The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-13

] saying it sure did serve him right for ly- | ing to his wife and letting boy like that | go up on such a steep roof. About that | time we turned in at the lane where we | could see the other side of the barn. and | there. straddle of the ridge pole, sat the | contractors boy
 They hadn't even taken him into the
 housen little Mrs. Smith cried in dismay. Then she added But how did he get up
 there after he broke his leg?'
 He didn't l was about as much mys- tified as you are when l saw the young
 ster up there. Of course 1 didn't know
 1t was his boy. All knew was that he'd
 say, Thank the Lord and then he'd cuss
 and then he'd laugh and cuss some more
 and thank the Lord some more, and after
 while 1t got through my thick skull
 that Lem Brown'd give me a sample or
 his brand o Hes"
 And I'll bet something pretty that Lem
 Brown didn't bury it in his own bosom when he got to town" Johnson observed.
 That's what he didn't, and the next
 day the fellers simply turned that con-
 tractor upside down and shook all the
 loose change out O his pockets. I reckon
 he bought drinks and cigars for 40 men
 before he let up on him."
 "The man I started to tell about
 wouldn't have anything left in the bank aIIeT ms CTOWu SOI thlOd6At HiNh f'AAt if I hadn't protected him." Johnson in7
 terposed. "So you see it was up to
 him to promptly hand over the best
 Havanas that grew around Key West.
 He's A man we'll have to call Mason.
 That names the first one that pops into
 my head, and it'll do as well as any other except his own. l wouldn't FISK
 telling my own wife who he is, pe-
 cause I swore on my honor l wouldn't
 give him away.
 "Whewi" Bill Smith muttered. Say,
 Johnson, will 1t do to tell here, or had we better ask the ladies to retire tlll
 we fumigate you? Funny l never get into any such masses"
 Well. to tell the truth, there was a woman in the case. But l think the ladies can stand it all right. happened to run in on Mason the week after ms first wife died, and if ever there was widower that was so swamped In grleI that he couldn't think of marrying again 1t was this same Mason. The next time I saw him two months later, when a pretty little widow named Carroll came to his office to get him 10 LOOK after some financial interests that were connected with her late husbands es- tate. She went her way after two meetings and then they took to cores ponding. The first letters came from Lincoln. and were strictly business all on the typewriter, and signed 'M II. Carroll When he had wound up the case for her he asked her to go on writing-this is the way I've figured IL out-and finally proposed and was ac- cepted. That's when his wife had been dead eight months and happened to De on the same train that he was on, go- Ing out to see her
 q knew he was terribly worked up about something, and l snooped into the hotel parlor after him to find out what was in the wind, and the only person in there was a sharp-visaged | female. somewhere between 50 and 60, and she came forward and asked if this was Mr. Mason. He allowed it was, and | she told him she was Mrs Carroll. Then | he asked where the young Mrs. Carroll was. and she said, oh, my daughter | in-law, who went to see you about my estate? She was married to Kansas | City newspaper man six months ago. | In fact she was buying her trosseau when I asked her to go and see you | for me- Well in about two seconds Mason saw what he was up against and he | reeled off a yarn about his cousin, of | the same name as his, who was his | law partner-said his cousin was the one who had been writing to her, and | had sent him out to keep the appoint
 ment with her, because he'd had to go | to Japan to look after big commits | sion. Clumsy as the lie was she swal- lowed it. But I got the cigars"