St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-02

| slunk away with the appropriate re-
mark about his time coming in the
| distant future. The brave Harold had
Deen prettily thanked by the. grateful
| Jessica, and had obtained permission
to escort her to the house. He was
strolling back down the lane VIXEN
suddenly Jack Darlington sprang
through the hedge Curse you!" he
cried.
His further comments upon the situ-
alton were postponed and Scribner
echoed the curse. Two letters had ap-
parently raced up to the paper togeth-
er and were locked in deadly embrace.
incidentally they were tangled up in
the ribbon.
I They were. disentangled through the
kind offices of the screwdriyer, and
Darlington was able to complete his
heated conversation with Vane, who
left him, bleeding and senseless, in the
line.
Politely ignoring the possibility of
Darlington suing out warrant for
assault and battery, Scribner skipped
few hours and brought the hero to
the feet OF the lovely Jessica that
evening.
He was on his knees in his best
dress trousers pouring out his tale of
love from the depths of his impas-
stoned soul.
Jessica was strangely moyed-but
the typewriter stuck.
The carriage rode on an oiled bar at
the back. This oil was old and gum
my. The Oil on Scribner's old machine
never had q chance to grow gummy.
1t took him II minutes to find out
what the matter was and another five
to remedy the trouble and try to wash
the oil from his hands, 8 as
Then he, proceeded to get Harold off
his knees and made JessicaE promise
to marry him in spite of his poverty
when who should burst into the room
but the rich Jack Darlington. ID
"See!" he cried. exultingly. stShe
can never be yours. l have here a
mortgage on her fathers mill, long
since overdue. Let her refuse to mar
~ me and l will foreclose" &s
With a spring like an enraged
tfgress Jessica grasped the fatal paper
and held it up. In this she was slav-
ishly copying the machine. It had been
holding the paper up for the last three
lines, which had been written over
each other The spring Of the paper
shift had broken and Scribner had
failed to see it.
He patched it up with q rubber band
and Jessica, relieved from her strained
position, was about to throw the mort
gage into the fire, which burned bright
ly in the open crate. Before she could
accomplish her purpose Darlington
was upon her and ere Harold could
interfere he had grasped her roughly
by the. shoulder. Her light dress
brushed across the Goals and in an in
slant her slight, girlish figure was in
flames.
Harold sprang toward her and the
rubber band sprang toward the CELL
ing. Scribner left Jessica blazing mer-
rily away while he climbed down four
flights of stairs to purchase some more
bands.
With the second elastic in place he
quickly extinguished the flames with
Harold's invaluable assistance. Then
1t all came out that Harold was the
rightful heir to the Darlington for
tune and that Jack Darlington was an
imposter. Harold married Jessica and
gave Darlington a thousand dollars to
go west with and start life over again.
They were back from the wedding
and in their happy home Harold vane
EMBODIED his wife in his loving arms
He led her to the mantel on which lay
the fateful paper with which Darning-
ton had threatened them
"And now, my darling" he said, ten
derby, as he took up the charred parch-
ment, "as the real heir of old John
Darlington shall consign this instru-
ment to-"
Hell fire." concluded Scribner. re-
ferring to the type machine, as with
another whirr the tension spring broke
down completely.
And even after that the editors re-
fused the story, asserting that it lacked
Scribner's usual smoothness of style. |
IN. Y. Times. s-.-a.-.g.