The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-04-15
Loves Second Degree
Copyright, 1901. by Daily story Pub. Co.,
BY d. H. TALMADGE

This is a bit of plain history, and
the reader whose mental appetite
Graves adventures favored with the es-
sence of heroism and se~lf-sacrifce will
save himself disappointment by pass
ing 1t by. 1t is, 1t may be said, the
p%lainest of plain history.
John Delwin, the hero, is a man
who sells groceries. Formerly he was
an ordinary boy of numerous freckles,
Their a delivery clerk in the village
store Of which he was later part owner.
His life, so far as his acquaintance
can judge, has been a psalm from the
beginning.
When he married Emma Minller he
wore the customary black, and the
bride was attired in the customary
white, and congratulations upon the
happy event were many and sincere,
just as the village newspaper said. So
far as is known no hearts were broken
Or even bruised in the case. John
had no rivals. Nor had Emma. He
wanted a good sensible wife. She
wanted a good sensible husband. They
were married. Everybody was salts
fed.
Theirs was the most commonplace
Of courtings. He escorted her home
from church one night. and they
stood for a time at the front gate
while the little god of love performed
his duty. They did not realize the
Bolemnity of the occasion, otherwise
he would have talked less fluently of
butter and eggs, and she would have
subdued her references to the starch
ing and ironing Of shirts.
1t was fate.
John said to himself that there was
a girl who was practical, a girl we'll
calculated to comfort a man who
worked for his daily bread. Emma
said to herself mark the coincidence
that here was a man who was prac-
teal, a man who wasted his brain it's
sue with no trivial subjects of thought.
And from that moment the compact
between them was virtually sealed.
A year passed before he asked her
10 share his fortunes. Scarcely an
instant passed before he received his
answer. He kissed her then, and they
we're very happy.
John" said she, as they parted that
night, engaged couples are different
from u~nengaged ones. Come and see
me often, John, for I shall be lone
some without you. Come Monday,
Tuesday and the other days"
"IIl do it," said John, trying to re-
member a couplet he had laboriously
committed to memory; "I1l-IIl do
It,"
DO" said she.
20, I will" said he.
Thus it came about that whenever
business was a bit slack in the store
John girded up his apron, which bore
a saleratus brand upon its bib, and
went forth to call briefly upon Emma.
And he never failed to find her busy
with household work, her round white
arms barred to the elbows, her fingers
often bedecked with dabs of dough,
her face flushed by the heat of the
kitchen fire. And he said to himself
fervently, in much the same spirit that
characterizes the stock burst of graft
tude in the more thrilling of love
tales, what a prize I've won! What
a girl she is! o MY" And he walked
upon air in his leaden deliberate way
straight to the wedding day.
Emma was not beautiful. She was
not witty. She possessed not those
qualities which throughout the pages
of a questionable literature have made
woman at once the despair and joy
of the masculine heart. John under
stood this and gloried in it. He him
self had not been a success at holding
up one end of even a five minutes
conversation with the more dashing Of
the girls who attended the church So
cials. He rather feared these girls.
He was never able to quite free him
self from the suspicion that they were
making fun of him. He pitied the