Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1908-09-23
3EATING HIS.
TIME
BY Frank Y. Williams.

IlOHtlS acquaintance Utatb lilS lihiN
of life,cng sweetheart Not every
man could do it--but then not every
man is Matt O'Br.en.
1t was all over with Matt the mo
ment that he saw her passing, holding
on the arm of that little pasteboarf
man she was engaged to. She wa
pretty-rie,ty as yea ever find them
land she threw one glanAe at Matt
out of her big, you-can't-forget-me
eyes that tlgnod him white as a sheet
For a no ent he gazed after the
couple as il he was da2ed, then he
geabbed one of the boys hard by the
a;m
For the love Of heaven!" Matt
cried, who's the girl?"
The boys laughed
"Her?" Pat Burden asked. Don't
you know her? She's Nick Wadson's
daughter, Nellie That fellow she's
walking with has been her steady
since she was knIe high to a grass
hopper"
Matt glitted his teeth little,
titShed up his coat, and said:
There goes my future wife,
OF course, starting cut with that
statement, Matt got rough lot OF
joshing from the bcys But he stuck
toit and Ii osot hal k low y he told the
girl what he intended to do the third
time he called en- rev. However that
is he was cal.ily her by her first
name he second day after the intro
duction, and was feeling sorry for the
pasteboard man by the end of the
week BY the end Il the third week
Matt was trying 10 DECIDE which of
the boys to have fc. ushers.
Somehow, though, Re didn't get
along so well in the fourth week.
She was Just as fri.ndly with him as
ever, hut when he'd take hos lily white
hand in his and tuyn On the mush
talk, she'd only laugh. Matt began
to have worried look while the
pasteboard mar-wlo lad been rath-
er uncomfortable while Matt was in
the ascendancy-beg to bulge bit
about the head
The boys, naturally, all took deep
interest in the progress OF affairs,
Il can't understand it," said Matt,
sadly. q thought | had her won in
walkaway, but noV it's different.
tell her that I'm going to marry her,
but she laughs She seems to think
it's joke"
All of the boys sympathized deeply
and offered all kinds of advice. Some
thought it would be best for Matt
to take correspondence course OF
courtship to see if he had overlooked
any important points, while others
thought the absent treatment to make
the heart grow fonder might be sue
cessful.
At any rate it went on that way I'M
til toward the end Of three months.
The pasteboard man seemed to have
little the best of the argument.
Matt was getting desperate. He had
been at standstill for two months.
Finally, one day, he met the girl and
her fellow coming down the street to-
gether. Matt, with look of CHANGING
everything on single throw, stopped
them.
eve had enough of this dilly-dally-
ing business!" he cried. (which is
it going to be, me or him? I'm asking
you to marry me, Nellie; what are you
going to do about it?"
why, marry you, of course said
the girl, and with her face as red as
peony she left the pasteboard man
and came over and stood by Matt
"Why, why!" cried Matt, hardly be-
lieving his ears. DO you really mean
it?"
Surely" said the girl. "You could
have had me seven weeks ago; but
do you realize that this is the very
first time you have really asked me to
marry your"
It's going some to beat the time OF
a lifelong sweetheart in three months,
but it's going a lot more to beat his
time in three weeks and not know
what you've done!-Chicago Journal