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'Ia Li iEL T'E iSUlRE
lect, and clothes. I wondi have put You
in mind more of ba scball and 1Fridav-
night dtc!ating societies--by way of
culture-ald maybe of a good horse-
back rider.
But, in our talks togctiher and in cur
visits and Con versTation with lay
Martha neither (Gc tiloe B:;anks ni r I
could find out which ionte of xus she
preferred. Max MIartha was a aitural-
born non-com;i;ttal: and knew in her
cr;ile how to keep pcile i- ue-sing.
A I said, old man Iang'amn aos ab-
sent-minded. After a I ng time he
found out one da --a little butterfly
must have told himn-that two young
men were trying- to throw a iet over
the head of the young person. a daugh-
ter, or some such technical appendage,
who looked after his comforts.
I never knew scientists could rise
to such occasions. 1(1d MIangmn oral-
Iv labeled and classited Goodloe and
nixself easily among the lowest orders
of the vertebrates: and in English, too,
without going any further into Latin
than the simple references to Orgetorix,
Rex Hlelvetii-which is as far as I ever
went, myself. And he told us that if
be ever caught us around his house
again he would add us to his collection.
Goodloe Banks and I remained away'
five days, expecting the storm to sub-
side. hcen we dared to call at the
house again May M2artha Mangum and
her father were gone. Gone! The
house they had rented was closed. Their
little store of goods and chattels xao
gone also.
And not a word of farewell to either
of us from May Martha-n t a while,
fluttering note pinned to the hawthorn-
bush: not a chalk-mark on the gate-
post nor a post-card in the post-office
to give us a clue.
For two months Gondloe Panl- and
I-separately--tried every scheme we
could think of to track the runawa-ys.
WVe used our friendship and influence
with the ticket-agent, with livery-stable
mnen, railroad conductors, and our one
lone. loi-n constable, but without re-
sults.
Then we became better friends and
worse enemies than ever. \Ve fore-
gathered in thIe back room of Slvder's
saloon evcr afternoon after work, and
played dnmicnes, aind laid convcrsa-
tional traps toi find otl from each other
if anything had been discovered. That
is the -way of rivals.
Now, odnloe lBanks had a sarcastic
way of dispilayitng his owni learning and
putting me in the class itihat was read:il-
ing "I 'oor Jane Ray, her hirn is leadl.
shlie cannot play." \ ell, I rather liked
Goodloe, and I had a c,itempt for his
college learning, andl I was always re-
garded as ic, d-natured, so I kept my
temper. And I was trying to find ,out
if he knew any lhing about May Martha,
so I endured hlis society.
In talking things over one afternoon ii
he said to me:
"Suppolce you do find her, Ed.' where-
by would you profit? Miss Malangum
has a mind. Petrhap it is yet uncul-
turdl. but she is destined foir hihmr
things than you could give her. I lhave
talked with no one who seemed to ap-
preciate more the enchantt ent of the
ancient po et and writers and the mIdl-
ern cults that have asimilatedl and cx-
lpended their philkisophy of life. Don't
you think you are wasting your time
looking for her?
"My idea." said I, "of a happy home
is an eight-room husce in a grove of
live-oaks lv the side of a ch/rco on a
Texas prairie. A piann," I went on,
"with an automatic iplax r in the sit-
ting-rnom, three thousand head of
cattle underil fence fior a starter, a lucl-
lUoard and ponies always hitched at a
post for 'the missus'--and May Martha
Mlangum to, spe1ni the profits of the
raunch as she pleases, and to abiile with
me, and put imy slippers and pipe away
very day ii places where they cannot
he found of ev cning's. That.," sail I,
"is what is to ie--and a fig. a dried,
Smvrna, dago-stand fig for yo ir cur-
riculums, cults and philosophY.i
"She is meant for higher things. re-
,catled Gnodiloe 1ainks.
"\V'hatever she is meant for,'" I an-
wered., "'iust noxw she is out of pocket.
And 1 shall final her as sootn as I can
without aid of the colleges .
"The game is blocked," aidl Goodloe,
I I
s........ .mamammax amm)Im- . mmmmm.