Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1908-08-28
BEATING I'.G HIS
Nv Frank n. Willis me.

It's going some when man or three
months acquaintance beats the time
Of q lifelong sweetheart. Not every
man could do it--but then not every
man Is Matt O'Brien.
It was all over with Matt the mo.
mont that he saw her passing. holding
on the arm Of that little pasteboard
man she was engaged to. She was
pretty--pretty as you ever find them
and she threw one glance at Matt
out of her big, OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
eyes that turned him white as q sheet.
For a moment he gazed after the
couple as II he was dazed, then he
grabbed one of the boys hard by the
arm.
For the love of heaven!" Matt
cried, who's the girl?"
The boys laughed.
Herr" 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 knee-high to a grass
hopper"
Matt gritted his teeth little.
hitched up his coat, and said:
There goes my future wife,"
or course, starting out with that
statement, Matt got rough lot of
joshing from the boys. But he stuck
to it, and those that know say he told the
girl what he intended to do the third
time he called on her. However that
Is, he was calling her by her first
name the second day after the intro
duction, and was feeling sorry for the
pasteboard man by the end of the
week. BY the end of the third week
Matt was trying to decide which OF
the boys to have for ushers.
Somehow, though, he didn't get
along so we'll in the fourth week.
She was just as friendly with him as
ever, but when he'd take her lily white
hand in his and turn on the mush
talk, she'd only laugh. Matt began
to have a worried look. while the
pasteboard man-who had been rath'
err uncomfortable while Matt was In
the ascendancy-began to bulge bit
about the head.
The boys, naturally, all took deep
interest in the progress of affairs.
II can't understand it," said Matt,
sadly. II thought l had her won in
a walkaway, but now 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 a 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 un'
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 a 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.
I've had enough Of this dilly-dally
ing business!" he cried. Which Is
1T 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 you?"
It's going some to beat the time OF
lifelong sweetheart in three months
but it's going lot more to beat his
time in three weeks and not know
what you've done!-Chicago Journal