The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1919-01-10

Will marry the man who GOES
through fire, water, blood and iron for
me- was The way she EXPRESSED IT,
..aO| there We're who would have been
"""II- TO 90 through water, provided
was not too deep; and also through
O.o'l, as long as it was not of their
own or their shedding; but as To fire
ana irou-well, the former was n lit
Tie too much to expect and the latter
was difficult.
If (orna had waited a few years
She would have experienced no diff
Guilty i'm finding Il hero for herself.
ihcy are plentiful nowadays. but they
We're scarce when Verna was twenty
one aud the pretty steuog" in Jones
N Jones real estate office ON the fourth
ioor Of the Ashton building.
somehow Varna figured that Dan
= williams was destined to be- the man.
He was a fireman in the station house
three blocks down the street, and he
chung rathcr heroically, she thought,
TO tho red iuggeruaut that roured and
%screeched past the Ashton pu an aver
age Of at least four times a day. There
was a man who would at least 90
through fire, ana certainly through
water, and probably meet the other re-
quirements, He was a S~trapping
blond young man, with strength rip
ping through every muscle, and he
was very good for a hero worshiper to
look at.
Some day he'll prove TO he my
hero She had decided on the day
Dan followed his pet maltese cat in
its wanderings from the station house
across the street to the Pomeroy res
idence, where Yerna happened to be
seated on the porch reading Brave
Men | Have Met"
That's the way they got acquainted,
and since then Dan had woOed Verna
through the fourth floor window every
week day and in the parlor of her
home every night when he got time
off.
When the siren Of the ladder truck
gave vent TO its mOurnful shrek
Verna always would look up from her
typewriter and exchange a wave of
the hand with Dan as the red demon
dashed by.
But Dan was not the only one who
woOed Nerna through the window
Ben Vincent rode past the Ashton
building twelve times a day. His pace
was not as swift as his rivals, how.
--eYerr because Ills vehicle was a street
car. When he approached Verna's
window be always stood on the real
platform and waved one of his hands
while the other rang up fares.
Yerna liked Ben fully as well as
Dan, hut his life was so prOsaic it of
fered few heroic possibilities. He haC
dark hair and eyes and his face wa,
attractive, hut he failed to come VI
to the ireman'S shoulder and there
was no noticeable bulge just abov,
the elbow.
His acquaintance she had formed
when she moved to a residence in thu
suburbs and was obliged to use a troll
ley car twice each day.
Ben's dark complexion was anothe
handicap. Nerna had hair that sh
liked to hear called raven locks
and her eyes we're OF a similar hue
and she had read that a person shout
marry an opposite.
That's the way things stood whe
the rivals met one night a half bloc
from the Pomeroy home. The condu'
tor had been calling on Nerna and tn
fireman knew it and waited for hin
They both happened to be of dut,
but Ben had been the first TO ask he
for an engagement.
"Tve been waiting for you an hour
Dan announced as he stepped out troI
the tree against which he had bee
leaning. You've been in Miss Por
~VsGroy's parlor altogether too long.
can't stand for that"
Ben had no relish for a hglt-n'
! with those six feet Of muscle-so !
kept his temper in leash.
"Sorry ! don't please you,' he r
piled with sarcasm-sprinkled coolne>
"I didn't know Miss Pomeroy and y'
were engaged
The fireman knitted his brows in
n sovage scowl and looked dlsdainft
" down at the pebble in. his hlghw'
of love,
"Wen. we aren't" he declare
"Thore is no engagement yet hut the
is going to be. She wants a man. III
Pm i~t--,ee? She isn't going to I
nm with a shrimp like you, so you b.
tor make Yourself scarce around ne
I'm inst warning you, that's all"
About this time Fate decided TO Ia
q hand in the affair. So a janit
went to sleep In the basement OF [
Ashton building late one afterno
and a cigarette dropped from !
mouth into a barrel Of excelsior 1
Ashton was a frame relic of past arc
,tectprol grandeur and the flames 9
into II rs a furnished lion eats into
-chunl5 of red heefsteak.
The ianitor awoke, choked W.
v smoke. and staggered to safety I
occupants Of the building dasneu p
nell to the street by m'"iS y.