The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1909-02-17
Miss Cynthia's Sideboard |$|
|HI| By Bell Elliott Palmer III
Copyright. by Bobbs- Merrill Coz
By Bell Elliott Paine,

Bobbs-Merrill Coz
fectly irreproachable sideboard which
filled in almost one end of the big
room. Newton was almost hypnotized
by it,"
The professor stirred delightedly. II
can just see it," he said MY grand
mother had one"
After that" Rimbey continued,
with an approving smile for the profess
sor, sit might just as we'll have been
stones and bullets that Newton was
eating. He had only one thought-to
become immediate possessor of that
sideboard.
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 flash of
gunpowder in that ladys 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 Understanding he took to as
pleasantly as youngster does its
J castor OIL
Then 1t was that poor Newton found
out that the sideboard had brought
him into still deeper waters than CO.
vetousness. Instead of proper row
of figures, pink cheeks and dropping
lashes danced all along the ledger
pages in most bewidering 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 renovat-
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 a born
mathematician should cope with 50
great an honor. The proofs were 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
l 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 eye-tooth-
and show his partner what proper in
terest in the business was, and how
much good the sideboard would really
bring them.
1T must have been the hustling
quality of Newton which took her fan
cy, suppose. Anyway, she didn't
They drove over to Derby that very
afternoon. and We're married.
'The rest of the afternoon they took
honeymoon ride all over Cynthias
own hills, and when the shadows fell
she took him home, and straight into
the dining room, to their honeymoon
supper. Well, gentlemen, the minute
Newton entered that room he had to
lean hard against the wall to keep
from falling in dead faint. For, IL
you'll believe me, that sideboard for
which he had paid the heavy penalty
of marrying Miss Cynthia, was gone!
Not one single brass claw or knob of it
left to mark it's tracks
The minister from Michigan leaned
forward with the interest the athlete
displays in the last touchdown of the
football game "Where?" he ques-
toned.
Rimbey chewed the end of a tooth
pick with an attempt to suppress the
twinkle in his eye. "Of course, Miss
Cynthia never guessed for an instant
that Newton had any particular feel
ings about that sideboard.' he said
easily. so it went out for a little
wedding present Barrick gave his
partner the slip, and got in his we'd
ding just two hours earlier. They
were already over the getting-engaged
part-Miss Cynthia's pretty niece and
himself-so it didn't take much per-
suasion on his part to get her 20 do
her sewing afterwards. Then Miss
Cynthia showed her approval Of the
union. and her determination to, keep
it on her side of the family, by bsstow-
ing the sideboard upon the niece. How
they got it out Of one house so quick
ly into the new one rented by Bs.rrick
is a puzzle. But guess Miss Cynthia
managed it in the same ineXplicable,
smooth way with which she manages
her husband-and the several thousand
acres of land, which are still safely in
u rcSo