The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-19
HOW TIE AUTO DID IT.
By irving Crane.


 che would 20 to police station. peiore ahe would submit to be swindied, crowd began to gather
 Harry Finchly was in the crowd. He promptly espoused the cause nf the women, and was struck by caosT's whip. In return he pulled csbby an inc box and flung Rim abput in the ; dust until the man looked like a bua ile of lost rags. Then, nc policeman hav- ing appeared to interfere with the ma tura1 course of events, the women were escorted to hctel.
 Cards were exchanged and thanks re- turned, and "all's we'll that ends welT' would have been the finish had not young Mir. Finchiy decided that Miss Maxie was an extremely fine looking girl 1t had been at least a year since he had met her equal Within two hours he was longing for another look into her brown eyes, and recalling with satisfaction what wealth of hair she had, how white and even were her teeth and what a cute dfmple orna- rnented her chin. At the end of twenty four hours romance and love were at work
 Of course Harry had been invitef tc call if he ever found himself In West chester County. Miss Mazie. who did most of the talking to him as well as to the cabmarl,e couldn't do less than issue this invitation, but she hadn't the least idea that her rescuer would ever take the trouble to travel their way. A surprise was in store for her. He made cali within week, and he took pains to thoroughiy identify, himself.
 His trip into the country was made in his automobile, and it soon became q regular thing for him to be seen slit- ting over the roads once a week. Mr. Jefferson liked him. Mrs Jefferson thought he was very proE or man in- deed, and Mazie--weli she wasn't tell ing her thought, but if they hadn't fav- ored the young man in general way he would have found her confined tc her room with convenient headschs.
 An acquaintance begun in April had progressed to September without a thing to mar 1t. 1t he'd ripened lnte friendship, at least and there were signs that it was nearing the critical point. Then one day Harry Finchly aid an unwise thing. In his guileless and innocent way he mentioned that he had given a little dinner to little actress the night before. In an instant the brown eyes that had been full of laugh ter began to harden.
 He saw that he had made a mistake and he began to hedge. That is, he ex- plained that the mother of ths little actress was at the dinner. The point of Miss Mazie's nose seemed to turn up. Mir Finchiy further explained that two aunts and two uncies of the actress were also at the dinner. Half minute later he was protesting that he would never have given the dinner but for tho fact that the little actress seemed to be hungry and he felt sorry for her. It had not been much of a dinner any how. He had sat at one end of the dining room and the actress at the other, and they had chewed olives and drank poor claret and confined thcir conversation to the. weather.
 In fact, Mr. Finchly did all possible in the next few minutes to repair his blunder. He even went the length of fin onh eye and was probably twenty years older than she claimed to me, but when he had finished and could protest nc more Miss Mazie asked to be excuHs ed for a moment and he felt 2 chiIt around his heart. The mother came into the parlor to entertain him, and although both made Q great effort, con versation dragged.
 When Miss Mazie walked out of the parlor she simply wanted to be alone for ten minutes to, recover her 5self- possession. She was furious at the lite file actress. at Mir. Finchly and at her. self, but she didn't want the second person mentioned to even suspect such a state of affaira. She would smooth the lines out of her face, coax back a smile and return to him and say thar she always had admired little actress es!
 Her intentions were good and pslitic and diplomatic. but her temper got the best of her Under the big walnut tree at the gate stood Mir. Finchiy's auto. He always acted as his own chauffeur. Twenty times over he had taken the Jeffersons out for a spin, and Miss Mazie had entertained an idea for some time that she knew all about the run ming of the machine.
 As she walked about to calm herself she caught sight of the auto and there was mischief. in her eyes as she ran toward it and climbed in. She actually did know enough to start the thing and get headed down the broad turnpike Perhaps she knew enough to stop and turn, but the sensation of being alone gave her a helpless feeling. She put on speed instead of diminishing tt, and in the course of five minutes she was whizzing down that old colonial cow trail in away that made the telephone pole sit up and wonder
 The first living thing met was a trusting and confiding calf that had es- -caped from a field and was wandering at large to broaden It's nina when h saw a cloud of dust coming down the pike it trusted that windfall of rich green grass was to be had for the pick ing up. It advanced to the middle of the road with eyes bulging out, and ten seconds later woke up in A far dis tant spot and in a mussed-up cendi- ton. Miss Magic had the steering wheel in hand. In fact she was froz- en to it. She could hold the old ma chine reasonably straight in the middle of the road, but she was helpless ba- yond that
 The next incident was a load of hay Q with two farmers on top They were men who had never harmed a human being and they had no idea that any' human being wanted to harm them Rude was their awakening. They held the middle of the road until they saw that the auto meant to run into them head-on Then they swerved and began to gesticulate and yell to the white faced girl They said "darn it and "dun1 it" and "by goshw and succeeded in saving their lives. One hind wheel of the wagon was chopped of by the auto. however, and as the machine careened onward 1t also carried with it a fair-sized haystack!
 ''oh, Harryg" walled the girl as she turned a corner and felt the machine