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Show in girls and widows to tea some night? Say, next Sunday, Enos?" "By gum!" said Enos, "that will be about fair. I'm willin' to help any man get his head in the halter again." The excitement of the idea kept Mrs. Enos long awake. She rehearsed her guests over and over and each time she added one or two. "Well!" yawned Enos at last, "you've got your list, but I'm goin' to ask Jist one lone pusson an' that's our letter carrier, Mrs. Polly Elder." "Well, give her my best respects with the Invitation," said Mrs. Enos, "or she'll think she is asked to a stag supper and '11 be glad to stay at home." "It isn't fair to let him see any of the show first," continued Enos, a moment mo-ment later, "but I guess Mrs. Polly don't count She is a most uncommon uncom-mon woman." , After an early breakfast the next morning, Enos invited his cousin to stroll down to the Ditch Gate, where the mail was daily left in a substantial substan-tial post box. On the way he made it lively for his cousin by telling the story of the woman mail carrier. "We didn't think the delivery was much at first," he declared, "for such a run of shiftless fellows as was put I on for carriers you never saw! The route runs twenty-five miles out of Schuyler and back .again and the trip must be made six days in the week. Tlsn't a good-payin' job and we made If. red hot for 'em with their mistakes. suits her, somehow, she Is so comfortable. comfort-able. Now, Mac, I hain't done a thing to you. What are you lookin' at me that way for?" His cousin laid a shaking hand on his arm. "Enos, did you never hear?" "Hear! Hear what, Mac?" "About Jessie, my wife t'aat's doad, parting Pauline Lee from me. I thought everybody knew." ' Enos drew a long breath. "By gum! Well?" ' "Before either of us got to the truth of the matter she married a man by he name of Elder Folsom Elder and went to Chicago and the west. I married mar-ried Jessie for the sake of peace." "And you think this here Polly Elder El-der is your old sweetheart? By gum!" "It may not be; it may not be. But she was so full of spirit too much spirit to be sensible sometimes but O, such a bright creature! I never have been the same, never, Enos." Enos regarded the distance and the man in turn. , i "I'm thinki-T the widow will have to do away with disguises on this trip," he said, musingly, but how to manage it. There! , See that dust! Stand hard, Mac, mebbe your fate's drivin' on towards "you. Here comes the government!" There was a cloud of dust and then a buggy and two nervous mustangs drew up. . There was a nod and a, cheery voice. "I'm not behind time. Mr Zlesrler. am I? Been waiting long? Here's one paper and two letters." Enos stepped up close to the buggy. "I know you hain't got much time," he drawled, "but we're coin' to have a tea-party at our' house next Sunday night and want you to come sure. It's for Mr. Maclean Leonard of Ohio and It's to be all the gals and widers of tke neighborhood, so he can pick and choose him a second wife. For goodness good-ness sake!" For the widow was out of the buggy like a young girl. ' Two people on the roadside were holding each other's -hands. A,, black- sunborttlet hung over: the .widow's shoulders. Her sjr-hi was, white and' fair, her abundant -feuburn ' hair glossy.-, and well-dressed. How her eyes shbne and her red lips quivered. quiv-ered. . " ' ' "By gum!" ejaculated Enos again, Tm ahead a pig on the- deal."' A few moments later the ' widow ', said, in a confused way: l A Rural Delivery. BY ELIZABETH CHERRY WALTZ. (Copyright, 1901, by Daily Story Pub. Co.) "You've seen about all our sights. Cousin, Mac, 'cept our mail carrier. "1 don't Want you to. go back east 'thout' a sight o' herT We've got the most 'ceptional mail carrier in- the whole United States." Cousfn Mac, six feet high; broad accordingly ac-cordingly and with a face to be trust-. d anywhere, drew himself, up' from iwhere he had been showing Enos' baby "But the mail must be delivered." Cousin Mac placed .her in the buggy and climbed In beside her. "Just excuse me until to-night, Cousin Enos," he said, with a twinkle in his eye, "for rural delivery is too new and important an experiment for us to interrupt its workings. But, really, in this case, I think something else has the ririf pf ; Well, I never!" said Enos from the roadside, "ain't he a captain?" 'But the mail must be delivered." All of the old carriers found it healthier health-ier to resign than to stay. Finally we heard that a woman had it, and we just howled in the complaints. But no one else wanted the job and they tried her. Now we're all in love with her. She hain't missed one day and never forgets a thing. She'll do anything to accommodate and does lotsof er-raads-fc? foficsbTlto' kindness." Cousin Mac was smiling dreamily as he walked onward. His cousin eyed him a little curiously and enviously. "Mac, doggone you, you're ten years older 'n me an' have got more youth. You hain't got an' old look. : I'm a dried-up pumpkin beside you. What's your secret? Is it Ohio air or is it money?" "Both," laughed Cousin Mac, "but I do not know my own secret if there is one. I am always expectant. I often feel that all life has not come to me yet. I am always expecting to open a door somewhere and find what is missing." boy how to spin a top. It had been a great time for the Ziegler children since their Cousin Mac came out visiting from Ohio. Mrs. Ziegler declared that there never had been a time in her life when she wanted to hire a nurse girl, but she would like to hire Cousin Mac until the baby and the twins were cut of the way. Then she and her husband had a Jieartylaueli, " "Better talk about hiring a millionaire million-aire at onct when you think about how well he's fixed." Mrs. Ziegler had never seen Cousin Mac's wife, now dead some four or I five years. Enos sniffed a little when he described her. "Can't imagine how he ever got , ahead with her on his hands. Just no account." "Don't abuse the dead," said his wife in the privacy of a bedtime discussion, dis-cussion, "any how she suited him or he wouldn't have married her." "I dun no," mused Enos, "as he did. There were peculiar circumstances about his marryin'. I didn't hear the whole story livin' . full twenty miles away but there was a hitch somehow with another gal.", ' "So?" said Mrs. Ziegler, "and what became of the other girl?" "It's such a long time ago," ;, said Enos slowly, "that I forget details. "Whew!" said Enos; "I can understand under-stand somewhat only I been standin' on one side of a door with the poor-house poor-house on the other, ever since I was a boy. Your money comes easy." "Perhaps," said Cousin Jlac, switching switch-ing the grass, "but you've got a good wife s and some fine children. I am nearing fifty and alone. You have your compensations.'' My great house is pretty lonely, I- tell you." "Well, there's women achin' to come in and dust the . parlor furniture for you," grinned Enos, "but we are not so full up with single women out here as In the east. We're going to line 'em ali up for you, though, and that's why we're pushin' along to catch the widow before those mustangs of hers move her on at the pace they seem to enjoy." The mailbox was nailed on to a large post at the side of the gate. , Enos mounted the gate ald began to whittle whit-tle as if he was a boy. -, , "I've bet Jim Anderson- a- pig- tha!t the. widow is 'good-looking Mac,? he said; "buti-Jim holds that no -pretty woman would wear such disguisin' bunnets. Last winter it loqked'.like she had an everlasting jtCw ache, and this summer; her voice comes out of a calico -tunnel' ' ;- r . - Cousin Mac-laughed loud. " -. ,'IsBhe yoiing?".' - v::.' V- "'foung enough to master- two1 fire-eaters- of mustangs.. Young enough -to ' be soft and gentle Young enough to get into theBeefeater'sTerror down at Schuyler two years ago when her husband was shot and collar the man who did it until the sheriff came. They said he beat her and starved her anyhow, any-how, but she was war to the knife on the killin'. They hanged the fellow and she hadn't a dollar till she got this mail route. She's clear grit all the way through, Is Mrs. Polly Elder." "What!" cried Cousin Mac. "Mrs. Polly Elder but Pauline Elder El-der is what her papers said Polly ; "What!" cried cousin' Mac. But she married soiebody else, of course." "I swan," said Mrs. Ziegler, "if life hain't queer. And he never had any children." s . "I think he's had a nice time on his visit," continued Enos, "but mebbe we had ought to have had in more wonen folk. By gum, mebbe he's wife-hunting!" Mrs. Ziegler gazed at her husband with bright eyes. "Law now! Well, what's the mat-tc mat-tc with me inviting in all the marry- j I ! I |