Catoctin clarion., 1917-09-20
~ mAAhAAAAhA AAhO
t: IN DESPERATION :

BY c. 3. LEWIS.

Phineas Talbot was bashful as
baby. II any neighboring woman came
in and lifted him up, he cried because
he could not hide his face. He was
bashful as q boy. When he attended
school nothing so gave him the fidgets
as to have his teacher call him or
pretty girl smile at him. As youth
he was still more bashful. His mother
had to coax and bribe him to get him
to 20 on an errand to the store. II
girl came to the Talbot house, away
went Phineas on the run.
Phineas grew to a bashful manhood.
He learned piano making, and. In time,
he opened little agency. 1t was al
most torture to have two or three
young ladies enter his place and begin
TO talk music to him. BashfulneSs hurt
his business, and men often talked to
him about it, but he was born to blush
and stammer. He might kick himself'a
dozen times a day, but 1t would do no
good.
There was something in store for
Phineas, and the perspiratiOn stood on
his brow at the mere thought OF 1t. He
lived with his mother and lived very
contentedly, but she was old and grow
ing older, and the day would come
when he would have to set up home
for himself. A single man, bashful or
not, cannot make home for himself.
He has got to have a wife to do 1t.
Great heavens! Phineas had got to
ask some woman to be his wife, and
how was he ever to get through with
1t without being made a cripple for
life!
Every morning when he went to his
place of business he passed house
where there was goOd-lOOking girl.
Sometimes she sat in the window view
ing the street and sometimes she was
working among the flowers In the front
yard. OF course she never smiled at
him, aud Of course he took one look
and then looked away.
On a certain summer morning the
unknown maiden ran across the street
bareheaded to speak to a young lady
of her acquaintance. Just then Phineas
Talbot came along. Just then. as well.
a man came along leading COW.
Every sight was a new sight with her.
She missed the blackberry bushes and
bullthistles growing in the pasture.
She was nervous. She was perturbed.
Presently she grew excited and afraid.
All at once that COW concluded that
she would return home before some
thing awful happened. She started on
her return down the street just as the
good-looking girl started across the
street for her home. She made for the
girl with below and her head held
low down. There was scream OF ter
ror-other screams from pedestrians,
and Phineas Talbot had Jumped two
feet high. He saw and realized every
thing in q moment. 1t was his duty to
90 to that girls rescue. Bashfulness
chained his feet for half minute.
Then a sort of crisis seemed to come.
He must do it or die. He rushed out
into the street and grabbed that COW
by the horns and prevented tragedy.
The COW tossed her head and lifted
Phineas clear off the ground. She
swung her head to and fro and swung
him with 1t, and in one Of her swings,
intended to land him on the roof OF
house, she fell down and her owner
came up and recovered his rope.
Phlneas wasn't much the worse for
his hero work. He was gone almost be-
fore the good-looking girl had real
ized her danger and recovered from
her fright. A small crowd gathered
and she was conducted across the
street, and every one had word OF
praise for the daring young man who
had seized the opportunity as well as
the COW. Phineas hurried down to his
shop, and he sat down to commune
with himself, and he soon saw another
ghost rise up before him. Although
he hadn't been In society much, he
knew the rules of good breeding He
had saved that girls life and he must
call upon her to talk the matter over.
If he didn't call she must think him
boOr.
1t haunted him all day, and when he
went home at night he went by light
ed street. He told his mother as soon
as he got in the house that he had
been feeling strange all day and
thought he would 60 to doctor. The
old lady was looking for something
like this and she told him straight out
that he must make that call. Phineas
could not get out Of 1t. He delayed
and delayed, and he went over to the
girls house like murderer walking
to the electric chair. He made all
ready to run and then rang the door
bell. In half q minute the door was
Opened and there stood the girl her
self. She had a smile on her face, and
she reached out a well-shaped arm and
a soft hand and bade him enter. She
did all the talking for the first FIVE
minutes. She thanked him again and
again, and praised his courage and
strength, and, before he knew what he
was doing, the bashful man was talk
ing. He went over there to make
call, and he ended 1t by making visit,
and going home very jubilant to say to
his mother:
"Why, was there full hour, moth
er, and I never tainted away once!
almost hope shall see her every morn
ing as pass along"
Phineas did see her good many
mornings. 1t took him about eight
months to peel off his bashfulness. and
the mother lived to see her son secure
what makes home and happiness.
Copyright, 1917. by the Mcclure Newspa-
per 9yndicate)
A million and a quarter horses and