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Show HIS KEIGHBOR'S BEES. It was a utill, frosty eveninff in October, with the moon just old enough to cast a ruddy light on the leaf carpettd path, and the ancient an-cient stone wall, all broidered over with lichens and moss. The air was Instinct with sweet aromatic scents, and one red light burned like a beacon star in the cottaa window win-dow on the huL "Look!" said Fleda Fen wick. "Mamma has lighted the lamp I It high time we were home." "And you havent said yesf" mournfully uttered Jack Treveljn. "And I don't mean to say yes!" Jack seated himself on the stone wall, jQst where the bars had been taken down. He was a handsome, sunburned fellow, with sparkling, black eyes and a rich, dark complexion, com-plexion, as if , in his far back ancestry, there had been some olive browed Spaniard. Fleda leaned agrainst the bars, the moon turning her fair hair to gold and lingering like blue sparks in the deeps of her laughing eyes. If ever op-posites op-posites existed in nature, they existed there, and then. "I've a great mind to go away to sea," said Jack, slowly and vengefully. "Do," saucily retorted Fleda. "Aud nevur come back again I" "Oil, Jack!" "The idea," he cried, raising both hands as if to invoke the fair moon herself by way of uiimice "of a girl refusing to be married simply because she hasn't got some particular sort of a wedding gown to stand up in." "If I can't be married like other girls, I wca't be married at all," declared Fleda, oompresatng her rosy lips. "The idea of keeping a man waiting for thatl" groaned Jack. "It won't be long," coaxed Fleda, "But, look here, Fleda, why can't we" go quietly to churcn and be married, any day, and get the gown afterwardsf' pleaded Jack. "But, Jack, it wouldn't be the same thing at all. A girl gets married but once in her life, and she wants to look decent then." "My own darling, you would look an angel in anything 1" "Now, quit that. Jack!" laughed Fleda. ""It's what my school children call 'taffy.' " "I hate your school children." said Jack, venomously. "I hate your school. I despise the trustees, and I should like to see the building burn down. Then you would have to come to me." "No, I shouldn't," averred Fleda. "1 should take in millinery and dressmaking until I had earned enough for the white silk dress. I never would Oh, Jack Who's that" "A tramp! I'll soon settle him with my blackthorn!" cried Trevelyn, springing up. "No, don't," whispered Fleda, shrinking close to him; "it's Mr. Mingden. He's on his own premises; these woods belong to him. It's we that are tresspasser. Wait I Stand still until he has gone by. He's very near sighted and he will never see us!" "And who," breathed Jack, as a stout, elderly person trotted slowly across the patch of moonlight, and vanished behind the Ftiff laurel hedge, "is Mr. Mingden f "Don't you know? Our neighbor, The new gentleman who has bought Smoke hall." "The old cove who is always quarreling with youf "Yes the very man who hates bees so intolerably, in-tolerably, aud wauts mamma to take away all those lovely hives, down by tho south fence. He says he can't take his constitutional constitu-tional In peace, because he's always afraid of Leing stnnj." "Why- don't he take it somewhere else, then?" "That's the very question," said Fleda. "Miagden, eh? I believe he must be Harry ilingden'8 uncle it's not such a very common com-mon uam," said Jack, reflectively. "And Harry's my college chum and I'm going to ask him to be my best man at the wedding." "Oh, Jack ! I hope he isn't as disagreeable as his uncle!" cried ELfleda, "He's a trump t" "Besides, I don't believe bis uncle will let Lim come," added the girl. "Not let him come? Why shouldn't her' "Because he bates us so." "On account of the bees?" "Yes, on account of the bees." "It's a regular Montague and Capulet busi- B8ss, is it, h?" "Rather so, I'm afraid," sighed Fleda. "But, I say, Fleda!" cried the young man, "this complicates matters. I promised to go end see Harry Uiagdea wha I was down here." "Go and sea him, then; but dont mention the name of Fsnwick for your life." "Indeed I shall. Isn't it the came of all fibers in which I take ths moat pride?" "Oh, Jack, you will only make more trot hie! It'll be worse than the bs. Promisa me, Jack, or I'll never, never speak to yon again." And Jaek had to promise, after some unwilling un-willing fashion. Mrs. Feuwick, a pretty, faded littla widow, was full charged with indignation when Fleda returned from bar stroll in the woods. ' "Mamma, what is the matter?" said Fleda. "One of the hives was t-tippod over tonight," to-night," sobbed Mrs. Fenwick; "and I'm sure he uid it." ' It was the wind, mamma." "No wind ever did that, Fleda. But I set it up aain. I will never, never sacrifice my apiary to his absurd prejudices." "Dear mamma, if you would only have the hires uwve.1 to the other side of the garden gar-den f ' pleadod Fleda, caressingly. "And sacrifice a question of principlel Never!" declared the widow. Mrs. Fenwick. ordinarily the most amiable of women, was roused on this subject to an obstinncy which could only be characterized as vindictive. And Mr. Ezra Mingden was ten times as bad as his neighbor. "That woman is a dragoness, Hal," he said to his nephew. "8be keeps those bees simply to annoy me. I hate bees. Bees ha to me. Every time I walk there I get stung." "But, uncle, you shouldn't brandish your can about so," reasoned Harry. "It's sure to enrage 'em. " "I don't brandish it on the woman's side of the fence. If her abominable buzzing Insects persist in trespassing in my garden, am I not bound to protect myself f" puttered Mr. Mingden. "Can't you walk somewhere else?" "Cnn't she put hcT bees somewhere else!" "But. uncle, all this seems such a trivial afTiii:-." "Trivir.l, i;:.icedl If you'd been stung on your res'- and your ear and your eyelids and very r 'ions cJ., would you call it trivial? I ncvU'G&t 1 ;.-. ..ni I've always considered ter to be an absurdly overrated section of esitoreology. Whtt business have her bees to ba devouring all ray Sowers? How would sh tikeithersftlfr Harry Mktg&sa maQtA to see the dftgra of fcjry to whicb tbe old geutleman was gradn-By gradn-By worilu bimaelf np. He wn already 1 Jack Trevelyn ooofldenoe, and thus, to a frrt&ln extrnt, enjoyed the nnusual opportunity opportu-nity of sing both sides of the question. "Look hera, sir!" soid he; "did you ever hear of the doctrine of timiha similibus cu-rantur?" cu-rantur?" "Ehf" said Mr. Mingden. 'Why don't you set up a colony of be hives yourself? If her tes rifle your flowers let yours go foraging iuto her garden. Let her. see, asvpu surest., bpw.fcby .would likfl.ll cerselr. Fut a row of hfves as c rote to you j side of the fence as you can get it. If they i fight, let 'em fight. Bees are an uncommonly warlike race, I'm told. If they agree, what's to prevent 'em bringing half the' honey Into your hives?" 'By Jove!" said Mr. Mingden, starting to nis feet, "I never thought of that. I'll do it! I wonurf where the deuce they sell beesl There isn't a moment to be lost." "I think I know of a place wher I could buy half a dozen hires," said Harry. "The gentUman wants to buy seme bees," said Fleda. "Dear mamma, do ft?ll yours; we can easily get all the honey we want" "But I've kept bees all my life," said Mrs. Fenwick, piteously. "Yes, but they're such a care, mamma, now that you are no longer young, and . you are hardly able to look after them In swarming swarm-ing time, and" (she dared not allude to tha trouble they were making in neighborly ra-lations, ra-lations, but glided swiftly on to the next vantage point) "it will be just exactly ths money I want to finish tbe sum for my wed ding dress." Mrs. Fen wick's fac softened; she kissefl Fleda'8 carmine cheek, rith a deep sigh. "For your sakk, tbn, darling," said she "But I wouldn't fov the world havo Mr. Mingden think that I would conoed a single inch to" "I don't know that it is any of Mr. Ming-den's Ming-den's business," said Fleda, quietly. . The next day Mr. Mingden trotted dowm o look at his new possessions. "Too bad that Harry had to go back to town Ix'fore he had a chance to se how ths beo hives looked in their place," soliloquized he. "A capital idea, that of bis. 'Simili similibus curantur,' ha, ha, ha! Well, I gias it'll bo pretty much that! I wonder what 'he o!d lady will say when she sees the opposition oppo-sition apiary! Won't she ba furious! Ha, ha, ha!" He adjusted his spectacles as he hastened down towards the sunny south walk which na-l heretofore been tho battle ground. There v.as tho row of square, white hives on his side of the fe-uce but lol and behold! the ijench that had extended on the other side v. as vacant and deserted ! "Why!" heexclaimeil coming to an abrupt standstill. "What has she done with her bee5??" "Sold 'em all to you, sir," said Jacob, the gardener. "And a fine lot they be! And not an unreasonable price- neither. Mr. narry looked arter that hisself." "I hope you'll be very kind to them, strl" uttered a soft, pleading little voice, and Elfle-da Elfle-da Fen wick's goldeu head appeared Just abova the pickets of the fence. "And I never knew until just now that it was you who bought them." "Humph I" said Mf, Mingden. "But, I hope, after this," kindly added Fle-la, Fle-la, "that we shall never have any more trou-ble trou-ble as neighbors, I mean. It has made ma very unhappy, and" - Tho blue eyes, tho faltering voica, melted the old gentleman at last. "Then don't let it make you unhappy any longer, my dear," said he, reaching over ths pickets to 6hake hands with the pretty special pleader. "Hang the beesl After all, what difference does it make which side of the fence they're on? So you're the little school teacher, are you? I'm blessed if I don't wish I was younjr enough to go to school to you myself!" Fleda ran back to the house in secret glee. "I do believo," she thought, "the Montague and Capulet feud is healed at last! And I do believe (knitting her blonde brows) that Jack told young Mingden all about the bees and that that is the solution of this mystery." But that evening there came a rx-esent of white grapes from the Mingden greenhouses to Mrs. Fenwick, with the old gentleman's card. "He must have been vary much pleased to get the bees," thought the old lady. "If 1 had only known he liked bees, I should have thougkt very differently of him. All this shows how slow we should be to believe servants' serv-ants' gossip and neighborhood tattle! If I had known he was the purchaser I should have declined to negotiate ; but perhaps everything every-thing has happeued for the best!" Jack Trevelyn thought so when he stood up in the village church a fortnight from tliat time, beside a fair vision in glittering whlta silk and a veil that was lika crystallised frost work. And tha strangast part o all was that old Mr. Mingden was there to give ths hriHt n.wav I "I take all tha crattrt to myself," mlschieT-ously mlschieT-ously whispord Harry Mingden, tha "bast man." "But I'm afraid it is easier to set ma chinery in motion than to stop it aftrwardsl And it's Just possible that I may havs an aunt-in-law yet." "Stranger things have happened." said tha bridegroom. Amy Randolph in Nsw York Ledger. |