The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-06-17
A YOUNG MANS
SCHEME
BY NJ. QUAD
"Gaul durn her picture. but / love
By NJ. QUAD
Copyright. 1918 by Associated Lit
erury Press.

"Gaul durn her picture, but ! love
herr
The young man who uttered the
words was at work In the field. and he
Strengthened up 10 rest his wca-. Jack
and mutter;
And I'll make her love me before
I'm through with her. She may think
/ don't amount TO shucks, but all
want is chance to prove that ! do.
Durn farm work. Durn widders! Durn
love! Durn everything.'
He kicked the fence to show his dis
gust and YEARLY resumed work. Ebe-
nezer Schermerhorn, hired man, was
In love with the Widow TompNns,
whose farm adjoined that of his boss
on the west. Ebenezer was twenty
for years old, plain Of face and un-
calmly of form and without hundred
dollars worth Of property.
One evening as he dropped in to see
the widow about borrowing some farm
implement next day he found her read
ing a love story. She read a few chap
tiers to him and afterward acknowl-
edged that she had always been ro-
mantle and that If she ever married
again 1t would be to hero.
The farmers hired man didn't rush
right off that night and try TO be hero,
but sat down and did some thinking.
Three or four days after Ebenezer's
thinking bee tramp came along the
road and, seeing the young man hoeing
corn just over the fence, halted for
word or two Ordinarily Ebenezer
would have leaped the fence and run
the wayfarer half a mile, but on this
occasion he invited him over to the
corn and sat down with him for con-
fidentiaI conversation The result OF
that conversation was that at 8
o'clock that evening the tramp appear
ed before the Widow Tompkins and |
made threats of what he would do IL |
she didn't set out victuals, hunt up old |
clothes and come down with a dollar |
In cash.
Ebenezer was not far away--just far |
enough 10 come running up and knock
the tramp head over heels and rescue
the widow. But as he started TO come
he fell down and got tangled
up with the bushes, and before he
could get away the widow had broom
sticked the tramp into fight. She
didn't say she was glad that the would
be hero was so near at hand. What
she did say was that she wasn't afraid
IF any tramp walking the roads.
Ebenezer's first try was failure,
out within fortnight he was ready
or another. Two or three farmhouses
n the township had been robbed, and
his fact became the basis for his sec
md plan. One night at midnight he
way OF window, and. armed with n
hub, he became a guard for the wild
WIS house. He circled AROUND 1t and
,atrolIed the garden and the orchard,
md he felt that he would give year
# his life IL robber would appear.
Ie would first fell him and then arouse
he house, and when the widow came
o know that he had been guarding her
or love her heart would melt toward
i'm.
But no robber came Instead Of that
is footsteps awoke the widow, and,
eering out. she saw some one walking
bout, and she got shotgun and raised
window and blazed away. The gun
7as loaded with bird shot to shoot
awks that might come swooping down
n chickens, but in this case they an
wered just as well for man. Eben-
ger received about twenty Of them
nd ran two miles to doctor to have
lem picked out. He also had va
alton from work for a week under
he excuse that he had sprained his I
ack turning over in bed.
Ninety nine out of every hundred
ould be heroes would have given up I
ght here, but Ebenezer was a man s
hang on. 1t was while he was limp u
& around on his vacation and doing
lot OF standing up and wandering |