Gilpin observer., 1915-01-28

country. Pays 40 cents a pound for
the coffee he drinks and let's the hired
man drink it, too"
We'll. don't lose your breath. Is he
! dead?"
Dead? Not much! He was down
In the corn with me hull hour this
afternoon. Guess what he wanted?"
Pa, Jim Faraday is forty-fve years
old"
"Yes."
Hes a widower with three chill
dren."
"Yes-three"
Hes sneakin' around after our Jes-
sie."
There Is no sneakin' about It, He
wants her for wife, and can give
her forty times as good home as any
one else. Let's set in and bring it
about"
David Brandon, there will be no
settin' I'M" solemnly warned the wife.
Haven't you got sense enough to un-
derstand that when you tie a gal Of
nineteen to a man old enough to be
her father that you are goin' to spile
her life. Where's the love-the ro-
mance?"
But Jim is rich"
THAT doesn't count for shucks."
"All right. Let her live and die an
old maid, then"
Two other widowers came, and one
got as far as to ask Jessie if she dotted
on chicken potpie, but the father
didn't Interfere again until late fall.
Then he suddenly asked:
What do you 'spose Jessie is wait
in for?"
For the first snowfall" was the
answer.
And the next week it came 1t was
soft and half an inch deco. and every
thing that moved in the fields left a
clear trail. 1t was SO with the fox
who visited the henhouse during the
night and carried away with him a
plump pullet Jessie saw his plain
trail as she went out to feed the hens
in the mornings, and after breakfast,
without saying word to any one, she
got ready to follow the trail, carrying
a spade on her shoulder She was
going to run that fox to his hole and
dig him out and put an end to him.
Had the girl asked her father, her
mother-had she a brother to ask
they would have told her something
about sly Reynard that she did not
know, farmers daughter though she
was
Over the meadow. over the stubble,
into the woods, she followed that plain
trail, and she uttered a shout as it led
her at last to a burrow in hill She
had run the thief to earth, and now
to dig him out. She had worked for
half an hour, when there was merry
laugh close at her elbow
"Nhy-why-i" she stammered in
confusion as she looked up and saw a
young man whose face beamed with
mirth.
Il beg pardon" he said, but you
are trying to dig out the fox whose
trails leads here"
Yves"
Come to the top of the hill and
trail leading away?"
It's another fox"
Its the same one you tracked to
this burrow. Master Reynard has two
entrances and two exits to-his bur.
row. AS soon as you began digging
he skipped out"
You don't live in this country, and
how should you kEow?' asked Jessie,
rather defiantly
"Oh. l might have read a work or
two on natural history
But know my father will say"
I'VE will ask him. You are Miss
Brandon, l believe. My name is Ar
thur Stewart. | am on the way to see
your father for my cousin. Mr.. Wake
field. Permit me, please"
And he shouldered the spade and
walked along beside her. and their
talk was of trails and foxes, but
queerly enough when the house was
reached the question in dispute was
not submitted for decision. In fact, it
was not thought Of again for months
and it was Jessie's mother who said
to the father:
Jest let girl alone, pa. and she'll
find a man to love and one to love her
even IL she has to have the help Of an
old red fox Don't jump outer your
boots when l tell you that Jessie is
engaged"
Copyright. 1914 by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Synlicatel