Connecticut western news., 1908-10-15
Settled by q
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[Original.

there are strange coincidences that turn the current of our lives. A hu- man career may be likened to a chip cast into rivulet It goes with the current, over stones, tumbling from | tiny cascades, till 1t is caught in an eddy and stranded. Some slight dis turGance starts it again, and after a few setbacks it rejoins the channel ! Caught by fa,.en branch. it waits till released by swelling of the waters And so it goes till it is at last thrown l into the ocean.
 When was about twenty I went to I cornhuskilg. I remember sitting in a pile of corn beside girl of sixteen | Suddenly in tearing husk 1 saw that the ear it inclosed was red. Claiming the privilege of cornhuskers when a red ear is found, I kissed my com panion.
 had met one of the Reflections in the current of my career.
 There was pretty blush, a slight resistance, the kiss, the blush and the resistance making a charming con. bination. Later In the barn I danced with my little girl, went with her at midnight across the moonlit fields to her home and kissed her again in the | shadow of the vine overhanging the l porch.
 There followed courtship as tender, as sweet. as fragrant as young rose | plant, only there were no thorns. The | 11 gagged.
 There was no opposition to our en- gagement and no reason why we should not marry, though we were too young to marry at once. For two years life was garden spot, though we did not know how happy we were because we were inexperienced. Loving was like breathing .s.t
 Then when we were ready to be mar ried my little girl and her mother must needs go to the city for her rousseau.
 I joined them there after the pur- chases had been made for a few days sightseeing and to bring them back. We two. my fiancee and myself. went | to the park. to the theater. to shows of different kinds. One day we were walking down a broad thoroughfare, | jostled by an immense crowd of peo- pie. Seeing some jewels blazing In ! shop window. I called my flancce's att tention to ono of them and asked her jocularly if I should go in and buy 1t for her. Her only reply was a smile But, oh, how sweet it was!
 Fate threw in our way an obstacle. The wedding did not take place. l did not know the real cause. but I suS- pected her mother of changing her mind. My flancee was at an age to be dominated by q stronger person and gave way. She broke the engagement.
 After this the country grew dull to me, and I concluded to go to town to live. I went into business and pros pered. Ten years passed, and had not married. Being a member of sev- eral clubs and having the means where with to enjoy city life, did not care to give up my bachelorhood. At times l even considered my mother-in-law that was to have been as having done me a favor in throwing me over. Had it not been for her l would have been tied down to the drudgery of a family.
 One day, being away from bome-I really had no home in the full meaning of the worldwide waiting for an ap- pointment sauntered into vaudeville show. A vitascope was a feature of the performance, and one of the scenes given was a crowded street in a great city. The throng was both going and coming. those going fading in the dis tance. those coming growing larger as they advanced till. reaching the fore ground. 1t seemed that they would walk right in among the audience.
 My eyes suddenly became fixed on a young couple in the moving picture. My heart stood still. My love of some ten years before was the girl. Then, to my amazement, the young man was myself My photographed figure point ed to shop window and said some thing. The girl looked at my double and smiled Then in another moment they came on as if about to walk over me, when they disappeared.
 When we two lovers were together, preparatory to our intended wedding. we had been unconsciously photo graphed.
 But that smile! It brought back the delightful period from the moment when at the cornhusking l had found the red ear till the breaking of my en- gagement. I was older now and was conscious of the change in me. Indeed, 1t had taken me some time to recognize myself In the vitascope. She was the same in my memory as in the picture, though I realized that she must have changed.
 I felt again the delight of a young love- Quick as lightning my inner self was transformed. My bachelor life be- came rot only dull, but disagreeable I saw myself cold, selfish, corrupt. had not realized the low tone of a bachelor clubman. q man of the world The smile of a simple country girl had not only revealed 1t to me, but had shown mo the beauty of purity.
 I made resolve. I would go and find my young love, and if 1t were pos. sible to win her again would do so. : I found her grown from a girl to a