The Yale expositor., 1906-08-17
Darkest Just Before DalUn
By Matt Heating

from the pedestrians on the sidewalk,
all of whom expected TO see the girl
mangleG TO death beneath the IRON
shod team.
Even as the gasp of emotion and
sympathy went up, however, a tall,
athletic figure, clad in the unmistak-
able habiliments of the west, swung
from the car, and, with the precision OF
the trained horseman, grasped the
rearing horses by the bride reins, and
with the strength and knowledge of
the plains threw them sideways with
force which made them swerve in
nearly a hat circle. The carriage
barely touched the unconscious form
of the girl as it swung around
A second later the big man under
the SLOUGH hat had the girl in his
arms like she was a baby, and was
strding toward the corner drug store
at a race which would have made an
ordinary man run to keep up with
him.
1t developed that the fainting fit
was not serious at all, and was due
wholly to fright and to the nervous
strain the girl had been under. There
was no physical injury at all, and she
soon recovered.
The tall stranger, however, insisted
on taking her home in a cab-she had
| never been N a cab beforehand when
he paid the cabman he pulled from his
inside pocket a roll of bills which
made Nina gasp. In all her life she
had lever seen so much money.
Nina thanked him with an express
sion in her eyes that made his heart
beat faster than it ever had thumped
in all his life, and emboldened him
to ask her if he might call on the fol-
lowing evening and ascertain if there
were any bad effects of the accident
NV lame is Thad Bunker said he,
| DlunilJ. II live in Oklahoma, and
came here with a few carloads of cat
tie. sold 'em at thundeSin' good
price, and thought would stay over
day or two and see the sights m
all-lireu glad | did, cause there dinn
seem 10 be nobody about who knew
blamed thing about a horse-and you'd
been all in in about a minute"
So he called the next night, causing
almost as much surprise to Ninas
sister and her husband and the vari-
GUS children as the cab had caused the
night before. There was a wheeZy
and puffy Old melodion in the stuffy
little ptrlor, and Nina played for Mr..
Bunker Her playing was very indif-
ferent, but Thad thought IT was the
grandest music he had overheard. and
great desire came over him to buy a
brand-rew melodion and ship ii to his
lonesome home in Oklahoma, and then
carry Nina along with him to play IL
for HIM forever. What he did, how
ever, was TO induce her to lay off from
/ her work on the following day and
show him The mysteries of the park
1t was a red-letter day in Ninas
! life in more ways than one. In the
/ first place she had never laid off from
work on week day since she could
remember. Nor had she ever been es-
corted about by a man: nor had she
ever been treated TO such a fine dinner
in so fine restaurant-in fact. never
had money been spent for her personal
pleasure
But the great thing was when he
asked her to marry him and go to Ok
lahoma with him-assuring her that
he had two sections of the best land
in the territory all under cultivation
and paid for, plenty of cattle and
money in the bank.
And she placed her hands in his
and turned to him a face so wonder
fully transformed by the thrill of
new emotion, by happiness, by relief
from the dreadful burden of sordid-
ness-so transformed, in fact, that re
scarcely recognized IL as belonging to
the wan girl he had picked from I'M
der the horses feet.
Westerners' ways are peculiar, and
Thad Bunker insisted that they should
be married the next day and leave at
once for home. as he wanted TO know,
by ginger, what them blamed boys
are doin to the cattle" And being a
big. dominant westerner, he had his
way. before they sought the preacher
the next day they went to a music
store and Thad bought the most ex-
pensive melodion in the place and had
II shipped by express, 80 Il will be-
there by the time we git there, by
ginger" said he.
And under country skies, with am
pie country fare and surrounded by
love and respect, the roses came to
Nina's face and the music sang all
the tine in her heart-and she worked
so hard on the melodion that after a
time she could really play nearly as
well as her husband thought she could.