How He Won Her

He was seedy, hut in I nlr, tli.u w as the seediness k hayseed. There was hayseed in lus hair, in his whiskers, through whicb the mornlng winde i. in his eyelashes, on the top o! his head. üis eyes liad atar-away, searching tor-haj his voice seemed bo have au in. tion oí it. .'Mul "nis general appearance was a conglomérate demonstraticm of hayseed as an extant fai As I had nothing ia h to do, I sal on a monnd, rail, while ants crawled up my tronsers leg, I listenoil to hini as he leaned against the rail fence and taiked. His voico sefemed t" eotice fco the surroundtog atmospberè tbs mingJed odors ot newinoivii liay and of eows waiting to bc milked. I (lid not lisuii .i! flrst. Ho mlgbt have been a lark Blnglng in a distant Held, and I would have nnderstood liim as c!l, until my att-entlon was attracted when hc smacked his lips wit.h lntellectual gratificatioo aad sellsatistactlon and said: "I always red Trom that time on I did not permit niysolf t.) lAse a word. "11' had a tarnal ht of grit ns a lover, had .Toe Corker," he said, "and wasn't bhe man oever to give in. He kon' a-eourtin' of her trom the time ehe was a leetle baby gal at school till she was a oíd niaid (if forty-two and never lost hopo. It was nis way because of lus grit. When he startei! in to do anythlng, he generally done it, simply for uo othcr reason than that he was the durndëpt feller. So when he went to lovi-niakin' he '.is move dosprit than a tlger had ought to dared to thougtrt ol beta'. He never give himslf an eaqy job, either. for it weren't hls way; for the gei he picked out gro-wed up to tx one o' them Tousrli ojd birds whatfa the more obstinate tl'.e more ugller tliry are and bleevos in marriáge as a failure. sii,' was a gal with frecklee ame size as ten-cent dimes all over her. Well, vrtien a man undertakes a Job of ttoat kind, even without the grit oí .1 ie aa a lover, he keeps at it out of aggravatlon- yon would yourself. Your vanity does ir. for yon say to yourseJf, 'U yon ean't capture ü bundie of fieckles. what i-an you do nohowV' In the mean Time, as she gTows older and iris obstinater and Tigrlier, you lose your tempor and she loses hers, and neither of you never git it baak again. Ho it was witto .Toe, luit havtng the grit, as a lover, of -vhieh I've spceke, mere loss of temper was notblng to hlm. AVeil. he kop' on and kep' 0:1 and Tlien ne kop" on. One day she Ti'.d Mm she'd como to the conclusión marriage wére not .i tallare, wttfcli glve hun great joy. Then he got a wM-back when ae learned that a two-button cutaway chucklehead had oommenced a-sparkin' of her under the delusion was ïich and was the eause of ie. It was about that timo Joe went west, taking a letter-wrlter vitli lüm, 90 he could send back a courtin' letter took out of the book lrom every station rhey stopped at. "Well, after warkln' at different thimis, always bein' as exmfident that he'd win, as a lrog is about its power to chirp, if it took him a hundred years he'd M.it thar, he loeated in a oaUin on a Bwampy tule farm up on four o.s above Mie highest reac o: the water. The tSde was two feet deep over hi.s land towlce a day, lie built rooms all aronnd hls place for hls c'.iiekens to roost on' at hign ticle, for h." raised ohlekens and aoney for the city markets, and he rowed iiround in a baat to the nests to get the ogss. In the mean time, while doins so. he was always composin' love letters for to wrlte, for he was poetical and done tUiings y inspiratinas, and bhe iawplratlona always come wlien he was colkctin' the eggs, especially ii the hens had laid well. ■AU aronnd he seen bitterns ilyinit, all pertloklerly fat with uotlung apparentJy to eat. lt was a caution how fat they seemed to grow and have oüy. greas] opuntenances, all on nothing, and he couldn't make ii out tiil he seen ome öying one day by, with a neok a yard and a half kmg, with a head for all the world ate bhe head of a sarpent. Theo he watched nioi-e of them with heads like corkscrews, and they ed also to bave ama zin' long necka and sarpents' heads as they fiew about in all direct ions. At last he see how they et snakes, and thnt, as it took about half an to swallow them, they kt-p' flyin' round an' round while doing it, so's the motion would aid digestión. One day an idea xtruck Joo. He seen besides beta' so amazin' fat, they wen1 about the uize of young chickeus. Sd he killed one, ome day and eJiopped its Ig8 and head OÖ and plucked the ieathers, and saw, ïtr lus purpoees, it were a chieken. So, bein' so, he sent them to the eity, to market, as cbickcns, wlth thelr hèada oii and Wue an' yeilinv sra'iloprd tissue-paper wliere thelr lega was ent oí, hciT they gave him a greal name beeause ol ühelr latseas, and h" delicate tasie ni frog'8 ie.ü-s WhlCh sarpents give the meat. In oomsequence he growed rich. 'In the mean time, wtole watcaiag the bitterna and saxpeats, all unco'nsctous ttoey was öaia' it so he'd grow rich, and while pluckin' the ieathers on", he was always busy ineditatin' , njiisin' uve iet tere, and he aïways beggin' her to come out and get married. Bui hls ideas, however i;e pul them, nevir fetched her nohow. ■At lasi one day, of a Sunday, he must hare a chantre of Ideas, so'a he'd diferent - same as a man Bei different, very of ten, i:i a different suit of clothes - to fetch Miss Selverton, the lady, and was wondering would change them. He rowed in his baat to a neighbor&n' town, and on tho way, lioimii ho'd never drank n ire, he determlned . iic'd try gin. Ëe'd hearn oí 8 m;m mallo a lortune iy an idea he gol by drinkin' gin, bo H' got two big black and rowed home vii ii . determined u try il, for Jnr i done ii. "He opened one bottle, amd while he was drinkin' i an idea come to liim and he aaid to himsell - for havin' no neigrhb ira he choae to Talk to himself- : de otlier in honor -oí her arrlval when she gets fetere.' The idea, which was specially brilllant, ■ i i lüiu of lts ii n accord, t;o he thoagbt it was a. Blgn of good lurk. and pul the uaopened bottle aeide. lic Uien Qniahed the other, and wihlle .- doln' he composed and wi'it a letter to Miss Srlvcrton what tetohed hor with att her baggage. lli''d dropped the letter-boo styhand just spoke plaln. Iï I dom'1 disremember he aaid: 'I've got the anakes, and l'm the first man that ever totind tlhém payin' property and growed rldh by it.' You see, he jist wroti' plain that a-way. l'lun he went 011 atad sald : 'I've g-ot a reguular snake trust and tbe people never misti-ust it. and it's tlic kind oí a trust t, so (ar from causlng me to bust. WOuld jus! maki' you bust -U'illi laugbter if yon sa v the peculiar way I've grwved rich. I had to give otlxer peóple snakes befare they'd cöme down wiiii Ëhèlr cash. If you will come out, my dear, we will liave tho snakes together.' He spoko all throngh just plain, Uiat a-way. Then lic. i:ieloeed a check for a thousand dollars for In-r to come out with. "No'iV you'd say she'd never come níter tiiat. Well, that's just where you'rc ifí. Beln' a woman what thou?:lit ïuarriago was a failure, of coursv shc was as full of notions as a rivcr is oí drink, so she sein slio hail a mission, and that missioiii was to save him trom the snaikes. It's the de niit of ihat kind mi' -woman's hcart in gt a husband "vvh.0 occasionally had the snakes, so 6he can hold him up to himsolf as a shinin' eiample of evil. and point him out to himself as a burnin' illustratiaii of anee. "So r-lio ■vrote to him when shc started, and on the day slic was to arrlve he im'oaded the other bottle of gin into himself. It ivas one of thr hickirst thiugs he ever took a notlora to do and domo. Wtoen ahe arrlved slu' had the plcasurr oí seein' that her tlieory was correct, and when a woman has a chance to aee iliat, she's as happy as a game-oook is when yon put on bis spurs for to fiffht, and wlth unboundod pleasure olie gave him a wltherln' look thai ahe t'liouiu woald make him ahriyel up Uki' a green lvaf tu a rcd-liot tire, and after makin' lnqniriea wltih intense politcncss about the anakes, sintook liim off to church and married hila. When, after that she found him to be a total abstainer, wtth nothin' to reform, and she carne to know Avhich gnakes ho meant, she slowly faded away with disappolntment and died of grief. Joe then went cast, and wien last heard from had marrled a younp; dudine out there. Tliat was all, as far as I've hcard," lic said, and the labora of the day being thus ended, he departed and lelt me alone to those solitary medltatlons whlch the ants -vverc now arousing withln me.