The San Francisco call., 1905-03-31
:. NOV OR NEVER ::
By MHRTF1H n WILLIAMS
N lilly wHARTONS coming did
not surprise Joe in the least. She
had known something out of the

] Id
not surprise Joe in the least. She
had known something out of the
common was going to happen
ever since Saturday, when she
had seen the new moon clear, had a
black cat follow her home, and then
dreamed of getting safe across a clear
| running stream. All these were omens
OF good luck. 1t was the best sort of
! luck to have a boarder in the big front
room upstairs, gentleman, evident
ly, craving quiet. solitude, and country
fare. Mrs. Greer, Joe's stepmother,
had been set against boarders; she
would have none of them even yet but
for that dreadful doctors bill. She had
! been at deaths door last winter, her
: hrst real illness. Though the doctor
was in no hurry for his fees, her in
dependence chAfed nightly against
having him wait.
Therefore, Joe had had no new sum-
mer frocks. Therefore, also, she was
not going to pienics and parties and
hings-'anywhere. indeed, but to
clothes might be regarded as a sign
or piety rather than poverty. The
board money would change all that.
/ In fancy Joe saw herself brave in new
winter finery, holding up her head
with the best. Her head had not really
dropped. for she was by nature
spirited and full of fun. But the step
mother was little morbid on the
point of Joe's lacks, in. fear Ii might
be said she neglected the girl, whom,
/ it was well known, she cid not love.
Still they had got on fairly together
! until the epoch of Ransom Farley.
He was Mrs. Greer's nephew. and
prospective heir, hence 1t seemed to
him but right and natural that he
gage on the farm. Mrs. Greer had
fetched her husband and his daughter
home with her to live, and the Greer
estate had been turned into cash and
used to free the homestead from sum
dry membranes. Thus common in
terest had kept the two women to-
gether after Squire Greer died. Ran
som thought it beautifully fit that they
should go on living together and let
ting him take care of them. At least
that was his way of saying 1t. Joe
snapped that the care-taking would be
all the other way. She had hated
Ransom as a pink -andwhite curly
haired model child. She did not hate
him less now that, although his curls
were cropped and his complexion was
somewhat tanned. he still held him.
, sell TO Inc mOQel SCanOdFQ.
Joe was slim and dusky-lithe as
q sapling, with floss-like hair and
eyes out1ashing black diamonds. Wild
roses blushed in her olive cheeks, her
lips were cherry red, her voice full of
flute notes. Billy Wharton had
weakness for pretty girls; he made love
to all Fate threw in his way. Natur-
ally he made love to Joe. Naturally,
a]so he made her love him. He was
the man of her dreams, in every way
the opposite of Ransom. and very un-
like any of the farmer lads or callow
city youngsters with whom she had
been brought in contact. But because
she loved Billy with heart and soul
and strength, she flouted him, laugh
ed at him, made a pretense of quar-
reling and so kept him puzzled as to
her frame of mind. Puzzlipg over a
very pretty girl is bad for the affec-
tions If the puzzIer wishes to escape
free. But Billy did not know that in
time. He tried all man might to
read this maiden riddle. He had been
quite fair he thought--had told her
in the outset he couldn't afford to
marry until he was gray and bald.
"Tve nothing in the world now but
myself, he had said. And though
space rates give decentish living for
one, it's little short of criminal un-
dertaking to make them furnish ra-
tions for two" Then straightway he
had made Joe guide him to the deep
est pool of the trout brook and stay
with him at the stream side all
through a summer morning. In course
of the talk there she had somehow
gathered that a long time ahead,
when certain lives and leases lapsed,
Billy would have snug maintenance.
Possibly the information had its