The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-03-18

| way, and he see Bob Skillet on the
square when he got to town. He left
| them flowers. Mrs Windy sent 'em to
We. 1 didn't bring 'em."
THANK you for arranging them"
She turned even redder than she al
ways was and answered nothing, Wig
| orously darling her brush at an imag-
mary fly on the cloth. After several
minutes she said abruptly, You're vel
| come" 3H
There was q silence, finally broken
by long, gasring sigh. Astonished,
| he looked at the girl. Her eyes were
set unfathomably upon his pink tie.
The wand had dropped from her nerve
less hand, and she stood rapt and Inn
movable. She started violently from
her trance. "Ain't We goin' to finish
yer coffee" she asked, plying her in
strument again, and, bending slightly.
! whispered, Say, Eph Watts is over
there behind ye."
At a table in a far corner of the room
| q large gentleman in a brown frock
coat was quietly eating his breakfast
! and reading the Herald. He was of an
ornate presence, though entirely neat.
A sumptuous expanse of linen exhibit
I! ed itself between the lapels Of his low
cut waistcoat, and an inch of bedia-
monded breastpin glittered there like
an ice ledge on snowy mountain side.
He had a steady blue eye and a dissi-
pated iron gray mustache. This per-
sonage was Mr.. Ephraim Watts, who,
following calling more fashionable in
the eighteenth century than in the lat
! ter decades of the nineteenth, had
| shaken the dust of Carlow from his
feet some three years previously at the
strong request Of the authorities. The
Herald had been particularly insistent
| upon his deportation. In the local
! phrase, Harkless had run him out O.
! town" Perhaps it was because the
Herald's opposition, as the editor had
explained at the time, had been mere
" moral and impersOnal," and the ed
itor had confessed to a liking for the
unprofessional qualities of Mr.. Watts,
that there was but a slight embarrass-
| ment when the two gentlemen met to-
day. His breakfast finished, Harkless
went over to the other and extended
his hand. Cynthia, the waitress, held
her breath and clutched the back of a
chair. However, Mr.. Watts made no
motion toward his well known hip
pocket. Instead he rose, flushing slight
ly, and accepted the hand offered him.
''I'm glad to see you, Mr. Watts"
said the journalist cordially. "And
also, if you are running with the cir
Gus and calculate on doing business
here today, I'll have YOU fired out Of
town perore noon. How are your
You're looking extremely we'll"
"Mr. Harkless," answered Watts, 81
cherish no hard feelings, and l never
said but what you done exactly right
when 1 left, three years ago. No, sir;
Pm not here in a professional way at
all, and l don't want to be molested.
I've connected myself with an oil COM
pany, and Pm down here to look over
the ground. 1t beats poker and fantan
all hollow, though there amt as many
oil it's the farmer that gets the rakeoff.
I've come back, but in an enterprising
spirit this time, to open up a new field
| and shed light and money in Carlow.
| They told me never to show my face
here again, but if you say l stay l
guess 1 can. I always was sure there
was oil in the county, and I want to
prove it for everybody's benefit. Is it
! all rightY
my dear fellow" laughed the young
I man, shaking the gamblers hand again,
cit is all right. I have always been
sorry had to act against you. Every
thing is all right. Stay and bore to
Korea, if you like. Did ever you see
| such glorious weather."
'I'll let you in on some shares" Watts
| called after him as he turned away.
The other nodded In reply and was
leaving the room when Cynthia detain-
ed him by a flourish of her fly brush.
"Say," she said-she always called him
"Say"-"you've forgot yer flower"
He came back and thanked her. "Will
you pin it on for me, CharmionT"
! 81 don't know what call you got to
! speak to me out of my name" she re-
sponded, looking at the floor modify.
"Why" he asked, surprised
| 81 don't see why you want to make
fun Of me-"
81 beg your pardon, Cynthia" he said
gravely. 81 didn't mean to do that.
haven't been considerate. didn't think
you'd be displeased. I'm very sorry.
| Won't you pin 1t on my coatT
Her face was lifted in grateful pleas
! ure, and she began to pin the rose to his
f; lapel Her hands were large and red
and trembled. She dropped the flower
[ and, saying huskily. 81 don't know as 1
| could do it right" seized violently upon
! q pile Of dishes and hurried from the
! room.
: Harkless rescued the rose, pinned it
on his coat himself, with the internal
observation that the red haired wait
ress was the queerest creature in the
village, and set forth upon his holiday.
! Mr.. Lige Willetts, stalwart bach
elor, the most eligible in Carlow, and
a habitual devotee Of Minnie Briscoe,
was seated on the veranda when Hank
less turned in at the gate of the brick
house. "The ladies will be down right
off, he said, greeting the editors cool
finery with perceptible agitation and
the editor himself with friendly shake
MEXICAN