The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1913-06-19
A Protection
By SADIE OLCOTT

!
GERS here who have nothing to do but
flirt, and they make girls life intol-
erable."
! "But you don't have to flirt with
them If you don't wish to do So"
"They are so persistent. There's Mr.
Wheeler, just out of West Point with
nothing but his pay as second lieuten-
ant and nothing with which to occupy
himself but to cultivate his incipient
mustache. He has been bothering me
to become engaged to him. ! think
| you, as commandant of the post,
should issue an order against flirting"
"And if the penalty of the order is
transgressedP"
Twelve hours in the guardhouse."
Every well. Consider the order is
sued. Go to the guardhouse."
az? | am not flirting. | assure yon
I'm in earnest"
She looked at the colonel. hand
some bachelor of forty, with a pair of
beautiful eyes in a way that puzzled
him.
81 have mind TO order you out of
the garrison he said. You have be-
witched these young officers so as to
render them useless as soldiers, and
shall get no service out of them till
you are gone"
"Do sit down and let us talk it over.
think | can prove to you that | am
not a firt."
well, go on"
Seriously, Mr.. Wheeler must be
headed off orr
Hell blow out his brains?"
How could he do that when'-
"He hasn't anyw
Listen to me. see a way to settle
the matter with him
"And the rest of them?'
"Will you please cease to interrupt
meT
Proceed"
when a girl is once engaged she is
let alone, Now, wish to be en-
gagged" u,,
"Oh, you do! For how long?"
THAT depends. My first object is to
get rid of this clamor. | can't marry
all these young men, and IL I engage
myself to one of them all the rest will
quarrel over the matter. Now, II ! en-
gage myself to their commanding Off
Ger it will be very different. No one
of them will have been preferred to
the other"
"What brain you have in that pref
ty head Of yours! Are you sure they'll
not all mutiny?"
"How ridiculousp
'I'm at your service. But warn
you you may find it harder to get rid
Of me than Wheeler"
"Oh, I'm not afraid Of that"
''You mean, | suppose, that being an
old fogy I'll do for buffer and when
no longer needed will be retired"
"You go too fast 1t will be time
enough to talk about crossing a bridge
when we get to it."
"Will you announce our engage
ment?"
"There you are again-trying to cross
a bridge we haven't reached"
'But thought you said you wished
to be engaged to me for protection.
What protection will it be IL we keep
the engagement a secretT'
"What does an engagement In
volve?"
"Kissing privileges"
"There is something that comes be-
fore that"
What? Eh, oh, see-7a proposal"
Certainly"
"Will you do me the honor to be my
wifeT"
"Not on such proposal as that"
what kind of proposal would you
likef'
"One with some feeling in it."
"Having received great many of
them, perhaps you will tell me the
most attractive way to proceed"
"The suitor, sitting beside the lady
as you are sitting. takes her left hand
In his"
The colonel did as instructed, using
his right hand.
mot that hand; the otherP'
"Why so?"
"The right hand must be free"
The colonel used his left hand.
'"Then he tells his story in his own
way"
"You are the loveliest little humbug
In the world | love you desperately
and have loved you desperately ever
since you came to the garrison, but
never dreamed that you would consid-
er an old fellow like me for a moment.
especially when"-
"Now you see why you should keep
your right hand free" she interrupted
as he placed 1t on her waist
"All these young chaps are mad about
you"
That's the way supposed you felt
about 1t. Now the privilege you spoke
Of comes In"
The colonel took advantage of the
privilege and the young lady remark
ed that that was not essential to the
original plan, whereupon the colonel
exclaimed. "Original plan be hangedr'
The colonel was right about the mu-