Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1914-07-24
WAS GREAT JOKE
Engaged to Daughter. Fortune
Seeker Changes Mind and
MarrieS Girls Mother.
BY 3. j. KRONER.

NAA IA %AoNOi hC a AhodA0NG
all the hard work, all the business
absorption and worry, all the great
affairs of life which had occupied his
time during the strenuous years fol-
lowing his graduation from college,
had not erased from his mind and
heart the memory of dainty care-free
Laura Tolman, his old sweetheart of
the college days.
He had suspected this before he re-
turned to the old scenes; now that
he was here the conviction came to
him with crushing force. Every
shaded walk, every leafy retreat,
every part of the old college build
ings and the campus seemed to be
alive with her presence. AS he
walked the old familiar paths he
seemed to hear the music of her girl
ish voice and to catch the very aroma
Of her sweet presence.
With a groan he admitted it-he
had failed utterly in the task he had
set himself out to perform. He had
gone away that day when her en-
gagement to Bently was announced
determined to forget her. The strug-
gle that afternoon had been q hard
one, and many times he had thought
Of the river as the most peaceful
haven he could find. Finally his
pride had triumphed, and, setting his
teeth with that peculiar gritty motion
the fellows on the gridiron knew SO
well, he had said to himself:
Claude Belknap, brace up. Where
Is the spirit of your forebears? Are
you to let a chit of a girl ruin your
unexpectedly a girl who throws you
over for a fellow who is only after
her money!"
l.. And SO he had gone bravely away
with a song on his lips. but with
gloom In his heart. He had worked
hard, and not without success. The
very whole-heartedness with which he
threw himself into his work and
which was born of his desire to so
occupy himself that he would forget
the laughing face and saucy eyes of
his college sweetheart, drove him on
to success. He had taken up a siren
uous profession, and 1t had carried
him to many chimes and into much
danger.
In the stress and heat of the bat
tie with fortune he had f1attered him
self that the old wound had healed,
and finding himself In the near vicin-
ity OF the college town, he had rash
ly decided to revisit the old scenes.
Then like the rush of the tide came
the realization that he ave. would love
the sweetheart Of his youth, wherever
she was and whatever her condition
or relationship. The realization
frightened him when the thought
flashed cross his mind that she was
the wife of another.
Heartsick with his own reflections,
he sought to escape them by calling
on Miss Carrie Sample, who still lived
in the town. and who had been a
great chum in the old days. He was
given SO warm a welcome as to make
him forget for the moment the bitter
pain in his heart. The conversation
naturally reverted to the old college
days and the old boys and girls. Bel
KNAPP had been abroad SO long and SO
occupied with business that he had
lost track of them to a considerable
extent, but Miss Sample, having lived
all the years under the very v OF
the old college, and being a gossipy
lady, knew where nearly all the old
classmates were, who they married,
how they were prospecting, and all the
other details which so delight the
feminine heart.
The conversation was animated and
extended, and Belknap for the time
being forgot his heartache under the
magic of this clever and friendly lit
tie woman
1t was when she dragged forth from
a sacred drawer a bundle of old class
photographs that he was most pain
fully recalled to his great sorrow.
"Oh, but do you remember this pic
mic we had" she exclaimed, showing
a photograph in front Of his very
nose.
Did he remember? The blood
rushed back into his heart at the
memory until he thought he would
faint. 1t was a snapshot of a group
at a picnic, the girls adorned with
the boys hats, and the boys wearing
the feminine millinery. 1t was Just
outside an apple orchard surrounded
by a high stone fence, over which but
ut a perilous height hung a bough Of
luscious fruit. In the very center Of
the picture was Belknap, and perchsd
audaciously Upon his shoulder was
Laura Tolman. supported by his strong
and steady arm, picking the apples and
throwing them down to the laughing
comrades below. Did he remember
that picnic? It was the day when.
maddened by the contact with her
dainty self, he had poured forth his
love and then. frightened at his own
audacity, had stammered and failed
to. ask the vital question.
The photograph brought back all
the memories of the afternoon, and
aroused all his latent passion. As he