Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-01-16

.EIal has been engaged in more se- rious business than laughing or mak- ing laughter. You cannot expect him to be amused by the trivialities which divert your inferior mind"
 "If defending the flag against assaults In summer islands makes a man so glum there are more important moral than political disadvantages in buying up job lots of vagrant soil."
 T am only waiting with intense ex- citement for my fate," remonstrated Hal. ''You were not so frisky, either, until you found out that Fortune had not great evil treasuring up to throw at you"
 '.Ah, here 1t is,' said Mrs. Lacey, with a shriek of delight. T know 1t is worth waiting for. Nothing bad could be shut up in so pretty a box"
 Hal opened his treasure and took peep at what it contained-a tiny gold ring with pearl like drop of dew ly- ing in alily-shaped setting. He thought the happiest moment of his life had been when he put that ring on Kittie's slender white finger. She had given it back to him when the quarrel came, but he had begged her to keep it and some time when she might feel the old love return to send it to him as token of forgiveness.
 "But I shall never send it back" she had said.
 Still he had tried to hope that some time she would have need of him and that she might send him the mute invi- tation to come back to her Now 1t had come to him on the cord of fate. He put the little box into his pocket with an air of carelessness and fixed his eyes attentiyely upon Mrs. Lacey. who was proceeding with her story with re- newed interest and enthusiasm. But Hal was not thinking of the story. He did not care about the youth in the thorny wilderness, remembering how far he had wandered in the wilderness in the three years that had passed since he had last sat at Mrs. Laceys hospita- ble table and listened to Halloween yarns, He could not recollect that he had ever known how that fatal quarrel had arisen. He only knew that all the stars went out and he was alone among the thorns.
 The company was again absorbed in the fate of the unfortunate lovers in the moonlight and Hal chose convenient moment to slip out unobserved. He pushed aside the heavy curtain where the chief deity of the Halloween cere-, monial had entered and passed out into B wide corridor. down which he walked till he came to a closedadoOr. He was about to knock, thinking that possibly his fate lay within, when a cry, low but thrilled with terror, came from behind the door. He opened it hastily and en- tered a dim room. Opposite the door was a fireplace before which was the black-robed figure trying to beat back the flames that had caught the folds of her dress and were mounting to her face. He sprang forward, catching 9 heavy cover from 9 table in the center of the floor, and in a moment had thrown itaround her and crushed out the flames in its folds.
 The head which had fallen helplessly on his shoulder was lifted and the face of Kittie Winston, white with recent terror, yet with a certain lunninant joy looking forth, turned toward him.
 tsOh, Hal!' her voice quayered out with&a sob breaking throag sits pa thetic music, Aybu have saved my life ?
 That's nothing, -Sittie",'
 Indeed" she retorted with assumed Indignation That may be true, but 1t isn't polite for you to tell me so.'
 'Oh Kittie, you know what I mean. I would be thankful to save your life from every possible peril every day of : the world if you would. only put into words the message which Fate has brought me in this little ring" ' Not in speech was the message con- ] frmed. but the brown eyes that looked 1 Up into his face seemed to convey satis- l factory meaning.
 After all, she said, a little later, .ooking down at some charred frag- 1 -snts of her robeslying by the hearth,
 cl see I res.ty c..G> Eesd you, TFal'