Smyrna times., 1905-03-01

was q swift summer storm stealing
blackly up from the horizon, and the
sea mOaned as it broke in sobs along
the shore. They do that kind of thing
all right. l used to think that went
with the summer man, but it doesn't.
MacGregor Clarence Blair said he
hadn't showed up since breakfast, and
he'd seen him making a bee line for the
glen, and he'd said, whats yer hurry?"
and the professor had said he hoped
he could have one morning in peace to
study without that laundering crowd
of old maids hiking after him.
We didn't believe MacGregor. He
looks like pale, new sand fly, and his
father and mother own all of No Mans
Land. The professor never in all this
world used such words as hiking and
laundering. but MacGregor did. There
fore, [ may say, in the same common
parlance, that the whole laundering
crowd of old maids pitched in and lam
basted MacGregOr until his pretty
white linen suit was not fair to see and
his twining curls were full of sand
burs. Then he howled and retracted,
and we all went up the glen after the
professor.
The glen deepens and darkens as you
so in, and the sides are rocky and pre-
cipitOus, with much shrubbery and un-
dergrowth and scraggly pine trees list
ed to windward. And just as the first
streak of lightning quivered in the sky
we heard faint shout for help.
1t was the professor. He hung sus-
| pended in air on the bare limb of a
dead pine that jutted out from the rock
halfway up the bluff, like Genius on
| Pegasus, the widow said-on petrified
| Pegasus.
Then Genevieve Perley, our college
product, said Pegasus couldn't be pet
rified. He would have to be Ossified.
And the widow began to cry and sat
down on a log and said she didn't care
bit either way, ossified or petrifed,
and Professor VOgel was such a lovely
man and always paid his board like a
gentleman, and she hated to see him
killed before her eyes, and she never
|
her life.
| Genevieve said fainting was counted
out. He was a fine target for light.
ming up there, and, while it was none OF
her business and she had no interest in
the professor as lovely man or in the
continuance of his regular board pay
ing, still she thought rope might be q
good thing.
'In mountainous countries" begaI
Agatha, the artist, who has been Eu
ropized, 81 believe they tie a rope
around the waist of one person.
Its the shoulders" said Genevieve
''kind of a slipknot"
The professor shouted for help again
this time fainter still.
mo; the waist" said Agatha firmly
"And lower that person over the noun
tain side until he rescues the othe
party"
Lets lower MacGregor," murmureC
Genevieve. but the widow cried anC
said her feet were getting wet and sh
didn't think it was right to joke in tn
face of death. That braced us up, be
cause the professor did look like II, s.
while the fieeting moments sped Gene
We've and I sped fleeter and fOun,
some clotheslines and couple of husk
lads in sweaters from the peanut STAN
and the boathouse, and we sped back
the glen.
Then the husky lads climbed tn
bluff on the sandy side and did tn
Alpine act with the clotheslines, assis
: ed by several ropes from the boathOus'
and before our eyes the professor wa
pulled back to life and liberty.
He is resting now. 1t is dark an
. still at the villa. No hops or mand'
Inns tonight The shock will bring hil
5 to. I think, from the botanical dreal
t and cause him to concentrate his jo
L on some loving, sympathetic heart, an
it may be your PERDITA.