The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-05-08
A YOUNG MANS
SCHEME
By M. QUAD
Copyright. 1918. by Associated Lit
erary Press.

/ 4He young u1d0 WHO uttered the
words was at work In the field, and hs
Strengthened up to rest his weary bach
and mutter.
| "And I'll make her love me before
I'm through with her! She may thinl
l don't amount to shucks, but all ]
want is a chance to prove that l do
Durn farm work! Durn widders! Durr
love! Dun everythingr'
He kicked the fence to show his dis.
! gust and YEARLY resumed work. Ebe-
! Meier Schermerhorn. hired man. was
in love with the Widow Tompkins,
whose farm adjoined that Of his boss
on the west. Ebenezer was twenty.
four years old. plain Of face and IN
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 love story. She read a few chap
tiers to him and afterward acknowl-
edged that she had always been ro-
mantle and that II she ever married
dSdlu IL Woull Uc W II ueIO.
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 a
word or two. Ordinarily Ebenezer
would have leaped the fence and run
the wayfarer half mile. but on this
occasion he invited him over to the
corn and sat down with him for a con-
fidential 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 to come running up and knock
the tramp head over heels and rescue
the widow. But as he started to come
running 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
Of any tramp walking the roads.
Ebenezer's first try was a failure,
but within fortnight he was ready
for another. Two or three farmhouses
in the township had been robbed, and
this fact became the basis for his Sec
ond plan. One night at midnight he
left his bed. descended to earth by
way of a window. and. armed with a
club. he became a guard for the Wild
owls house. He circled around It and
patrolled the garden and the orchard.
and he felt that he would give a year
of his life II a rObber would appear.
He would first fell him and then arouse
the house, and when the widow came
to know that he had been guarding her
for love her heart would melt toward
him.
But no r0bber came Instead of that
his footsteps awoke the widow, and.
peering out. she saw some one walking
about. and she got shotgun and raised
a window and blazed away. The gun
was loaded with bird shot to shoot
hawks that might come swooping down
on chickens, but in this case they an
swered just as well for q man. Eben-
ezer received about twenty of them
and ran two miles to doctor to have
them picked out. He also had a va
cation from work for week under
The excuse that he had sprained his
back turning over in bed.
Ninety-nine out of every hundred |
would be heroes would have given I'D
light here, but Ebenezer was man
o hang on. 1t was while he was limp.
ng around on his vacation and doing
lot OF standing up and wandering
'ver the fields that he came upon the
widow fishing in the river at certain
,oint He did not show himself, but
ifty feet from where she sat under a
rec he discovered a bumblebees' nest
n the grass. 1t was large and lib
'ral nest and 1t gave him a thought.
The bees wouldn't bother anybody so
ong as they were let alone. II stirred
Up they would look for meat.
There was haystack not far away,
Ind Ebenezer had matches in his
rocket He retired behind the stack
Ind collected hatful of stones from
he plowed land. These he threw one
~ one at the spot where the bees
we're pursuing the even tenor Of their
Ways. The plot thickened. You can
hicken a bumblebee plot in a very
hort time. All you've got to do Is to
read on their coattails. When the in.
ects found the rocks dropping on their
leads they swarmed out of the grass
o look for the enemy. They should
AVE seen the widow and descended
lpon her. and at her first shrek Eb-
meier would come charging down
With a wisp Of lighted hay in either
land. But things went wrong. The
ices then went for him alone. They
an him up and down the haystack:
hey ran him over fences and back;
hey ran him across lots and in circles,
nd when they finally left him and he
ell down the widow came forward and
sked:
"But why were you such fool?"
Because I want you to marry mel"
e groaned in reply. "And you said
on would marry a hero. l thought the
ees would attack you and could rush
4 and save you"
"Why, you great idiot! I've been
eady to say yes any day for the last
1ree month";"