The Mount Holly news., 1919-01-21
Did a Highland Fling.

the poor little lamb - The endear-
ment had no reference to herself, but
to favorite pupil Of hers, Bonnie Clay
Bennington. Poor little Bonnie had
done terrible thing and the gossips
were so busy with her name that she
could not withstand the venom of it
all. She was i'll, confined through the
hot summer to her home, while the
young husband who had married her
clandestinely was at the front, eating
his heart out because the rash act, SO
Bonnie now called it, had wrought SO
much unhappiness to the one whose
happiness was dearer to him than any
thing else on earth. OF course, it was
a dreadful thing In a place where no
one else had ever run away and got
married. But the fact that Bonnie
was being hectored to death by ma
icious gossip, retailed to her by her
disappointed and nagging mother,
moved Matte to angry tears.
''Tll not have It'll What If she did
run away and get married2 What If
she is a war bride-I wish" but
she did not finish. She laughed and,
jumping to her feet, did a highland
fling. The unwonted exercise brought
the color to her cheeks and tumbled
her hair, till she had to stop and look
at herself in the mirror as she scram-
bled excitedly for pencil and paper.
She was going to write a fiction of
her life. She would tell Bonnie and
her mother how she had planned to
run away with the lover of her youth,
but that her courage had failed her
and he had gone away never to return.
She wanted the story to hang together,
so she wrote facts first, then made
them fit. But she stuck at his name.
STRANGE" she muttered, "that l can
not recall the name of this man with
whom am running away" She could
only think of Lochinvar 1 have IT.
Lochiel Ross. I'll call him Lochiew
When Mrs. Clay saw her coming she
said to Bonnie: "It's that Meddle-
some Matte. You don't want to see
herw But Bonnie answered, Eyes, let
her in. She was always nice to me,
nicer than I deserved" So 1t happen
ed-that Matte was soon holding the lit
tie wasted hand and telling with many
stops and exclamations all about her
planned elopement, wishing that her
courage had not failed her so that she
would now be happily married.
She bIushed at the revelation (she
was in the habit of telling the TRUTH
and added many details. 1t was a
changed Bonnie who smiled her q good
by. And Bonnie and her mother talked
long over Mattie's sad romance, and
when Bonnie wrote to her husband she
told him the story, adding that she
was so glad that she was not an
unhappy old maid, and that he
had married her despite all objections.
When he read the letter it was SO
he whistled merry tune and his bum
kie heard him. "Good news. Benz? he
asked wistfully, hoping to hear Of
the happiness of some home. you've
guessed 1t, Shorty, and It's all through
the little schoolma'a am they used to
call Meddlesome Matte" Then he re-
cited Matties romance to Corporal
Scott.
They talked long and sympathetical-
ly about the poor little old maid that
had lost her nerve and her lover. "I'll
bet you, man." observed the corporal,
"that she's nightly nearly all right,
that little old grill Let's both write
to her. It'll do no HARM" So they
did.
Matte cheered by the vast improve
ment in Bonnie, kept up the farce day
after day, dropping in with bit of
news, a flower or q rose that re-
minded her of Lochie, till 1t was the
seventh wonder of the village that
Bonnie Bennington had discharged her
doctor and was taking long walks
about the country with her old teacher.
Then one day two overseas letters
came to Miss Matte Mayfield. The
one from Bonnie's soldier husband,
which she opened first, left her flushed
and happy by its ardent thanks. She
had made better soldier of him, he
said; had relieved his mind and from
now on she was to consider him as her
soldier, too. The other she read
through twice. Scotty was telling her
how she was the most wonderful wom-
an, that his mother would have done
just such a beautiful thing in her
place, and so on
why. he thlnAs In as old. as Me