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Show A WET SADC:-E. Baleful tnftuenee That a Pair of Thin Pants Kxerted ou a Partner Boy. The great farmhouse is ablaze with lights twinkling from every room. Long tables groan beneath the loads of good things tbe busy housewife has been days preparing. From the barn come merry voices, joyous laughter. ' Let us stand, unobserved, In tho open door. What a happy, merry lot of young folks st'ilwnrt, handsome young men und healthy maidens! They ore ranged round the walls with rapidly diminishing piles of corn before thetu, which they husk and j throw upon the golden heap which is 1 growing in the center. I Ah I That young man has found a : red ear in his pile 1 He leaps to his feet j and dashes at one of the prettiest girls! I A short chase a struggle a resound-1 resound-1 ing smack and it is over. He has kissed her inaybe on the collar or her j back hair; but that doeBn't matter; she j counts it all the same. How happy they all seem. But no. Over there in a dark corner cor-ner sits a tall, powerful, handsome follow all alone. He speaks to nobody unless addressed, and then his answers are short and sullen. Ever and anon he casts a piercing ' glance at a young man of about his own age who sits at the end of the row opposite, chatting with a pretty young girl. His face darkens. There is murder mur-der in his eyes. He is in love, perhaps, and jealous. The bell rings for supper just as the husking is done, and the hnskers jump up and scamper pell-mell toward the house, but the tall, handsome young man remains seated and dropB his face in his hands with something that sounds like a sob. For a long time he sits thus alone; then a light, hurried Btep is heard, and a sweet voiced girl asks: "Joe, what is the matter? Had trouble trou-ble with Mary? You haven't spoken to her tonight hardly. Sick ? Better come In to supper. It will do you good, maybe. " "No, sis, it ain't that." "Tell me, Joe," said his sister kindly. "Wei," he answers, "I've got on my thin pants I rid Dobbin over tliar wuz a nail or a chafe in th' saddle." And the storwart young hayseed Adonis broke down and shed a drenching drench-ing shower of salt and bitter tears. Short Stories. |