The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-11-19
@ THE @  HUNTER
 ee d
 Novelized by, LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE From the Play of the
 Same Name by WINCHELL SMITH
 ee @ Copyright. IoIo by Wiachell Smith and Louis Joseph Vance
Copyright. 1910. by Wiachell Smith and
 Louis Joseph Vance

true friend-'
 s1'm tryin' to be. Nat, sames you are to me- Tracey thought this over "But you ain't foolin' me. are you?" he asked presently. 'I mean bout bein' true friend?"
 ''Why should I?"
 "Ah, dunno You're so cur'us sometimes. I ain't never sure whether you mean what you're sayin' or not"
 "Oh. don't say that"
 well. I ain't the only one. Every body in town says they don't under stand you half the time"
 Duncan moved over to Tracey. His face was entirely serious. Tracey" shoulder. do you know. nothing in life is harder to bear than not to be understood"
 Tracey wrestled with this for a mo- ment, but it was beyond him.
 "Then why the dickens don't you talk so's folks Fl know what it's about?" he demanded heatedly.
 "Because-hmp' Duncan hesitated, with his enigmatic smile. Well, be cause the rules don't require it.''
 "What d you mean by that:" Tracey exploded.
 Nat couldn't explain, so he counter ed neatly. This is one of your An gie evenings. isn't it. Tracey:"
 Yep. but
 'Well. you hurry along. I'll close up the shop"
 To Duncan, now seated on the edge of an upturned box in a corner of the store, came an idea. He drew roll of bills from his pocket and stripped off the top one.
 Here's $5.' he said to Tracey. "Girls can usually be captured by judicious expenditures I wish you luck"
 "Ah, thanks. MT. Duncan"
 "But. Tracey
 The boy. paused at the door. 'sWhat?" %
 Remember what I told you Don't you make too much love. Let Angie do that "Gosh, that I'll be the hardest rule of all for mer' X shadow clouded Ira cey's honest eyes. But I got to do it that way. anyway. I can't ask her to marry me yit. I can't afford to get married"
 Its contrary world. Tracey, con- trary world"' sighed Nat in tone of deepest melancholy.
 What makes you say that? You kin git married $ soon s you want to. g
 ''YOu think so Tracey2''
 'All you got to do $ ask Josie'-
 'I'm almost afraid you're right"
 "Why? Don't you want to git mar ried?"
 ''Welr'-Nat smiled-''no. Don't be- lieve do. not just now. at any rate.'
 ''Well. you don't have to if you don't want to- G'd night"
 "Yes. I do." Nat told Tracey's back. ''The rules say so. If the girl asks me I must"
 He grimaced ruefully beneath his wisp of a mustache. Anyhow, I've got a few months left
 *
 So the winter wore away, and as spring drew nigh upon our valley Dun can seemed to grow perturbed. even as he had been in the autumn before Betty went away.
 Duncan urged Sam to move his house. hold from over the store to a house. He pointed out that a separate residence distinctly befitted the dignity of a man who was at once a prominent inventor and one of Radville's leading mer- .sD issue of the Radville Citizen), to say nothing Of the social position of his daughter-meaning Betty. And the house Duncan had his metaphorical eye upon was large enough to shelter Nat himself in addition to the Gra- ham family.
 Graham fell in with the scheme with out a murmur of dubiety or dissent. Whatever Nat proposed in Sam's un- derstandiH5 -as right and feasible, and even if it wasn't really so Nat would make it so. They engaged the house and moved. Miss Ann Sophron- siba Whitmarsh, a maiden lady of for ty-five or thereabouts. popularly known as "Phrony," had been coming in by the day to do for" old Sam in the rooms above the shop. She was engaged as resident housekeeper for the new es- tablishment and entered upon her du- ties with all the discreet joy of one whose maternal instincts have been suppressed throughout her life. She mothered Sam, and she mothered Nat, and she panted in expectation of the day when she would have Betty to mother.
 CHAPTER XVIII.
 - OSIE LOCKWOOD came home