Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-01-25


"Isa!" softly pleaded Florence, Int
ing her white palms, as if to ward off
this sudden gust of breezy defiance.
"And the hay would have been
spoiled if | hadn't helped to get it
in; and poor old John Knight would
have been discharged for forgetting;
and, besides, wasn't Maud Muller, in
the poem, haymaker? and did any
one dare to criticise herr
Il am sure" mildly commenced
Miss Mallandaine.
"Oh don't make any apologies"
said little Isa, with her retrousse nose
in the air, and two red spots on her
cheeks. "And tell your brother, Miss
Nellie, that I am as little anxious to
make his acquaintance as he is mine.
And exit lisa, not without some
slight emphasis on the closing of the
door.
Fred laughed a little when the
younger Miss Fane's defiant message
was brought to him.
"She need not be alarmed" he said.
There is no sort of probability that
we shall be brought into contact with
each other"
But MAN proposes and God dis
poses!" says the sparkling proverb;
and the week was not out before Mr..
Frederick Mallandaine, strolling
among the picturesque woods which
surrounded the old house which the
paterfamilias had taken for the sum-
mer, found himself in a ruined saw
mill, where tall, sweet fern bushes
grew through the yawning crevices
of the mol1ering floor, and the sun
beams sifsed like misty lines of gold
between the cracks in the roof above.
There must be a view from that
peak" said Fred to himself; and
springing up slight ladder, which
reared Itself from beam to beam, he
picked his way across the perilous
flooring to the window, which looked
out over a breezy stretch Of vale and
upland, where the blue windings of
river flashed in the sunshine, and the
undulatiOns of distant mountain
chain, seemed to close up the horizon
with its purple gateways.
AS he stood there, feasting his eyes
upon the prospect, slight noise be-
low attracted his ear; he hurried to
the edge of the floor, only in time TO
discover that the ladder, his sole
means of escape, was walking off upon
the shoulders of a stout, silver-haired
old man, who whistled cheerfully as
he went.
"Halloa!" he shouted. Hold on
there, my man! Where are you going
with that ladder?"
No answer-no response of any ma
ture.
rs the man deaf?" cried Fred, in a
sort of frenzy
That was precisely what old John
Knight was. AS deaf as the proverb-
ial post!
Pretty lisa Fame was waiting for him
on the edge of the ruins, holding up
one pretty finger.
Huh, john" said she. Don't you
hear some one calEng?"
Il didn't mind anybody" said old
John, whoe dull ears could catch Isa's
clear, sweet voice, when all the shout
ing of the farmhands was inaudible
to him.
'It must be the owls, or some one
shooting squirrels in the glen, may
be-"
NO. said lisa, crisply; sits voice
calling. Stay here, John, until come
back
John stood still, contentedly, with
the ladder on his shoulder, while his
young mistress hurried up the steep
bank as fast as she could.
"Who is it?" she cried, in voice
sweet and shrill as a thrush's MARBLE.
ct is II" responded Mr.. Fred Nal
landaine, plaintively. II climbed UP
here, and now someone has taken
the ladder away and can't get back"
lisa stood there, tall, slight, brown
checked, with her hands clasped be-
hind her back, and the wind blowing
fler chestnut curls about, while a mis-
chevious light scintillated under her
long, dark eyelashes.
"Oh," said she, Il understand. You
are Mr. Mallandaine?"
And you are Miss lisa Fane?" said
ne coloring and biting his lip.
Exactly" responded the girl.
"And here is an excellent opportunity
for me to be avenged. You nave call
ed me an Amazon, a farm-boy's assist
ant-all manner of names; and you
are at my mercy now
YES" confessed Mr.. Mallandaine,
penintently. It's all true"
Don't you think it would serve you
right" went on lisa, severely, "If l
sent old John home with the ladder,
instead of recalling him to your as
sistance?"
eff course it would" said Mallan-
dame.
$50 do l." said lisa; "but l mean
to be magnaminous. John-JOhn."
Clear and flute-like her voice sound
ed down the glen, and old Johns