The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1913-05-09
Trouble


Il was evident that the young man
was worried. Indeed, It was so evil
dent that Loretta could not well ig-
more the fact. So after a few COM
monplaces she asked him what vas
the matter.
1T isn't often that my friends are
so evidently thinking of something
else when l try my best to be enter
tanning" she said. "You have some
thing on your mind and 1t might be q
good idea to tell me about it."
Il don't see how you guessed it,"
returned the young man. "But. the
truth is that am just about as wor-
ried as anybody can be. l don't see
how the thing can come out right"
1T may not be as bad as 1t seems"
Loretta told him, comfortingly, Girls
overlook a good deal Besides, girl
who takes the trouble to get angry
at you lis not often perfectly indiffer-
ent." rs4
You're right again-it is girl"
the young man said, sheepishly. IF
you had told me few weeks ago that
I'd ever be so silly as to worry over
such thing I'd have said you wero
away off the track ,,t ttt4
Zone never can tell" declared Lo-
retta ,sagely, go on"
You see," the young man began,
ave 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.
ffff' d8# IL 80 tttt8 s4t
There was a man and his wife and
after G while a girl came home from
college, having been graduated with
honors. Gee, she's as smart as whipl
And, honest, it doesn't keep her from
being pretty, either" ~
81 am really surprised said Loret-
ia. aill 83ug5"tf Isl
well, somehow we got to be good
friends" the young man went on, dole
fully. TOO good, friends for my COM
fort, it seems. yhow, I got inter-
ested in her chic s-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 dream. 1t had
long, plumed tail and had taken a
prize at every cat show for several
years. She positively worshipped that
cat.
"After a while mothers vegetables
came up and lot of flowers, for she's
a 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 declared that Id kill
the creature that did it on sight, what
ever it was
"Reckless!"
Fl well, | never thought of the chick
ems" he proceeded, till | found Ida
Flanders kind Of chilly toward me.
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
ems ~ 1T
"TelI.herl" repeated the young man.
AS il. didn't tell her! If I said it
ohce I said it a thousand times. But
do you think she would believe me
with that chickens head lying at my
feet? Not muchl And you wouldn't |
have either, not after my silly threat |
to kill watever it was that tore up
motheEs garden"
What did you do about At after
that?"
cat frst I didn't think there was q 1
thing l could do" he sighed. "Lida
wouldn't let me come near enough to I
speak to her, It made me wild to see
her smiling at everybody else"
'T wouldn't have given her a sec
ond thought since she was so unjust"
ooh, yes, you would theiyoung man
assured her. ut would have been all
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 l had.
an idea. IN
ut was the very day she bowed to
me as she was going out with young
Saunders. You know, he squints or
Well, bowling to me was
more than she had done for so long
that 1 sort of took heart and sharpened !
my wits. I had been so downhearted
that hadn't really tried before.
"As a result of that inspiration /
made the finest trap you ever saw
neat, too, by Jovei Tt was sort of
original, because I had to fit it
against the side of the chicken house
and make it large enough to- squeeze
/ mans arm as well as kill rat.
Il had it there two nights before it
caught thing and then when went
% look at it before going down to the
l.