TOTING SARAH JANE.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3893, 13 March 1918, Page 4

TOTING SARAH JANE.

Deacon Sila* Uraoi -?.y. of Spooners ville had rc-sitU-d iv the village foi 40 years without surprising any body. They had gotten over looking for any such thing from him, For the last "ten years ho had bcei • widower, anil his sister, Sara* iTane, a spinster, had kept house Toi him. Then one day his time came. Be tvroen daylight and dark he sold out his grist mill, his saw mil ;>!!■! his lumberyard, and went homi i o say to his sister— "Sarah Jane, I'm going to Yurup !" "Silas, you don't mean it !" she gasped. " Dog gone my cats if I don't I've been thinking about it for th< last 10 years. All I've been waiting for was a man to come along ami give my price. I've sold out, lock, stock, and bar'l, and I'm going to start out and see things." "But Spoonerville will go into fits over it." "Let 'em fit. Yes, I'm going to ftfurup. I'm going to sec towers and castles and rivers and mountains ami graves and ruins till you can't rest. I've worn old duds around all my Jife, and now I'm going to dress up and go over there aad be on* of the biggest toads in the puddle. If they don't think I'm wuth t>,000,000 dollar? 'twont be my fault." "But Spoonerville will say that you have backslid, Silas," protested Sarah Jane. "Then they'll be a lot of fools. 'Taint no backsliding. It's just taking a vacation and getting away from the three or four widder women around here who are tagging- after me. I guess a feller who has rung the bell for T&uraday evening prayer ineeting for the last 27 years •an go to Yurup and see the grave of Shakespeare without wanting to go partnership with Satan. I'm *• going to try it, anyhow." '-'And T—T- ?" The decon looked at her for a long minute before replying, and it was evident that he was turning jver a serious problem in his mind. Finally, he said— "Sarah, you are nigh' 40 years Old." A'Only 39 next mouth, Silas." "For 20 years you've been trying to catch a man." "How can you be so cruel ! I could have caught a dozen, but bave never met one that appealed to me." . "And, Sarah, ' continued the dealon aa he "smoothed away at his knees, "you are about the homeliest woman I ever sot eyes on I" "More cruelty ! Silas, if I get to veeping I may have hysterics." "And therefore, Sarah Jane, I'm going to take you with me. I'm going to do for you what you can't. do for yourself—marry, gou aff." "Silas Bradley !" "You shall go along with me, and I'll bet a hat agin a bunch of tatnip that I'll marry you off to a lord or duke or count before we bead for home. There's to be no Hanging back on your side. You've "got to accept the first good thing fchat comes along. It'll be my riches that'll bring him round, and fou've got to do the rest. I've beard you wish a thousand times over that you was a countess or iordess, and now's your chance, ifou can marry and stop over there and live in a castle. If the feller thinks he's getting a couple of millions with you he won't mind your looks, ami if be turns rusty afterwards you can get that temper of yours up and go for him. Yes, Sarah, you shall go along." * Sarah ffit a !>it hurt at his way of putting it. hut she let that pass 3.nd cnt'vei into the spirit of the thing with #T'a< enthusiasm. S[»oonerville v:v.h amazed, dumbfoundwl ami crilii al. It was a town foi!n«;c!.l 70 years before by Zor.ii Skinner, a worthy man, and never- shie he '" ilt his log cabin h;ul a resi 'e.-t planned such a trip. So:i:c saw v. i!• h; ivad disaster in it, ■ and somr <f'.-!uairded that the . :Je:i;.'on retire from ;i c church which had known J.i.n so long. j Sarah .lan.- could not keep the i secret to hersJf (hat she was going I to "Ynrup" to catch a husband, and for the last three days before getting o/I .slio bad no callers except the widow J>a Voe, who wished 'her luck, but sighed aad added— "Well, if scarecrows can't get married, then there is hopes for some of the rest of us who don't stop :locks every timo we look at 'em."Deacon Bradley did not fall into the hands of green-goods men or bunco-steerers on his way to the ,-* tcsi" a^r. ITo not only reached New York all right, but by -sticking close to the vessel he landed in Liverpool with his sister aa safely as anyone. Then a tour was begun that lasted for six months. The deacon was real good to Saran Jane about one Ihing. He did not bustl" her. When they had seen the Towi.-r of London and a few other eights he said^ "You may not catch on to a" lord i Dr duke in England. Most of Vm are on the other side selling out to American girls at so much a head, and .don't know about us. Take pour time, Sarah. We go to France Mid Italy and Greece from here, and one im sure to bob up sooner or later. I don't want the folks back in Spoonerville to say that you are man-hunting, though as I said at the beginning, you've got to ao :ept any reasonable offer." Three weeks later, in Paris, tftt Bret count offered himself, but thyro were objections on both sides, lit wanted an affidavit as to the financial standing of the deacon, and what was to be his share of the divvy, and the deacon asked" for a lift of hie castles and mortgages, Sj&4 >o discouraged him that he broke off all. further dealings. The second coutt came" forward ir Italy. He told f^arah Jane of hii boundless love before seeing her brother. He had gone into raptures over her eyes, hair, chin, and mouth He compared her figure to that ol Diana. H© had 1 seen her in his dreams fon years. Ho had watched and waited for her, and now that she had a^ rived in Rome on "The Peanut Kxpress." she must be his.