Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1909-04-22
The professor stirred delightedly 81

can just see it," he said my grand
mother had one"
After that" Rimbey continued,
with an approving smile for the profess
sor, it might just as well have been
stones and bullets that Newton was
eating. He had only one thought-to
become immediate possessor of that
sideboard AS soon as he could gulp
down his dinner he excused himself
for being in such a hurry to get off,
and then beckoned his hostess to one
side and offered her $50 down. Miss
Cynthia only laughed One hundred
then-and the feathers renovated for
nothing Ii was all useless 1t was a
family heirloom, and in the family it
was going to stay till doomsday, if she
Miss Cynthia-had anything to do
with the disposition of it. Ten thou
sand wouldn't buy it; and he might
Just as we'll give up his notion first as
last. Thirty-five dollars he would re-
feathers in the proper manner.
We'll, you know how it is, gentle
men. Because the sideboard was en-
tirely beyond his clutches, his very
/ mortal existence seemed to hang on
getting hold of it. He ate with it,
rode with it, slept with it, when he
could get any sleep at all. Most of his
nights We're spent pacing the floor try
ing to think of some new way of per-
suading Miss Cynthia to let loose of
the treasure. At first he went openly
to her and made all sorts of rash and
wild propositions for the sideboard.
One day, however, noticing a flash of
gunpowder in that lady's eyes, along
with the smile, Newton gave up going
himself, and sent his Harvard gradu-
ate partner to see what he could do,
while he mounted the high stool and
kept something he took to as
pleasantly as a youngster does it's
castor oil.
Then it was that poor Newton found
out that the sideboard had brought
him into still deeper waters than CO.
yetousness. Instead of a proper row
of figures, pink cheeks and dropping
lashes danced all along the ledger
pages in most bewildering and fan
tastic manner, as over his benumbed
senses there dawned the conviction
that, come what would, he must let in
the thoughts of woman, foremost
even to his upholstering and removal
| ing.
THE crisis came one morning when
Newton called Barrick, his partner, to
the office and had a long business talk
with him. In it he sought to prove to
that Harvard mathematician that one
or the other of them must marry Miss
Cynthia in order to come into posses
sion of a sideboard that it would not
do at all for their business to lose.
Newton argued that the immense num-
Der of acres, which went along with
Cynthia Browning, proved, beyond the
shadow of a doubt, that only born
mathematician should cope with so
| great an honor. The proofs We're not
conclusive. Barrick rebelled openly
and stubbornly, representing himself
to be too we'll pleased with the rosy
present to feel the need of Miss Gym
thia-even with her coveted sideboard.
/ imagine Newton must have felt con
siderably nettled at this point, for he
bridled up and declared he'd propose
to Miss Cynthia that very day, even
if it was like pulling an eyetooth-
and show his partner what a proper in
terest in the business was, and how
much good the sideboard would really
bring them.
a I'll must have been the hustline
quality of Newton which took her fan
cy, suppose Anyway, she didn't
d make any bones about marrying him
e They drove over to Derby that very
S afternoon, and We're married quiet like
i with only the sexton and his wife fol
: witnesses.
o "The rest of the afternoon they tool
d a honeymoon ride all over Cynthia's
own hills, and when the shadows fel
I she took him home and straight into
n the dining room to their honeymoon
g supper Well, gentlemen, the minute
|, Newton entered that room he had t.
+ lean hard against the wall to keel
Il from falling in dead faint For, i
d you'll believe me- that sideboard 70
n which he had paid the heavy penalt.
e of marrying Miss Cynthia, was gone
S Not one single brass claw or knob of i
e left to mark its tracks"
The minister from Michigan leane,
u forward with the interest the athlet
displays in the last touchdown of tn
:. football game "Where?" he ques
toned.
= Rmbey chewed the end of tooth
pick with an attempt to suppress tn
twinkle in his eye. "Of course. Mis-
Cynthia never guessed for an instan
j, that Newton had any particular fee
= ings about that sideboard,' he sale
. easily $50 it went out for littl
;. wedding present. Barrick gave hi
i. partner the slip, and got in his wee
!. ding just two hours earlier The
q were already over the getting engage
9 part-Miss Cynthia's pretty niece an
= himself-so it didn't take much pei