Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-12-02


will. It's our only hopper and the por
there's fell on their retreating foot
steps.
when Royal looked consciously into
Sweetheart's eyes for the first time In
weeks he tainted. When he recovered
the doctor withdrew, and then, though
the girl begged him not to talk, he in
sisted upon telling her the truth-thai
he had not run to her assistance, as
we all believed. but had in his terror
| utterly forgotten her.
Pm coward" he protested in
agony, and not fit to look in your
| face
"Then Sweetheart. at her wits end
| for his safety, said-what had in no.
wise been in her mind a. moment be-
fore
well, I'm going to marry you, any
how; I've sent for a minister, and
Wen be married right here in half an
hour. If what you've been telling
me now is true, and not some night.
mare of a weary brain, you're a hun.
dred times Drawer than we all believed
you-just the telling makes a hero of
you
"a light seemed to break over the sick
man-perhaps, after all, there were
different kinds of cowardice. He lay
very still for while, thinking, in his
weak, dazed way-and then:
"'Do you know, Sweetheart he said,
L think somehow I'm not afraid of-of
animals any more; couldn't we have a
"a lion at our-wedding"
Sweetheart laughed.
Wouldn't a dog door a COW?
ono he returned, with the child
ish persistency Of the weak, I want a
lionp
"'Well make tour of menageries
on our wedding trip she smiled.
mo he pleaded Che had evidently
accepted unquestioningly her arrange
ment for immediate nuptials); it will
be a long time before we can take q
wedding trip-and L want the lion at
the wedding-nowr
Then the doctor came back, and
took in the situation, after a word or
two. His patient was cured even be-
yond his hopes, but he chung to the
within, which was, in truth, just the re-
fex phantom of his madness-he
craved childishly now the one thing
he had all his life dreaded.
"'Would a bear dog the old man
asked, as if the sick mans desire
were the most natural thing conceiv,
able.
eyes, a bear will do Royal ant
swered, for all the world like a little
child deciding upon a new toy.
Sweetheart opened her eyes, but
held her peace.
"'All right, We'll have one here by
daylight-and the minister'll be here,
too, and you'll be we'll man before
You know it,
sit was certainly the weirdest cere.
mony ever seen. The December dawn
was just creeping through the shut
ters-the big, brown cub, whose mother
the clergyman from the other side of
the mountain had killed two winters
before, and which had since lived in
his house and grown up with his chill
dren, sat solemnly on the bed. Roy's
arm about his neck, while his other
hand rested in Sweethearts, and tho
clergyman himself stood before the
three, reading the service. For some
reason the cub seemed to
take violent fancy to Roy, and was
to leave him when his mas
ter'Sf duties were over, so we let him
stay, and Royal fondled him as he
never had even a dog in all the other
years of his life. When at last he
was able to be moved. and the Cali
fornia trip was replanned for the three,
the cubs master was induced to part
with the pet. and when l last heard
Of then-they had settled near Bos'
ton, 1 think-the big, brown cub was
still one of the family, which had been
also, by little Royal, whose
he was, and who loved all
four-footed things as he did his own |
l1ith and kin'-New York Times.