The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-02-11

/ Ld0LAg LNIACu LIZ 4A44NS ODOuL Tic 4OA1
poles and slowed them away as best
be might in the covered buggy that he
had procured in the village the shad-
ows were already long and pensive.
When he reached the village the hush
of early twilight lay on the broad, dec
orous streets which were almost desert
ed. Their very emptiness, however,
Z was full of suggestive cheer. Pictures
of broad, low rooms with bOuntifully
/ spread supper tables, on which feath-
I cry biscuit, cold chicken and preserves
made tempting array, rose before his
dreamy eyes; cheerful. natural faces
4 doomed in the thick, red lElt of old
/ fashioned lamps; the rag carpets, rock
/ ing chairs and secretaries-all the de-
tails Of the rural household scene were
yividly, pleasurably before him.
/ Behind him the long poles dipped
! with a rhythmlcal, monOtonous motion
rs the horse logged evenly along At
! The crossing Of two streets the slight,
graceful figure Of a girl paused for him
TO pass. In the shadowy light she
seemed like a spirit-the spirit of the
advancing night
! Thus sunk, lost, wrapped in revery,
he drove on, the poles waving up and
down behind him like long, hungry ten
/ tacles, exploring the evening air for
/ something TO catch and hold A jolt
and a rumble and the buggy rolled
I - "a
| sent the poles dipping lower tan ever,
and then the tentacles hooked some.
thing hooked It tight and after a brief
7 resistance on the part of the hooked
thing, which manifested a strong in
clination to remain where 1t was-lift-
ed it high in triumph and maliciOusly
! disappeared down the dusky street,
I leaving a paralyzed. shadowy shape
staring after 1t with astOunded eyes.
! For a moment the girl stood speech
/ less, bewildered. TO have her hat sud-
denly plucked from her head as if by
a hand thrust from the sky in sleepy
/ little village Of the new world-well.
II was an experience that stopped her
mental machinery with a jerk.
Had it been in Greece in the year
something or other B. c. it would have
been applicable as the deed Of some
goddess. jealous and angered at the
I beauty of her love OF a hat. Jealous
gOddesses, she recalled, had done even
more extraordinary things than snatch
| ing a mortal'S hat
Or had it been later, in medieval
/ times, she might have aScribed this
hat lifting to black magic. But in the
United States of America in the year
Of 1905 neither Of taSse explanations
could hold, and that was the reason
she stood as If she had taken root
while these thoughts shot rapidly
through her mind.
Meanwhile her hat, dancing up and
down in a tantalizing, diabolical fash
ion, as if to wave her a mOcking fare
well, was being borne, slowly but in
exOrably, into the CLEANING. Before
she recovered the power Of speech and
motion the buggy was halfway down
the block She made a step after it,
then. stopped She had a sharp, hui
morous vision Of herself, hatleSs and
disheveled, pursuing that dancing,
mOcking, bobbing will-O'the-wisp Of a
hat through the village streets, making
frantic, Intellectual jumps at it, as a
dog at biscuit held just beyond its
reach, and the vision caused her to
pause.
"Here! Oh, 1 say, stop, won't you?"
she called implOringly, but the quad
ruped drawing the buggy proceeded
with a dexterity that reminded her Of
the juggler who keeps four balls in the
air at the same time, while the fall Of
its hoofs came to her in more and
more distant cadence.
''Oh, man. she called desperately,
but the owner of the fishing rods was
wandering in a dream world, shifting
the damp, earthly, evening smells, com
muning with the approaching spirit Of
night, deaf 10 any but trumpet voices.
Well" she exclaimed eXplosively,
with an energy that empued her lungs
to the remotest corners. "Well, 1 ike
that I'd just like to know what I'm
going to do?"
And in answer to the query the Of
6ciOuS, Obtrttsi~e. subcOHsciOUs self
set her in motion. and she found her.
self heading toward her boarding place
TO the mOnotonOus inward wall Of,
And it's the only hat have with me"
Meanwhile the young man drove on
musingly, blissfully, until he reached
the house where he was staying, all
unconscious Of his latest and most I'm.
usual catch" The light was stream
ing warmly from the windows as he
drove past the side of the house 10 to
the barn and jumped out.
At the sight Of the dark Object dimly
visible at the end of his poles he stared
in surprise. A moment later, when he
had carried them into the patch Of
light from the nearest window, his
hands dropped hefplessly.
Ehere it was. q trim, natty hat-a wo-
mans hat, or, no, girls hat. Even TO
his cropping masculine sense there was
something coquettish. playful. alluring
about il. But there il was, held firmly
as an ensnared fish by the two sharp
hooks, surely the strangest object