The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-03-03
A Supper
At Sanger S
By SADIE OLCOTT

/ Jenny Wright was, between the ages
of sixteen and twenty. the belle of the
village.
| When Jenny was nineteen there
were even chances between Arthur
Perry and Herbert Angel. Among the
laggards Ed De Forests show seemed
| the poorest.
Now. Jenny Wright's bunch was con-
sidered the liveliest that had ever been
known at Hunterville. They were
other, and never was there a case
wherein the person victimized failed to
take his or her medicine good natured-
ly. Then, too. there were driving, fish
ing and swimming parties in summer
and skating and coasting parties In
winter.
One day when they were together at
their headquarters, which was Jenny
Wrights home. one of the boys com
| planned that there was. as he express
ed it, nothing doing which meant
that amusements were lacking. One
/ - sHN ems PiVifpSNu liidl tDtN Eet uD
a mock elopement. The idea caught at
| once. and different plans of procedure
were suggested. OF course Jenny
must be the feminine part of the elope-
ment. That went without saying. But
who was TO be the masculine part
| OF it?
Naturally at this point there came n
halt. None OF the girls cared to nomi.
nate a fellow TO elope with Jenny. No
| fellow would nominate himself and Ger.
tainly wouldn't nominate any one else
Jenny, of course. was not in position
/ to choose. What made the matter of
| more import was that Arthur Perry
and Herbert Angel were pressing each
other in a mad chase for her favor,
which was supposed eventually to
mean her hand.
When it looked as If the matter
would have TO he dropped for want of
selection of an clipping groom Arthur
Perry. who felt more confidence i'm his
chances for being chosen to be eventu-
ally Jennys real husband, suggested
that Jenny herself make the choice,
but that il he kept n secret between
her and the fellow she chose till the
elopement had taken place. She was
to notify the party OF her choice. and
he was TO run away with her exactly
on the stroke of of the town clock
At 10 the bridal party was to meet at
Sanger's, hotel and roadhouse at Hill
ton, five miles distant, where they
would all congratulate the bridal cou-
pie and then sit down to n supper
The suggestion was at once adopted
by all the party except Jenny, who was
finally won over. 1t was not consid-
cred certain that she would select the
man she would choose for husband,
but 1t was supposed that she would
Sanger was notified TO have n supper
ready at half past 10 for party OF
twelve on the evening appointed for
the elopement. The girls very nearly
wore out Jenny, each one teasing her
to give her the name of the prospec-
tive groom. Jenny proved to be ada
mant and kept her secret. Among the
boys pool was made as to who would
be chosen, with Arthur Perry favorite,
Herbert Angel next, and fellow
named Jernigan received odds as a
dark horse. There were few other
scattering bets on various fellows.
Johnny Stevens would have nothing to
do with the pool on the ground that It
was blind game. "No fellow" he
said. "can ever form an intelligent opin-
ion as to what girl is going to do"
The elopement was held up for
week by the weather, which was
stormy, and this tended to increase the
interest In the prank to the boiling
point Even the girls got to betting
candy and flowers and gloves. Jenny
said she couldn't see why there was
so much ex"itSment about matter
that was all for fun. but her words
had no effect to still the babel.
The night of the elopement having
arrived, the wedding guests assembled
at the house of one OF the girls. while
a mOtorcar stood at the door. Since
1t was desirable that the groom should
not be known before reaching Sangers.
it had been arranged that the girls F.,
should 20 together. the boys separate
ly and each one by himself. At half
past 0 the girls boarded the car which |
was driven by Miss Cheesman, its |
owner. and set out for the rendezvous. |
On reaching Sanger's they found all !
the boys there. and while the girls /
were being handed out of the car by |
them up came the runaways. The |
masculine part Of the couple was not |
Perry or Angel or Jernigan, but a
horse darker than the last named and !
one who had not been suspected of |
having any chance whatever He was
Edward De Forest
He handed Jenny out of the car with
the bearing Of one who had not been
selected to carry out bit of fun, but
with an air of proprietorship. When
all had alighted and gone into the ho-
tel drawing room the boys and girls