Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1909-06-29

TEARING ness over the en-
THE WOODS. tire neighbour
hood. Caryton hurried the explosives
through the front hall and hid them
behind the library window draperies.
1t was then II o'clock, and he tiptoed
up to his room for such sleep rs he
could get before the early morning
noises should commence.
Ter minutes later he was doing Off,
when the first experimental hastings
of the horn commenced. By the time
he had found a way to pack the bed
clothes about his ears there arose va
rious accompanying and disquieting
Kisses, snappings and roars.
Then directly under his window
came an explosion that shook the
house and brought him to a sitting
posture. They had found his contribu-
ton! And ii was only midnight!
Caryton sank back and listened with
varying emotionS-rcgrct at his gen
crosby, submission to a just retribu-
ton and finally a pleasurable sensa-
ton of rctrograding to his W boy
hood. BY l o'clock he was the ring
leader of all their more daring demon
STATIONS.
But when he went in, long after
daylight, blackened and burned and
bruised. and tried to make himself
p~resentable for breakfast he felt that
he had had enough of the Fourth.
After breakfast Caryton made a di-
vision of the remaining fireworks and
then slipped from the house with his
trout rod while the nephews were
gloating over their treasures.
He knew of a trout stream hat wan
dered aimlessly back among the trees,
with apparently no object or destina-
ton save to clOthe It's banks With
moss. He would follow its eccentric
%windings until perhaps he could get
cool enough to induce some of the
moss to grow upon him.
But as he passed the last house in
the village and noted a figure in light
dress upon the piazza half hidden by
a climbing rose he was tempted to turn
in and spend the day there. lie had
met Miss Leslie only a few times, but
she was a friendly little body and the
most charming of all the girls he
knew.
His feet even turned at the gate, but
as they did so he heard a wild yell
from the back yard, and he suddenly
swervcd away, merely lifting his hat
to the figure. Miss Leslie had seven
brothers..
a half hour in the woods, and he
was beyond the songs of robins and
orioles and sparroWs and only heard
the occasional voices of hermit thrush
and tanager and woodpecker.
Presently he put his rod together
and cast a fly into the stream. After
a half hour of despltory fishing he
found an enticing rock and seated him
self upon it, leaning his back against
q tree trunk.
How long he slept-or if he slept at
all-he did not know, but the first
thing he was acutely conscious of was
IN effort to discntangle his hook from
something behind and of a vicious
humming in the air.
Turning hastily, he saw that in
throwing his fly back for a new cast
he had caught the hook in an immense
hornets nest and that in his effort to
disentangle it he was bringing the hor-
nets toward him in an angry cloud.
Even as he looked n dropped upon
his ear and another Upon his forehead
and a third upon the back of his neck.
The unexpected pain brought him to
his feet with a yell.
In the presence of others the cry
would have been suppressed, but back
here in the woods, with no one in
hearing, it was simply a straight yell
Of surprised evaporation and pain. A
moment later he was tearing through
the woods with the speed of his col
lege racing days and with what he be
lieved to be 10000 hornets singing a
death song about his head.
He had not gone more than q dozen
yards when he broke into an open
glade and almost into Miss Leslie's
arms. The sight of her brought him to
himself, and he whirled swiftly with
the intention of dashing in another di-
r%ection, for he realized the conse-
quences to the girl. Bdt her quiet, au-
thoritative voice stayed him.
"Throw yourself down upon your
face, MI. Caryton." she a~dmonished.