The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-28

will get along all right with Jim. He hasn't had much drIvIn' lately"
 As the pacer Jlm ieft the barnyard he struck q gait and never broke 1t until he entered the town, six miles away, and Lucy drove down to the river as directed. A. dozen or more horses were being exercised, and more coming. and her advent was greeted with anything but words of welcome. The pacer was known far and wide, but the contestants were banking on the fact that Farmer Harper belonged to the church and wouldn't dare speed his horse for a purse. Most of them knew that he had a daughter Lucy, but that she would appear with the lines in her hand never entered into their calculations. They couldn't keep the girl out. but they put their heads to- gether in conspiracy. and as the field of thirty finally moved up the river to the starting point there were many mods and smiles and winks passing about. Some of the men were not sat- isfied with that, but passed remarks calculated to rattle the girl. who al- ready felt as if she were going to the dental chair to have half a dozen teeth pulled. She heard and saw, but she set her jaws and choked back her feel ings and maneuvered to get a fair start. She was crowded from all direc- tions. as was on the program, and when the word "go!" was given score of horses were before her.
 During the first half mile the girl gradually picked up one after another of the leaders until. as she was ready for that pull on the lines and cluck or two." there were only four or five in her path. These closed together to keep her in a pocket, and the scheme succeeded for a few hundred feet. Then became an opening between two of the cutters wide enough for a dog to enter, and she set the pacer at it. shut her teeth hard and thought of daddy and the meeting-house. Like a bullet from a gun the horse shot into the opening-crowded to the right--to the left-ripped an iron step off on one side and splintered a dashboard on the other. and then he was in the lead and humping" himself. The defeated and chagrined horsemen yelled and whipped and tried to break him, but swinging from right to left like a pendulum, and tearing ahead all the time like a western cyclone, Jim never missed a step and came in winner by five lengths.
 Farmer Harper had nailed the loose boards on the hog-pen, fixed the latch on the hen house door. and had chored around until he could find nothing more to do. Then he went down and leaned over the gate and watched the road to Honesdale. His good wife called to him from the side door that he was catching his death of cold, but he was deaf to her words.
 That's Lucy and Jim!" he finally said with a gasp as he caught sight of the rig a mile away. "Mebbe it's wicked to hoss-race and win a hun dred dollars, but there stands that meetin' house without any paint"
 Coming at a gait of seven or eight miles an hour. with his head up and steam blowing from his nostrils. the pacer was soon within forty rods of the waiting and impatient man. Then flesh and blood could stand 1t no long CT, and Farmer Harper waived his cap around his head and cried out:
 How is it, gal-how Is it?"
 'Why, daddy, dear. it's just this way" replied Lucy. as the paeer dashed up and came to a halt and she put a new hundred dollar bill into her fathers hand.
 And Jim w-won!" he gasped.
 ''As easy as pie."
 "And-and Is your mother looking out of the winder?'
 ''No, daddy"
 Then, by George, but I'm goin' to kiss you and hug Jim and ask Provi- dence to bless you both, and then I'll promise that there meetin'- -house shall have two coats of paint before the month of April is ten days old!"