Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-29

DAILY SHORT STORY
A GRADUATES STORY.
lOriginal-l

before q cheerful fire, you promised
| me when I became Of age you would
tell me that story of your student life.
I'm twenty-one today"
well, Frank, I'll keep my promise.
When l was in college 1 made the ac-
quaintance of a girl we will call Nam
cy. You see. your mother might be
jealous. and I wouldn't like her to
know the girls real name. Nancy and
1 kept getting spoonier and spOonier.
and. her father getting on to the stu
alton. forbade me the house. 1t wasn't
that he had any objection TO me except
that I was only college boy with two
years of study before me, besides
course in agriculture. TO he taken aft
er graduation. As for Nancy, he pro-
posed that she should spend three or
four years more on her education. Per
haps If he had let us alone we might
have got over il in time without max
ing ninnieS of ourselves. As il was,
he drove us into one Of the silliest per-
formances on record-an elopement
THE time we chose for this absurdity
WAS in midwinte-. just after one of the
heaviest snowstorms we had had in
y
up Nancy OH. the road take her in
my sleigh tn the junction, get spliced
there drive her back and say nothing
about the matter till we had finished
our education. Nancy was at the place
of rendezvous all done up in furs and
with n pair of cheeks which the frost
tinged with the hue of red apples.
She jumped into the sleigh, l pulled
up the robe. and we started.
Nancy told me that her father was
suspicious of her. and she thought he
had been watching her, so / had bet
ter drive pretty fast. This 1 did so
far as l could, but the road between
our college town and the junction Is
billy. and the SNOW was deep and I'M
trodden with occasional bad drifts. So
our progress was necessarily slow.
Nancy kept looking back uneasily, and
when we reached the top of rise
about a mile from the town Nancy,
upon CHANGING to the rear, gave my
arm q grip. eXclaiming:
"'Oh. my goodness gracious"
Turning my head, l saw sleigh
descending the next slope behind us
drawn by two horses, who We're gallOp-
ing through the snow, scattering it like
spray. OF course l knew we were fol-
lowed. and. giving the horse Il cut. we
started down our decline. scattering
snow in the same fashion. But |
knew that one horse was 10 match for
two horses with an equal load. and IT
occurred TO me that our plan would be
nipped unless l could hit upon a STRAIT
agem.
Nancy l said, I'm going to drop
you i'm drift
What forT she asked.
"T'Il do it when your father is on
the other side of the rise and can't see
us
"'But what will l do there|
"'Lie low till he has passed, then
walk home He hasn't seen who is In
this sleigh: the back is too high, and
the robe behind is above our heads
"'All right said Nancy. This looks
like a good place we're coming to-
Il pulled up beside a drift more than
ten feet deep and, that l should not
show any tracks, took Nancy up and
tossed her feet foremost into it. The
snow was light. She went down three
quarters OF her length and wriggled
down the rest of the way. i drove on
and when i got TO the top of the next
hill looked back. In few minutes the
pursuing sleigh appeared. and l knew
/ had not been seen dropping Nancy.
kept up a good pace, hoping to draw
her father on so far that he wouldn't
run against her Oh the way back. led
him as far as the bridge. when 1 slowed
l,,, To
saw no one In the sleigh he looked |
mystiied for moment, then
said savagely:
You young rascal. what have you
got under that robe?'
Nothing
"'Yes. YOU have. You students think |
you're a match for Satan in deviltry.
but you can't fool me. Pull up the
robe
Il drew I'D the robe so that he could |
see the bottom Of the sleigh. He was
But, too disgruntled to |
apologize for his mistake, he turned /
about without a word and drove back /
to town. It's four miles between the /
town and the junction, and since had
dropped Nancy a mile from the town l
knew she would have plenty of time to
get back home. s..o
when l saw her again she told me
that when her father came in he said
nothing to her about her ride. but later
asked her where she had been.
ITO Aunt Sarah's,' she answered"
1.-The little liarr' put I'm Eleanor Not
kins.
"Liarf" exclaimed the mother in
dignantiy. Not at all. She stopped at
Aunt Sarah's on her way home SO that
Aunt Sarah would confirm what she /
intended to tell her father"
why. mother" asked Eleanor, what
do you know about it?'
The mother. with n vexed smile, bent
again over her work.
"She ought to know" said the Ia
Their, with a twinkle in his eye. ''She's
Nancy"