a stroke of light ming. Otherwise trade might have suf- fered
 T say this yere projick, it jest Knocks the socks ofr'n anything ever l saw" Squire Crane said as Jink made the cellar dark or light by the mere turning of a button. Afterward he explained that the cellar would be always light. Then everybody smiled. That meant something to Travis GUS toners. Ever since the store opened there had been a barrel of the best whisky conveniently remote from gen. eral view, but free to whoever chose to go and take a drink. It was, of course. a point of honor not to drink unless y"u wera . pretty. good cue