The daily Alaskan., 1912-12-05
MAN OR MOUSE?
Lorena Had Her Pretty Eyes
 Opened.
ay MARTHA MIG. WILLIAMS.

vtteQ. The Qay was gluuy May' o'" the invited young Lorena, moreover owned all the folly normal to nine teen. So altogether it would have been a miracle if things had gone exactly as they should. A proper young wom- an of course would have reckoned chances before barring her feet and dancing joyously in midsreRm, where the Pebbles lay smoothly bedded ID hne sand and gleamlng jewel-wise wherever a sun ray struck through the ripples.
 I,orena did not let herself remember that the ford was but fifty yards high CT up or that thls special shallow reach of the creek lay between the two lakes that gave the finest fishing. They were not true lakes, of course-only water mirrors, stln and deep, impounded by dams of the winter foods building Iorena did not love them. They were so placid they reminded her somehow of Johnny, and whatever did that put her out of temper.
 She loved glitter, motion, excitement It was ecstasy to her to dance all day long and half the night after, footing it as lightly as wind blown thistle seed. If only she could dance alonel But since that was out of the question she naturally preferred partners who kept step and were nimble. Johnny was neither, yet all the time she had been engaged to him he had felt it his right to say lf she did not dance with him she must dance with hardly any, body else.
 And not at all with Granville Gore the very prince of partners, who was handsome and slender and light heart cd, with money ln both pockets and a trick of spending It with both hands Johnny hated him, without reason so far as Lorena could see-at least he gave her no reason-only said, "If you are goln' ever to belong to me LOlie, you must be barely civil to that fel. low"
 Somehow the emphasis on the last word always made Lorena shlver when she recalled it How could she help 1t when Johnny was toward other folk the soul of kindly iustlce7 Still she had telt that he was unfair. 1T be really new anything he might let her know it likewise
 If Johnny could have brought himself to tell her the break might not have come. But he was too proud and mas. terful for that His wife must believe in him enough to understand that hO had reasons for any and every thing, Besides, he was afraid of seeming en. vious and Jealous of a man so much richer and better looking Moreover, he did not really know much that could be told categorically. It was Cores gen. eral air and manner, conjoined Co words dropped here and there, that made Johnny certain he had no real reverence for anything feminine A girl, any girl, was fair game to him lf she hadn't sense enough Co look out for herself he was not bound to look out for her. Yet Gore was not distinctly vicious-rather, inordinately vain. He did not mean worse by womankind and girlkind than Co make love to them, then ride away. Marryl Not he-not the finest girl alivel
 IT Lorena had known thatl Unknow- Ing it she had thought great many times and a great many things of the fascinating Granville in the three months since the break He had been away for two of them, and since he came home she had seen him only in crowds But he had used his eyes SO eloQuently as to set her heart wildly duttering. But, oddly enough, 1t had duttored even more when by chance she bad encountered Johnny fin his working clothes, driving bis wagon to the mill
 They had barely nodded Co each oth CT, and she had ridden fast Rfterward, but not fast enoOgh to get away from sense that Johnny, old Johnny, al. though his face was impassive, had turned to look after her as long as she was in sight
 Today she was not thinking of him hardly even Of Granville. Wading was such pure Joy. The water came above her ankles. She lifted her skirts light. ly in both hands and balanced to her shadow upon the ripplinE stream, such funny shadow, dancing grotssquely even when she stood still.
 Rapt In contemplation of it, she did not hear footsteps or anything until a throaty, chuckllng voice cried; "Oh, hol A mermaldl Gore, if the variety ls indigenous, understand, shall settle In your nelghborhood just as soon as can buy a place.
 Lorena flushed scarlet She let fan her skirts, needless Of water-heedless, indeed, of anything but escape. There were men on either bank; also one In wading approaching her midstream Gore was the farthest of them--a Gore she had never seen. He looked her over as though she were a part, a curl ous part, of the landscape with which he had no sort of acquaintance
 It was the man In wading who bad spoken. He was striding on toward her. his rod over bis shoulder, broad grin upon his 6at, red face Her sun bonnet, her faded print frock, above an hor Y,rpspnt case hnd nearly made