The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-03-31

to do"
Don't you like to work."
"Why-e-e, 1 guess I'm like other folk
in that respect. / don't mind working
If L can pick my job-and my com
pany. I've been having a bully good
time hammering around this old bunch
of junk with your father. Or 1 was
| having one until Satan came also"
Meaning Mr.. BullertonT
Quite so; meaning Mr.. Fullerton,
christened Charles
Ought 1 to stay here and listen if
you're going to say things about him p
Not if you are going to marry him,
you shouldn't"
well, why shouldn't I marry him
if l want to? Hasn't he plenty of
money? And haven't l told you that
I'd marry for money!
''Humph!' said 1 when you talk
that way you are saying out loud just
what Lisette says to herseIf-only you
don't mean it and she does. But tell
me how did you get permission to
come over here and talk with me?'
Whose permission-Daddy'sF
NO; Bullerton's, of course"
Il don't have to ask it-yet."
Not yet, but soon, L grinned. "AIl
things come to him-or her-who
waits. Just the same, you shouldn't
have come. It's cruelty to animals.
After man has travelled thousands of
miles to sit at the feet OF the one girl
in the universe, only TO find himself
elbowed by a brown-whiskered jeet-"
Hush !" she chided. Cant you
ever be serious? You are not sitting
at anybodys feet. What are you GO
ing TO do about the mine?"
Fullerton offered to unwater the
Cinnabar if I'd deed him a bit more
than half interest-and possibly he'd
still be willing to do that, which would
mean that he'd form a stock company
and freeze me out completely when
he got good and ready"
"And what is the other way?"
He offers to buy the mine outright,
just as it stands, for fifty thousand
dollars"
But your grandfather paid nearly
half a million for it, didn't hep"
Even so. But, you see, in the pres
ent scrap I'm the under dog. The man
y
nice little scrupIes in a business trans
action-if you'll permit me to go that
far. He even threatens to turn me
over to the authorities for stealing
that inspection car and getting it
smashed"
"Oh, l don't believe he'd do that -
she deprecated.
1T is perfectly right and proper
that you shouldn't think so-in the
circumstances. Just the same, you'll
pardon me If 1 say that I'm swearing
continuously and prayerfully at the
circumstances"
''YOu don't want me to marry money
and have good clothes and all the other
nice things, and travel and see the
world, and all that?"
mo, by Jove! 1 want you to marry
me-"
Her laugh was just funny little
gurgle.
"BluebeardI" she said, just like
that "And you haven't even killed
Miss Randle yet Thank you, ever so
much; but I don't want to be one of
several. Besides, you haven't any
money"
Talk of fmpasses and impossible sit
uatiOns What could a man say, or
hope to say, TO such a girl as that
did you come over here just to
torment me?" 1 rasped.
"Woof - she shivered, "here comes |
the bear again ~ and then, right smash |
out of clear sky: kiss me-just |
once, Stannie-bear"
IOiI Shn Vyac ora Sr1iDrr bif
she got up rather unsteadily to go |
back to the cabin across the dump |
head and wouldn't stay another min |
ute, though 1 begged and pleaded with |
her.
NO, indeed, Bluebeard man." she |
said with that queer little gurgle of a |
laugh. II think l have found out |
what I wanted TO. Goodby." And !
then, after 1 thought she was clean /
gone, she turned back to say, airily: /
"Oh, yes; had almost forgotten what |
1 came over here TO tell you. You /
mustn't sell the Cinnabar Stannie; not
for any price that anybody might offer
you. Goodby, again"
Can you beat it? When the good
Lord made women He doubtless had |
ludHy pdll6EuSs out 10 DeuONG the
mold was broken and thrown away
after this jeanne girl had been fash
toned. For q solid hour or more 1 sat
on that slab bench at the shafthOuse
door in sort of bewildered daze, Won
dering if 1 had been asleep and dream
ing, or if the bedazzIing thing had
really happened
At breakfast the next morning every
thing passed off as usual and FOR any
thing that Jeanne said or looked there
needn't have been any bench beside
the shafthouse door and the dream
theory | had been playing with might
have been the sober fact. An hour
later, after 1 had gone across to the
mine, Fullerton came over to dig me
out, as before.
Forty thousand this morning" he
as clipper as an English
sparrow over an unexpected heap of
street sweepings. "Say, Broughton.
can you afford to let your capital
shrink at the rate of ten thousand dol
airs a day? If you should ask me, 1
should say not
you never miss what you haven't
had" 1 shot back. There are no