Year: 1879

A0"ia'oiy oNer Ills grocery, where he
could lie at night, and dream of his
latest affinity and listen for burglars in
the store, and smell rope and tar and
onions and kerosene. He determined
to marry the next girl that enslaved his
too willing heart. And while he was in
this very susceptible frame of mind, who
should wander into his store one after
noon, the very next day but one after
he had laid this VOW upon himself, but
old Squire Bailey's daughter. Austin
had long worshiped her from afar, and
now, when she told him they wanted a
case of eggs packed for winter use, he
felt that he had met his fate. His heart
went out to her, and when she asked
him if he could pack the eggs for them
he said in tones just trife tremulous :


"Aye, for life.'


Miss Florence looked little surprised,
but asked him what the eggs would be
worth.


"They are priceless" he said, in a
husky whisper, "the dross of gold would
tarnish them if it touched their pure
and-'


Her state of utter amazement re-
called him to his senses and he stam-
mered:


Hayes, yes, to be sure; I was
thinking of something else. By the case,
they will cost you eight cents"


"And when, "-she asked, "can you
have them for usp''


"Now," he said, Immediately, cat
your feet; I will lay them-''
But she looked as though he was
crazy or drunken, and he again amend
ed his declaration by saying he was
thinking of something else, and that
the eggs would be sent up sometime in
side of two or three weeks or so. Then
she asked him to send the bill with them
and she would pay him for them when
they were delivered, and he was just on
the point of bursting out with the i'm
passioned declaration that only with
the heart that was all the world to him
could she pay him for the life of devo-
ton he wanted to deliver with those
eggs, when woman from West Hill
came in and asked for some grated
horse -radish and two bunches of onions,
and when she had been waited upon, the
fair enslaver was gone.


! Well, during the two weeks Crubble-
ton was packing those eggs, be hatched
more day dreams out of them than ever
came out of eggs before. He hatched
apleasant home out of them, with him.
self and somebody wonderfully like
Squire Bailey's daughter in the fore
ground, and all sorts of comfortable ac-
cessories in the background and no end
of domestic sunshine to fill in the high
light and soften the middle tint and
mellow the distance. Every thing would
look bright enough to dazzle midday
itself, until he would begin to think
how he was to inform Miss Bailey about
all this, when every thing would sudden
ly be plunged into the profoundest
gloom, and his heart would turn 50 colo
it made his feet ache.


Well, he hit on a plan at last. HI
knew that the Squire's daughter KEEP
house for the old man. In all human
probability her own fair hands woule
take out all those eggs. He selected al
egg and wrote upon it in fair rount
hand:


Tenderly break the fair white shell,


Closed in its fragile frame.


| Throbbeth the heart that loves thee well,
And eherisheth thy name.


See, on this egg my love lay,


Oh, hear my plant, and set the day.


Crubbleton thought this was prett,
neat. He signed his full name to it
headed it with the name of his charmer
laid it in the case so that the Inscription
would be visible when the egg was ex
posed to view, and then he fnishe'
packing the case and sent the bill alon,
with it, not that he cared for the none
in this instance, but business is business


How anxiously he waited through tn
slow, tedious weeks that followed. HOY
he noted the expression of Miss Bailey
face whenever he met her, sometime
he was confident that she had read th
egg and was going to accept him, an
he would walk around in heaven for th
next day or two. Then the next tim
he met her, he would feel positive ths
she had found that egg and in a cor
vulsion of wrath had hurled
out of the kitchen door and mashe
it against the barn. And so b
would 60 moping around with a bottl
of poison in one pocket and an acciden
insurance policy in the other. But b
fore he could bring himself to the poir
of using one and forfeiting the other, h
would meet the Squirs's daughter agai
and casual inquiry about the egg
would reveal the fact that she hadn'
! noticed any thing remarkable strikin