He Slid.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 270, 11 October 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

He Slid.

Talk about pretty girls— but she was a wild flower and no mistake ! She got on the train to go over to Meridian from Vioksburg, and she waa all alone. There was a sort of sidelong movement among five or six men, but a drummer, for a Philadelphia saddlery house got there first. He grabbed up his grip and walked square up to her seat and took possession of half of it without asking a question, and m ten minutes he seemed to be perfectly at home. She answered his questions briefly, and he had the hardest kind of work to keep up conversation, and as the train approached Jackson she suddenly said : " I want to telegraph papa from here. Will you help me?" " Oh ! certainly. I have a blank mmy

pocket. Write your telegram and Twill ran into the office with it." Ws missed him when the train started, bu+ by-arvd-bye he was found m the smoking car, his hat crushed down and -his nerves all on edge. When asked what had happened, he drew forth the telegram which the girl had requested him to hand m. It read : " Bring your shot-gun- with you lo pop over a drummer who has dreadfully annoyed me. Shoot to kill I " " To think," he gasped, " that one so fair could be so murderous ! Why, I'm all m a sweat ; I want some of you to stand by me 1 " We got his grip from the seat, traded hats and coats with him, and the way he slid from the depot when the train reached Meridian caused a hotel porter to observe : " Well, now, but that white face belongs to an invalid and them legs to a deer 1 What sort of a coon can he be?" — Detroit Free Press. !•