The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-29
The EVENING STORY
In a Moose.
(By Lawrence Alfred Claw

SoAo up tnere with her maiden aI,r.
as cnaperon. and they. hade scarcely
80 .nelr tnlngs unpacked when that
MAIDEN aunt began to lecture her on
the Irivolity of flirting.
MISS Nina had not flirted. She had
simply let her eyes dwell for mo-
T tent on good-looking young man.
an one sex look at the other sew
for so doing? MAJ n
ana then, when the trunks had
oeen unpacked. but not all the dresses
yee nung up, the girl had gone walk
lng ny herself in the hotel grounds.
and, upon her return, bubblinr over
WIN enthusiasm, the maiden aunt had
met her with the statement that she
mao oone a highly improper thing and
t teeun De surprised If the other
young ladies cut her dead.
improper for a girl of nineteen IN
walk IN the hotel grounds at 8 O'clock
IN the afternoon to view the fountain
and the wolf in a cave? Nonsensei
wnen she could have returned the
up a face at him instead!
And after a dinner, because a Young
man and his sister sat opposite. and
because the young man, instead of his
SISTER remarked that 1t had been a
glorious sunset, Nina's maiden aunt
said that girls, in her time, kept their
eyes on their plates when eating. OF
course 1t had been glorious sunset.
or course the sister would have said
so had she not been too busy with
ner soup. OF course the young man
knew that the glorious sunset would
have to be paid for with other ex-
tras, but he wasn't going to spread
a pail over the table by saying that
1t mad been five-cent sunset
There was one more trial for the
young girl that evening. She wanted
to sit in a grotto and hear the foun-
tain splash and the band play "A Hot
Time In the Old Town Tonight The
aunt made objections, but finally con-
sented. They hadn't been sitting ten
minutes, however, when she declared
that she smelled liniment and that
the man in the next grotto must be
using 1t on a lame leg. They must not
larry another moment. That lame leg
might be catching. And what was a
grotto, anyhow, but a pile of stones?
And what was fountain but a lot of
water going to waste when 1t could be
utilized in washing dishes? And the
bandit was playing for money any
wayi
Miss Nina awoke next morning de-
termined to be very good, but things
began to happen again. She over
heard her aunt telling them at the
office to deliver all mail to her per-
sonally. and, in her anger her eyes
filled with tears and she jumped up
and down. Her letters-her love let
ters-to go to her aunt first and per-
haps be read by heri She would die
first!
The girl had just composed herself
when she received a telegram from
Jimmie saying that he would be up
on the afternoon train. Jimmie was
Mr.. James Tillinghast, to whom Nina
was so nearly engaged that they had
discussed the question of whether they
should keep three servants or four.
The aunt was handed the telegram
She read and returned 1t with the OBJ
servation that it was a wonder how
he had allowed himself to be noosedI
Jimmie arrived. There was no one
at the depot tic meet him. AT the ho-
tel he had to wait thirty minutes be-
fore the answer to his card came
back. The aunt greeted him effusiVe-
ly. That was reason enough why the
niece should greet him coolIy Been
noosed. had he! Been roped like a
spring calf! Caught on the fly before
he had time to know his own mind!
She would see about thati OF course,
Jimmie had wit enough to see that he
he proposed a veranda promenade
and explanations.
The aunt chimed in. But looking
him straight in the eye the girl re-
piled:
mr.. Tillinghast, kindly excuse me.
Consider yourself unnoosed from this
time on
It was while the lover and the aunt
were occupying chairs on the Veranda
and trying to explain matters that
Miss Nina slipped out of the hotel and
took path past the VOLTS den and
up the mountain. She wanted to get
off by herself and think and shed |
tears and-and probably commit sui |
side. Yes. that would end all. The aunt
would have to weep. Jimmie would |
go around wishing the moose was
around his neck again and the papers
would publish her latest photograph |
and speak of the affair as a romance. |
Suicide by all means. One plunge from |
he precipice, 500 feet high, would do
The trick.
Miss Nina had left the hotel half |
mile behind and was surveying the |
country for suitable precipices when a
sudden sight caused her to scream
out.
Around bend in the path came
big black bear. He halted at sight of
he girl. She screamed. He was used |
% it. He belonged to an italian stroll
err who danced him from one resort
Ind waltzed while the girl screamed.
He stood on his head and growled
while she sank down in a heap and
aintly called for help. She forgot that
he had broken with Jimmie, and she
jailed on him.
The bears master was resting and
,ating lunch hundred yards behind
he bend. He heard no commotton
md he did not worry. When young
ady has made up her mind to COM
nit suicide she should not be par
ocular as to whether she leaps over
precipice or is devoured by a bear.
But Miss Nina was inconsistent. She
cit herself on the point of being de-
and she kept calling for help.
indeed, she wanted to live just as long
8 that old fellow referred to in all
family Bibles.
If a good-looking girl in peril calls
or her sweetheart long enough he is
'ound to come. In this case Jimmie
lad dropped the aunt as soon as he
ecently could and was taking stroll
n the forlorn hope that the niece
night be met with outside. It was a
cry fresh kid with very fresh wink