The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-16

elves of his imagination; at twilight
they appropriated some convenient
haystack and, propped in its fragrant
shadow, he told her wonderful stories
of Prince Charming.
1t was in the lee of a haystack that
she first confessed to him he was her
Prince Charming, and that some day
when she was a big giBl-hadn't he
said the Prince would come when she
was big girl?-he must come seek
ing her on a white charger and dressed
in silver armor
The Rock-a-Bye Man shook his head
gravely. He didn't look well in silver
armor, he said: and then, too, he
would probably fall off when the
charger pranced. He pinched her
cheeks and laughed immoderately;
whereat she grew very angry because
of this self-ridicule of his. She de-
clared he was her Prince Charming,
anyway, and il another ever came, she
! would get her mother to hide her in
the big closet by the chimney, where
it was dark and smelly and there were
rats. And so earnest was she, that
the tears overfiowed her eyes and
hung irresolutely on the end of her
nose, making her such a picture of de-
! spafr, that, to comfort her, he said he
would take riding lessons with an eye
| to the white charger, and that perhaps,
after all, he could train his complex
ion to harmonic with silver armor.
After which, they walked home to-
| gether, each strangely at peace with
! the world and with the other.
He was thinking of all these things
as he walked down the street that Oc-
! tober afternoon. He was also thinking
that his hair was very sparse on the
top of his head, and about the tenn
pies, where it was yet of respectable
thickness, it was rapidly turning gray.
I He was old, he told himself, horribly
old. Perhaps he was thinking of the
| discrepancy between twenty and thir-
| ty-eight.
The trend of his thoughts was infu-
enced by clipping he had cut from
the morning paper and which he car
| ried in an inner pocket. 1t stated that
Mrs. Thomas Worthington Allen and
her daughter, Margaret, had arrived
on the Deutschland the day before,
| after a two years residence abroad.
1t also cited the rumored engagement
| of Miss Allen to Cecil Clay Hether-
| ington, who would succeed to the title
| of the estates of his uncle, the Earl of
Danforth. He mentally reviewed the
contents of the clipping with a strange
sinking of his heart. He tried to
cheer himself by an appeal to his sense
of humor.
Imagine me in silver armor," he
mused Then, as the sinking feeling
refused to depart, he sighed heavily.
mo fool like an old fool" he OBJ
served to neighboring gatepost.
He climbed the steps of rather pre-
tentious house and rang the bell. He
asked for Miss Margaret Allen. and
the card he presented bore the name
of John Hamilton Knox. Yet a few
moments later when they stood to-
gether in the library she was saying,
knew you'd be the first to come
Rock-a-Bye Man." and he was re-
peating Peepers-Peepers," in a rath-
er awed tone as if trying to assure
himself that it was really she
1t was not until he rose to go that
he preached the matter of her en-
gagement. For the first time in his
life he approached a subject clumsily,
After which, he haltingly congra tu-
lated her. At the door he turned and
faced her
Peepers," he said very gently, 1.-The
Prince Charming has come as l told
you. And you didn't have to get your
mother to hide you in the chimney
closet Sometimes / used to hope you
would-in fact, I've always hoped it;
but with all my riding lessons I
couldn't sit that white charger re-
specially, and my complexion stin
quarrels with silver armor"
He saw her eyes overflow and one
tear hang irresolutely on the end of
her nose as in the haystack days.
Great Scott" he cried in sudden
contrition, what am 1 saying? For