The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-02-05
How the Auto
Did 1t
By IRVING CRANE
Copyright, 1905, by P. c. Eastment

Maize Jefferson and her mother had
come into the city from their country
home to do some shopping, and because
the cabman overcharged them and be-
cause Maize turned indignant and said
she would go to a police station before
she would submit to be swindled a
crowd began to gather,
Harry Finchly was In the crowd. He
promptly espcused the cause of the
women and was struck by cabby's
whip. In return he pulled cabby off
the box and flung him about In the
dust until the man looked like bundle
of lost rags. Then, no policeman hav.
ing appeared to interfere with the nat.
ural course of events, the women were
escorted to hotel.
Cards were exchanged and thanks
returned, and "all's we'll that ends
welP' would have been the finish had
not young Mr.. Finchly decided that
Miss Maize was an extremely fine look
ing girl. 1t had been at least 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 dimple orna-
mented her chin. At the end of TWEEN
ty-four hours romance and love were
at work.
OF course Harry had beer. invited to
call If he ever found himself in West
chester county. Miss Maize, who did
most of the talking to him as well as
to the cabman, 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 call within a week, and he
took pains to thoroughly identify him
self
His trip into the country was made
in his automobile, and it soon became a
regular thing for him to be seen skim
ming over the roads once a week. Mr..
Jefferson liked him. Mrs. Jefferson
thought he was very proper man in
ing her thoughts, but if they hadn't
favored the young man in a general
way he would have found her confined
to her room with a convenient head
ache.
An acquaintance begun in April had
progressed to September without a
thing to mar it. 1t had ripened into
frin In
signs that 1t was nearing the critical
point. Then one day Harry Finchly
did an unwise thing. In his guiIeless
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
laughter began to harden.
He saw that he had made a mistake,
and he began to hedge-that is, he
explained that the mother of the little
actress was at the dinner The point of
Miss Mazie's nose seemed to turn up.
Mr.. Finchly further explained that
two aunts and two uncles of the ac-
tress were also at dinner. Half min
ute later he was protesting that he
would never have given the dinner but
for the fact that the little actress
seemed to be hungry and he felt sorry
for her. 1t had not been much OF q
dinner anyhow. He had sat at one
end of the dining room and the actress
at the other, and they had chewed
olives and drunk poor claret and con-
fined their 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
saying that the little actress had a
cast in one eye and was probably
twenty years older than she claimed
to be, but when he had finished and
could protest no more Miss Maize
asked to be excused for a moment,
and he felt a chill around his heart.
The mother came into the parlor to
entertain him, and, although both
made great effort, conversation
dragged.
When Miss Maize walked out of the
parlor she simply wanted to be alone
for ten minutes to recover her self
possession. She was furious at the lit
tie actress. at Mr. Finchly and at her
self, but she didn't want the second
person mentioned to even suspect such
a state of affairs. She would smooth
the lines out of her face, coax back
smile and return to him and say that
she always had admired little ac-
tressesi
Her intentions were good and polite
and diplomatic. but her temper got the
best of her. Under the big walnut tree
at the gate stood Mr. Finchly's auto.
He always acted as his own chauffeur.
Twenty times over he had taken the
Jeffersons out for a spin, and Miss
Maize had entertained an idea for
some time that she knew all about the
running OF the machine.
AS she walked about to calm her
self 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 helpless feel
ing She put on speed instead of d.
mlnishing 1t, and in the course of five
minutes she was whizzing down that
old colonial COW trail in a way that
made the telephone poles sit up and
wonder
The first living thing met was
trusting and confiding calf that had
escaped from field and was wander
ing at large to broaden Its mind
When 1t saw cloud of dust coming
down the pike. it trusted that wind.
fall of rich green grass was to be had
for the picking up. 1t advanced TO
the middle of the road with eyes bulg
ing out and ten seconds later woke up
in a far distant spot and in a mussed
up condition Miss Maize had the
steering wheel in hand In fact, she
was frozen to it, She could hold the
old machine reasonably straight in the
middle of the road, but she was help
less beyond that
The next incident was a load of hay
men who had never harmed a human
being, and they had no idea that any
fuman being wanted to harm them.
ude was their awakening. They held
the middle OF the road until they saw
that the auto meant to run into them