The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17

be taken for a thief again. why. what's become of the little girlg" he went on., looking round the room For Mary had stolen away at the | first opportunity. ashamed and not ' wholly satisfed with the strangers treatment Of herself. Its not likely she'd stay in the same i room with q fellow that tied her hands and gagged her mouth" said Eben, | much pleased that his od-looking aud romantically found brother should have 1 offended pretty Mary Gold!ng. | Dut Joe would not be satisfied until ! he had apologised 60 the young. girl, and so Eben. reluctantly enough. went | in search of her, and q meeting between her and ihe prodigal took place in :he dusk of the garden.
 She started when she saw him. for | he had discarded his board with re | marsable swiftness. that hirsute ap. pendage having been an arfless dis gEise. mounted on wire. intended 10
 give him the requisite fierceness of ar- pearance for the bushrangcr he was supposed to represent.
 Without it. Joe not only looked rc- l markedly young for his age, which WAS thirty-seven. hut so strikingly like his | father that Mary remembered certain words of her own with reddening rheek.
 | SFc Suu ever GoiilS to lOISlNt i Miss Golding. for my rough behavior | to you this afternoon 2" said he. in tho
 most contrite manner in the world. You shouldn't have gagged me-"
 said Mary. trembling very much. "You | frishtened me dreadfully. dreadful1y.' Why. couldn't you tell that was | only playing?" said he, gently. T can scarcely believe. you know, that you were as frightened as you say" 1 Mary was silent. She was conscious that she had not been sa frightened l as she pretended. So she presently after allowing him to spend sometime ! in apologies, discreetly and distsntly ' forgave him. and primly expressed q f hope that he would not do any more alarming things of that kind, as people l were not nsed to them in England.
 whatever they might be in the bush. | So that in the end she sent him Into | the long parlor again very humblt. very much ashamed of himself. but
 withaI serious and rather excited. so
 that his father asked him what had | happened.
 .Nothing--at present. dad. said he, ''But look here. you ought to celebrate
 the prodigafs return In some way, | oughtn't you?'
 well. so we will. so. we will. Joe" Joe stood up, with a smile on his 1 face Its not the fatted calf that l | ' ''but--oh. we'll. I'll let you know what | it Is by-and-bye." l Eben and Tom drowned uneasily. | They guessed that they were out of | the running now.
 Its always the way" Tom remark. ed to Eben the next morning. when the Christmas bells were rin ging, and Mary | and Joe started for the church togeth- CT, leaving the others to bring un in
 the rear. "A woman. a spaniel, and a
 walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they be. If you or me, | Eben, had treated her like what this ! Joe did. why, she'd have worshipped us. bIest If she wouidn't"' Eben agreed heartily with this sem | timent. and shook his head in proper disgust.
 But what with Joe's return and tho romance that had spontaneously sprung I up as result of it, even Eben and Tom | had to admit that 1t was the merriest Christmas they had ever spent at the | old farm