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Show 00000CQCQ000CX THE NATURALIST - By LAWRENCE ALFRED CLAY OCXXXXXXXXXXXXX)OCX3COOOOOOOOCXX Miss Gertrude Ainsley put on her hat that sunny spring day and walked down the road and over the creek and up into the woods on the hill. There were stately elms and beeches and maples; the spice-bush gave out its scent; there were violets under foot everywhere, and the robins and bluebirds blue-birds seemed to welcome an intruder. There were paths running here and there, and as the girl took one of them she heard a queer sound from the brush on her right, and investigated to find a rabbit caught by the leg in a snare. Poor Bunny was having a hard time of it, and it frightened him the more as the girl approached. He bounded this way and that and Into the air, but the snare held and he cried and whimpered and feared for his life. When the girl had come closer and began to call him poor thing and exclaim ex-claim that it was a burning shame, the captive huddled down and stared at her with his great big eyes. She was stroking it with her hand when a boy of twelve came running to shout: "He's mine! He's mine! I set the snare for him last night!" Up he came, and was about to lift the rabbit in his arms when Miss Gertrude gave him a push and demanded: de-manded: "What business have you snaring the poor creatures!" "Business! Business!" he repeated. "Why any one can catch rabbits any time they want to! He's a daisy, and the fellow will pay fifty cents for him. Gee. but I'm In lucK!" "What fellow, as ySu call him?" "He's at the tavern. We wants me to catch all the rabbits and quails and birds I can." "Then he's a villain!" "He don't look like one." "I don't care how he looks! Any man that will hire a boy to trap such poor innocent things as rabbits is a villain, and you can tell him I said so!" "I will, when I carry this to him." "But you won't carry it! You keep hands off! It shall have its liberty!" "If you let my rabbit go !" blustered blus-tered the lad. Miss Gertrude picked up Bunny, loosened the wire around his leg and Poor Bunny Was Having a Hard Time of It. watched while he disappeared In the bushes. Then she said to the boy: "You call at the house In about two hours and I'll give you the fifty cents, but if I hear of you catching another rabbit, or if you capture a bird of any sort I'll mako you trouble!" "Maybe you own the earth!" called the lad after he was thirty feet away. "You can tell that villain I do!" She hunted for other snares, and she found three and destroyed them. After a couple of hours she started for home. Just as she left the woods she passed a young man entering them. He was well dressed and a Etranger, and the manner In which he raised his hat and his deferential bow told her that he lived in the city. He was staying in the village with some relative for a few days, probably, and out for a stroll, the same as she had been. That evening the boy called at the house. His fifty cents was ready, but he would not accept It. He brought a note to be delivered and he sat down with a grin ' on his face while Miss Gertrude answered It. It read: "Miss Ainsley: Your conduct this efternoon In the brow-beating a young employe of mine Is simply reprehensible. reprehensi-ble. The terms in which you characterized char-acterized me are no less so. I have yet to learn that you hav3 been appointed ap-pointed the legal guardian of the birds and animals in this locality." Then there followed a "sincerely," and the name "Carroll Denton." "The villain! How dare he!" exclaimed ex-claimed the girl as she looked at the boy "He's an awful fellow," was the reply. "When I told him how you bluffed me out of the rabbit up there he just gnashed his teeth. He only wanted five rabbits at first, but now he says he'll catch a hundred. He's cross-eyed and red-headed, and he's got an awful temper on him." Miss Gertrude was absent from the room four or five minutes, and then returned with a reply for the awful man. It read: "Sir: I reiterate that you are a villain! " That was all. No "sincerely," no "respectfully" no "your very ob't servant." Even the Initials "G. A." were lacking. Mr. Ainsley was away from home, and when the mother learned what had happened she said: "You were always that way from a child, and you can't help It, I suppose, sup-pose, but I hope you won't carry it too far In this case. Calling a man a villain is slander, unless he is a villain." vil-lain." "But of course he Is!" was the reply. re-ply. "Would any one but a villain hire a boy to murder a poor rabbit? If he catches a robin, a blue-bird or a quail I'll I'll !" Miss Gertrude clenched her hands and breathed bard and left it to be understood that something very terrible ter-rible would happen to the jross-eyed and red-headed man. Next morning she went up to the woods again. She went in the forenoon because she suspected sus-pected that boy would set snares over night and visit them early. She walked the paths and found four, and the wires were thrown far away. They had snared no victims. As she was on her way home she met the young man of the day before. She looked at him more closely this time, and she liked his appearance. Surely he was a gentleman. The boy was not seen until mid-afternoon. Then he brought another note, and as he delivered de-livered it he said: "I was lying up there in a brush-heap brush-heap this forenoon when you destroyed the snares, and oh, wasn't the awful man awful mad when I told him of it!" And the note read: "Miss Ainsley: I must again politely request that you cease to meddle with my affairs." The same name was signed as to the other, but the "sincerely" was lacking. Carroll Denton was no longer sincere. He was grumpy. A reply was sent as promptly as before. be-fore. It consisted of a few stirring words: "And I must repeat that you are a villain!" It was afternoon of the next day when Miss Gertrude went up to the woods again. Almost at once she beheld be-held a robin with a broken wing fluttering flut-tering about. She had picked it up and seated herself on a log and was crying over it when a soft voice at her elbow said: "Please give It to me. I thing I can do something for It." It was the young man. He took the bird, made a brief examination and said: "The wing is broken, but I can use splints and make it sound again after a bit. Nature is very kind to animals and birds. Hope that old maid won't hear of this. She'll say I used a club on the bird and call me more villains." "What old maid?" was asked, forgetting forget-ting that she was facing a stranger. "A Miss Ainsley. She's close on my trail." "Whywhy, I am the only Miss Ainsley, and I am not an old maid. You can't be the the villain!" Then of course it came out. The boy had lied for revenge. There was no old maid, and there was no crosseyed, cross-eyed, red-headed man. Mr. Denton was a naturalist, and he wanted his specimens alive and sound that he might study their habits. He was merciful to a degree. Miss Gertrude heard his explanations with blushing cheeks and downcast eyes, and at the end she was generous enough to reply: re-ply: "Well, that makes a difference." And It did. The naturalist found his way to the house to tell her how the robin was getting along, and the day the ' bird flew away on the restored wing he said to himself that he had discovered a "specimen" worth all others put together. |