Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-03-29
,rouble

| was WOIIleu- InueeQ, IL was so EVIL
dent that Loretta could not well ig-
more the fact SO after few com
monplaces she asked him what was
the matter
1T isn't often that my friends are
so evidently thinking of something
else when | try my best TO be enter
tanning" she said. "You have some
thing on your mind and it might be a
good idea to tell me about It,"
Il don't see how you guessed It."
returned the young man. ~But the
truth is that I am just about as wor-
ried as anybody can be. / don't see
how the thing can come out right"
1t may not be as bad as it seems"
Loretta told him, comfortingly Girls
overlook good deal Besides, a girl
who takes the trouble to get angry
at you is not often perfectly indiffer-
ent"
You're right again--it is girl"
the young man said, sheepishly. 'If
you had told me few weeks ago that
Id ever be so silly as to worry over
such a thing I'd have said you were
away off the track"
"One never can tell,' declared Lo-
retta sagely. 60 on"
you see," the young man began,
I'VE live in neighborhood that is half
city and half country and not quite Sc
lect enough to be fashionable. It's
just as nice as it can be and we GER
tainly enjoy our garden and our porch
to beat the band. My mother almost
lives out of doors. Well, there was
house built next door with a fine.
chicken yard and by and by the peo-
pie moved in"
Its a way people have of doing.
murmured Loretta
There was man and his wife and
after while a girl came home from
college, having been graduated with
| honors Gee, she's as smart as whip!
And, honest, it doesn't keep her from
being pretty, either
Il am really surprised" said Loret-
ia.
We'll, somehow we got to be good
friends the young man went on, dole
| y
fort, it seems. Anyhow, l got inter
ested in her chickens-which are real
ly fine ones, you know, not the COM
mon kind at all. | could understand
how proud she was OF them. She was
| fond of any kind of pets and she had
a cat that was a dream. 1t had
long. plumed tail and had taken a
l 81 ehr nrn1N
years. She positively worshipDed that
cat.
after a while mothers vegetables
came up and lot of flowers, for she s
master hand at growing things.
| Then, just as i'll luck would have it,
something came and dug up her grow
ing things. 1t certainly was the limit.
Mother got SO discouraged that she al
most cried. l declared that I'd kill
the creature that did it on sight, what
ever it was"
NRecklessi"
well, | never thought of the chick.
ems, he proceeded, It'll found Ida
Flanders kind of chilly toward me. l
asked her over the fence one morning
what the trouble was and she
said very pointedly that her most
valuable chickens were disappear
ing at the rate of one night"
why didn't you tell her that you
didn't know anything about her chick
ens?'
Tell herlv repeated the young man.
AS if l didn't tell herI If said it .
once | said it a thousand times. But
do you think she would believe me
with that chickens head lying at my
feet? Not much! And you wouldn't
have either, not after my silly threat
to kill watever it was that tore up
mothers garden"
''What did you do about it after
that?1
'At first didn't think there was
thing l could do he sighed. -Iida
wouldn't let me come near enough to
speak to her. 1t made me wild to see 4
her smiling at everybody else
81 wouldn't have given her Sec
ond thought since she was so unjust"
'Oh, yes, you would, the young man
assured her. 1t would have been all 4
very well to talk like that in the /
spring, but it was too late for me to /
quit thinking of her then Why, | lay
awake nights trying to fix it up and
it was not until last week that had 4
an idea.
1t was the very day she bowed to
me as she was going out with young
Saunders You know, he squints or
something. Well, bowling to me was
more than she had done for SO long
that sort of took heart and sharpened
my wits. I had been SO downhearted I
that / hadn't really tried before.
AS result of that inspiration ! {
made the finest trap you ever saw
neat. too. by Jove! It was sort of +
original. because l had to fit 1t
against fha side 0f tha chicken hnuSa 4