Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1907-01-02
Whai he Wanted.
0V LYNN MuRpocK.

no doubt about that. He had been in
the city nearly four weeks and had
hunted hard for an opening-but to NO
avail. He was strong and willing
was Mark, but nobody seemed willing
to. give him q chance to prove his
worth. Ar tgar
He was getting hungry, too, and be-
gan to wonder where he was going to
sleep when his scanty store of money
was exhausted-as 1t would be In .
day or two. e.
The sitting smells Of the city
streets, the close, airless deafness Of
the inside room in the lodging house,
the crowding and the noise and the
people-people, people everywhere,
had made him so sick and tired OF the
whole miserable city that he fairly
cried for sight of the green fields
and waving cornfields and orchards
and peaceful white houses and green
blinds and all the rest of 1t back in
'Illinoy." This-to say nothing about
Henrietta, and of course he was a lot
more lonesome for Henrietta than he
was for the pastures and cornfelds
and white house and blinds and all
the rest of 1t.
And the funny thing about it all was
that he had left all this peaceful Ar
cadia and invaded the enemy's country
because of Henrietta's name He had
always called her "Hen," but, 10! and
behold, after she graduated she would
not stand for 1t and insisted that the
full significance of the name she had
been christened with be applied to her
when she was addressed.
Fool that he was, he had taken ii as
a joke, inasmuch as he had called
her "Hen" during all the years they
both could remember. But it proved
sorry joke for him, because she was
in deadly earnest; and she had chided
him as being mere country pumpkin,
and dared him to go out into the world
to prove his mettle. Well, of mettle
there was plenty, and so Mark left the
old farm, which was to be his, and
went out to the great city to try his
strength in field for which he was
not at all equipped.
And here he was, heart-sick, weary
almost defeated-but with no
thought of surrender; no, no, that
word did not belong in the Dennison
vocabulary Hunger he could stand;
fatigue he could stand; hardship he
could stand; but it all seemed SO
hopeless to him that he doubted the
expediency of the fight.
Whats the use?" he said to him
self dozen times. Il have COM
Portable home, surrounded by green
fields and swept by the sweet winds
from the pastures and the prairies
Why should l walk these miserable
stone-paved streets trying to obtain
the price of nights lodging in mis-.
cradle cell without ventilation and alb
solutely unclean?"
And then would come before him
the scornfull face of Henrietta and he
would grit his teeth, take in the slack
VI lib UOAC anu 0toEb OVOI o60Au'
These were the thoughts surging
through Marks mind as he walked
down the boulevard after applying un.
successfully for a job as coachman
to one of the swell families whose pal
ace bordered the thoroughfare. He
was utterly discouraged. heartsick
and weary-he really was sick, al
though he did not know it. The roar
of the great city reached his tired ears
and filed him with sickening disgust
and loathing.
OF sudden, above the din of COM
merce and the changing of alarm bells
and the babble OF the never-ending
throng, there arose a piercing shrek
the cry Of woman in mortal ter.
ror. Mark Strengthened his STOPPING
shoulders and faced about toward the
direction Of the screams, now rapidly
approaching. Added to the screams
now sounded the clatter of wild hodt
beats. and Mark sprang to the curb,
from which the crowd was pushing
wildly back.
The sight that met his vision was
such as to blanch his face. There,
scarcely a hundred yards distant, and
dashing toward him like the wind,
was a pair Of splendid black horses
on full galIop, dragging back Of them
a magnificent carriage. There was no
driver on the front seat. but ON the
back seat was beautiful young girl
with terror-stricken eyes and blood
less face hanging on to tho side Of
tho vehicle with straining muscles d
the carriage swayed violently back
and forth. narrowly missing other We
hicles which were scurrying out DE- \
the way to the best ability of the
drivers and chauffeurs
Mark saw instantly that the horses
would dash upon the sidewalk near
the very spot where he stood, and that
the carriage would be wrecked and the
girl thrown out and probably killed.
Instantly his lassitude vanished and
the old life flowed again in his veins.
He knew horses--no better-and he
sized the situation with the lightning
rapidity which always came to him in
q crisis
At the same moment the girl in the
carriage caught sight Of the masterful