The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1910-05-05

WAS 1T FATE !?
A Romance of Roller Skating.
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If the bicycling fever doubled the
price Of wedding rings, what IS the
roller skating craze doing to St? What
brought about Runners wedding or
Shyly's or Sour's or little Willows?
Roller skating.
Willow loved Vera. My, how he
did love that girl! He idolized, wor-
SHIPPED, adored her until IL was almost
funny Not TO Willow, but 10 the
Others. Vera and paradise; no Vera,
the other thing That was how he
felt about &c. though otherwise he
seemed perfectly rational.
Not that they held hands IN public,
nor did he Gy his eyes soulfully on
hers and sii slqhing before folks-not
Willow. lie was q gentleman and
Vera had sense and their affection
was a regular gem in oils by an old
master, framed, shadow boxed and
hung exactly as it should be-
With Willow the one question Of
the hour and all hours was how to
marry and eat three meals a day on
SIS week. lie passed hours gazing
in at groccrs' windows reading prices,
though Vera had told him time and
time again that she would manage It
all right.
Vera was the slave Of n grabbed old
uncle her only relative, who needed
lots Of waiting on and some one to
abuse, Vera cost him less than SO a
week and never talked back Vera
talk back to uncle, Her amateur per-
Torrance would have made a fine
showing beside uncle's professional
nagging he having been born with a
gift for that sort of thing. In those
circumstances sensitive girl or al
most any other girl would say foolish
things about keeping house on little
or nothing Yes, Willow and SIS a
week looked like a reasonable propo-
sition to her.
Whenever Vera had a beau uncle
had a convulsion. Willow was pretty
busy most of the time, covering his
tracks, as he knew that excitement
was bad for uncle. They managed
things rather nicely so that uncle's
weak heart would get no jolts Then
the roller rink fever broke out.
Willow, clever ice skater, had
very little TO learn. But Vera, Hon
est II looked rs If she Just never
would learn, Willow presented her
with a pair OF skates and she began
home practice, guided by Willows in
structions and some printed rules. II
was easy enough, In fact, there was
very little to it. See that the skates
are fastened securely, stand firmly,
advance right foot, throw full weight
upon It, bend well forward to get
send and glide away" It sounded
easy, but it did not seem to work in
practice.
Vera never glided. Instead she
would wave and wobble frantically
here and there and then zigzag help
lessly to the exact place she did not
want to go. There invariably was
nothing to grab, so down she would
go with such force that everything in
the room would jump, her skates al
ways striking last. But she perse-
vered.
At last there came a time when she
consented TO attend masked carni-
val at the roller rink. They wore
hired cheesecloth costumes. In a din
ky peasant dress Vera surely did look
all right to Willow.
As Willow secured Vera's skates he
looked up with a start and asked:
Say, have you come away and for
gotten to hang your other hat and
Jacket where your uncle can see
them?"
do look as If I would forget?"
Uttered Vera. Hell see EN-, all
right enough, ana think I've gone to
bed"
The skates adjusted Vera arose,
eager to do all that was expected Of
her. With knitted brows she endeav-
ored to stand firm, advance her right
foot, throw her full weight upon it,
bend well forward to get send" End
glide away. Trying not to look scared