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Show HOW BRIGCS PROPOSED! "Bachelor Brigpa" everybody who knew him culled him that hud come tlown loGreahum visiting his cotiBin, John tirover. John had invited htm every year for at least ten years back, but he had never accepted the invitation in-vitation before. One reason why ho had not done eo was that he was not used to- city ways, and another was that he waa afraid of the women. Bachelor Briga had bad a holy horror of unmarried young ladies for forty years. He didn't know much about them, and ho didn't care to. At home, ho was comparatively safe from them, but away Irom home ho was liable to be taken by storm by somo bewitching!)" gH up damsel, and if there over was a time when poor Mr. Briggs felt perfectly at a loss as to what to any or do, it waa when a girl with bright eyes and a pretty face got hold of him. He couldn't talk about the weather with them. Ho couldn't die cuss the state of the money market, mar-ket, either, because he found out that they knew as little about that as he did about fashions. ''I am glad to see you down here at last," said Mr. Grover, when Mr. Briggs put in his appearance. "Real glad, I assure you, because we'd given up ever getting you bo far away from home. I should think you'd get awfully lonesome up there at your old place. That, old housekeeper of yours can't be worth much lor company. com-pany. I should hate to be obliged to talk to her much." I don't talk to her," answered Mr. Briggs. "She's so deaf she wouldn't hear you if you were to scream. That's why I keep her. I don't like women you've got to talk to." "I Bee you're the same incorrigible old bachelor, Briggs, yet," laughed 'Mr. Grover. "I wish some woman of the right sort would undertake to convert you." "I don't," said Mr. Briggs, very decidedly; "I don't want to be converted." "You're given over to hardness of heart and the error of your ways, I see," said Mr. Grover. "Lucy's got a cousin coming down here some time this summer a real nice re-1 spectable woman of thirty or more. 1 hope she'll come before you go home. I'll get her to take you in hand." "I'll bet she'll he here to-morrow," , said Mr. Briggs, already alarmed at the prospect. "Why didn't you tell me about it before I came? I might; have known I'd get into trouble." "Don't borrow trouble needlessly," said Mr. Grover. "She hasn't come yet." "But she will," responded Mr. Briggs, firmly, "I know she will." Mr. Briggs was iitttng on the verandah ve-randah next day, enjoying a good umoke all by himself, when the gate chicked, and looked up to see a woman wo-man coming toward the house. He would have run, but he was too late. She had seen him already. "Is this Mr. John Graver's?" she asked. "Yes'm," answered Mr. Briggs. "This is Mr. John Grover'i." Just then a gust of wind came aloDg and blew the lady's veil away up into the top of a tall lilac bush. Mr. Brigga was afraid of the woman, but he couldn't atand idle and see ono making frantic reaches after hex veil. So he came to her assistance, and after much trouble succeeded in recovering the lost property and restoring re-storing it toils owner. "Thank you," sne said, as she took the veil. "I'm sorry to have made you so much trouble." "Don't mention it," said Mr. Briggs, taking a side glance at the lady. She wasn't ao young as Bhe might have been, but she wasn't at ill haH Irolrinrr "Owing to paint, and false teeth and puffs, most likely," thought Mr. Briggs. He was like most men they imagine that when a woman gets to thirty or forty years, and isn't married, she loses her teeth and hair, and has to aupply the deficiency with something arlifical. If old maids are always the patched-up creatures they are popularly imagined to be, why aren't old bachelors to be considered con-sidered as being in the same dilapidated dilapida-ted condition? Mr. Briggs received a formal introduction intro-duction to the lady at supper. She was the cousin Mr. Grover had been expecting, a Miss Sarah Spencer, from Hillsborough. Mr. Briggs con-cludud con-cludud that she was like all maids rather whimsical and fidgety and gossippy. . He never thought that probably old bachelors are quite as apt to be as old maids are. Mr.Briggs gotquite well acquainted with Miss Spencer that evening. She succeeded in making quite a favorable favor-able impression on him, which was more than any unmarried lady could say who had met him for the last ten or a dozen years. The married ones he didn't stand in so much fear of, because he felt that they had secured their victims, consequently they could have no designs on him. "I'm glad Miss Spencer happened to come down when Bhe did," said Mr. Grover, neit morning. "I'd like to see you the owner of a nice wife, James." "I knew what it would come . to," said poor Mr. Brigns. "You men 1 who have put your foot in it by get i ting married can't be easy unless ! you're getting some one else to make a lool of hitntself. It's always the way. I've noticed it time and again." A week went by. During that time Mr. Briggs got very well acquainted with iMiss Spencer. He couldn't quite overcome his fear of her though. She was like all her sox, and he was quite sure she would like to catch him. Accordingly ho acted on the defensive. He wasn't going to be taken in by any woman, and most especially by an old maid. One evening Miss Spencer was out visiting, and Mr. Briggs inferred from what was Baid at the supper table that she was going to stay all night. When he went up stairs to go to bed he noticed that the door of Miss Spencer's room was open. Hia overpowering over-powering curiosity to uike a poop in-sido in-sido took possession of him. Ho tiptoed tip-toed up to the door and looked in. "Looks somewhat difltjreutfrorn a bachelor's room," he commented mentally, as he eaw how neat aud tidy everything was. "I should judge trom the appearance of this place that she'd make a good housekeeper." house-keeper." Mr. Briggs ventured across the threshold, and looked about. "I wonder if Bhe docs paint, and wear false hair?" ho said, eying the toilet table askance. "I s'spose I could find out if I wanted to." Mr. Briggs concluded that he "wanted to," and Bidled over to the toilet table. He didn't succeed in finding anything that he considered paint; he probably wouldn't bare known, if he had. Neither did he find any braids or curia. "I guess her hair ia natural after all' he said, holding hit breath with awe. He felt like an intruder. He had never committed such a breach of propriety before. What if ehe should find out that he had been there? Every hair on Mr. Briggs'i hoad stood up in a different direction at the though',. A step in the hall frightened Mr. B. iggs nearly out of his wits. "It's some one coming here." thought the poor man in terror. "I can't get out without beinc seen. What shall I do? What ihalf I do?" In his desperation he pulled open tho door of a closet and dove in. He was just in time. Hardly had the door closed on him when in walkod Miss Spencer. Mr. Briggs saw her through a crack in the door, and came near fainting. Hew was he ever to get out? If he waited until she went to bed andvas asleep, there was tho barest possibility possibili-ty 'of his making his exit undiscovered; undiscover-ed; but Bhe might lock the door, or he might tumble over a chair and wake her up. He broke out in & very profuse perspiration, and wiihed he was in big own little bed. "What a fool I waa to come poking in here where I'd no bushier to be," he thought, with a wish that he waa a thousand miles away. "Of all old fools I ever itnew, Biiggs you're the biggest one. I wish you could give yourself a good kicking. You deserve de-serve it, goodness knows." He peeped out again. Miss Spencer Spen-cer had laid ofi her bonnet and shawl, and was preparing to untie her shoes. 1 " O, - dear I O, dear I" groaned Briggs; " I'd like to know what I'm to do I" There was a pause then, which seemed to Briggs to be at least an hour long. He looked out again. Miss Spencer Spen-cer had undressed her feet, and was taking down her hair. " O, dear !" groaned the poor man again. "I wonder if I could stay here all night ?" When he looked out again Miss Spancer waa taking a long ruflled white garment from under the pillow. pil-low. , The sight terrified Mr. Briggs. I've not to get out of this," he concluded. "If I bolt right out she'll scream and raise the neighbors, neigh-bors, and they'll fiud me here, and I never could explain matters never I I'll have to speak to her first. Miss Spencer?" "Goodness me?" cried Miss Spencer, with a jump. " Whospoke to me ?" " I did," Mr. Briggs answered, the victim of his own curiosity. "OlO 1" screamed Miss Spencer. " It's burglars, I'll warrant. I'll be killed, I know I will." " It ain't burglars," said Mr. Briggs, p pping his head out of the cloeet. " U'b me, Miss Spencer." " I don't believe it's Mr. Briggs." declared Miss Spencer. "He's a respectable man, and wouldn't come into a woman's room in this way." Mr. Briggs' blood ran cold. How could he explain ? ! "It ia me," he said, crawling out by degreeB. "I I made a mistake, Miss Spencer." "That's a pretty excuse," said Miss Spencer, scornfully. "I know better. I'll call Mr. Grover. I'll aee if I am ; to be insulted in this way." "Don't!" pleaded poor Briggs. "I didn't mean to insult you, I I" and there he broke down. "O, dearl" Miss Spencer changed her conduct suddenly, after the usual incomprehensible female fashion, and began to cry. "I didn't Bee how you could have the heart to come here. If anybody should find it out, I'd be ruined, and of course I'll have to tell Lucy, O dear me!" Briggs couldn't stand that plea and her tears. They were too much for him. He made a terrible resolve. To carry it out would be to mane a martyr of himself, but he could see no other way open before him by which he could escape. "I I came here to ask you to marry me !" said Mr. Briggs, feeling as if his last moment had arrived, "You wasn't here, and when I heard you coming I thought it waa somebody some-body else, and hid." "You're trying to make me believe that for an excuse," said Miss Spencer. Spen-cer. "You've had plenty of chances to ask me before, without coming here to do it." "I know, but I'd just made up my mind, and I wanted to atk you before I changed it," said Mr. Briggs, telling tell-ing the most outrageous fib lie could think of. "Ah, Mm Spencer, don't say no." "I do kind of like you," admitted Miss Soencer; "and if I thought you was telling me the truth " "lam," asserted Mr. Briggs solemnly. sol-emnly. "Well, then yes," aaid Miss Spencer, Spen-cer, and Mr. Briggs was actually an engaged man! "So you're going to marry Miss Spencer?" said Mr. Grover next morning. "I'm glad of it. But I can't see when the happy understanding understand-ing between you and the lady waB arrived at; for you told me last night at bed time that you wouldn't marry her for a million dollars." ''1 proposed through the keyhole this morning," said Mr Biiggs, gruffly. He didn't like to talk about tho matter. It raaiie him nervous. Briggs is one of the happiest men I know. He declarea that ho wouldn't be a bachelor for any money. He wondarj how he could ever have been fool enough to be afraid of the women. AN AMUSING SCENE. The Vallejo Independent of April 13th relates this incident: Among Rev. Mr. Hammond's San Franciaco co-laborers was a young lady about seventeen years of age, and of quite prepossessing ways and striking beauty. beau-ty. She could Bing like a muse, and appeared to be one of Hammonds most devoted assistant. Ono of our prominent citizens attQnded Hammond's Ham-mond's meetings. He took a back seat, and noticed not far from him the young lady r!errd to. He was attracted at-tracted by her appearance, and was shocked to notice that during most ol Hammond's sermons a young man was hugging her like a bear hugs tbo trunk of a tree which it wisnea to climb. The gentleman did not know what to make of this, but he noticed that the young lady waa among those who sang the loudest when the next hymn was given out. Soon after tho inqu;ry meeting commonced. The young lady approached the gentleman gentle-man who had been watching her, and asked in a meek, plaintive voice, "Do you love Jesus?" "1 fear I don't love Jesus half as much as you do the boys," responded the gentleman, without a moment's hesitation. The fair damsol was not disconcerted a bit, and she curled up her pretty mouth, and said, "Don't you wish you were one of the boys?" |