| OCR Text |
Show fjS5J "NEW SPECIMEN" MJi I BY JOE BUS HE. ISS GERTRUDE AINS- yiftl3'N3l LEY pul on hc'r hat f;j y.Vl that sunny spring day 1 n&'-fK and walked down tho 1$ vvi; 3 roacl and over lh0 1 W creek and up into the 1 vffi-lt ? woods on tho hill. ksVJtWJ There were paths 9&ffi'$$m inning here and i mttt''(:'y there, and as the girl p SHk.-435B took one of them i, heard a queer sound from tho brush on her right, and m- vestlgatod 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 moro t. -I tho Sr approached. He bounded 1 this was and that and into , tne air but the snare held and he Jjtaj I and & whimpered aud feared for his llIe When the gin had come ctoser aand is began to call blm poor Oil ifl ! and 1 ex claim that it was a burning the captive huddled down MjJJg at her with his great big . eyes. Sbo it was stroking it with her band when u' a boy said : ..' I "He's mine! He's mine! 1 set tho snare for him last night!" Up he came and was about to IB ty tho rabbit in his arms when Miss, . Gertrude gave blm a push and do-1 , manded: id "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, ana the fellow will pay 50 cents for him. Ceo. but I'm In luck!" anew an-ew JfBBBBBBSm II I "What fellow, as you call him?" "He's at the tavern. He wants me to catch all tho rabbits and quail and birds I can." "Then he's a villian!" "He don't look liko one." "1 don't care how he looks! Any man that will hire a boy to trap such poor innocent things as rabbits is a villian, and you can tell him I said 60 ! "I w ill, when I carry this to him." "But you won't carry It! You keep hands oh! It thall have Its liberty!'' j "If you Jet my rabbit go !" blus-I blus-I tered the lad. Miss Gertrudo picked up Bunny, loosened the wire around bis leg and watched while he disappeared iu the' bushes. Then she said to the boy: "You call at the house In about two hours and I'll give you 60 cents, but if I hear of you catching another rabbit, or if you Capture a bird of any tort, I'll make you trouble!" "Maybe you own the earth!' called the lad after he was :m feet away. "You can toll that villian I do!" Sho hunted for other snares, and she found three and destroed them. After a couple of hours she started for home. Just as Bhe left the woods she passed pass-ed a young man entering them. He "was well dressed and a stranger, and I the manner in which he raised his hat, and his deferential bow told her I that ho lived In the city. He was claying In tho village with some rel-ativos rel-ativos for a few days, probably, and ' out for a stroll, tho Bomc as she had j been. I That evening the boy called at the house. His 50 cents was ready, but I ho would not accept it He brought j a note to be delivered and be sat down with a grin on his face while Miss Gertrude answered it. It read: "Miss Alnsley: Vour conduct this afternoon in browbeating a young em-ploye em-ploye of mine is simply reprehensible. The terms In which you characterized me are not less so. 1 have yet to learn that you have been appointed the legal guardian of the birds and animals in this locality." "Tho villian! How dare he?" exclaimed ex-claimed the girl, as sho looked at tho boy. "He's an awful fellow," was the reply. re-ply. "When 1 told hira how you bluf-tod bluf-tod me out of the rabbit tip there ho Just gnasncu nis leeui. ne ouiy wanted want-ed five rabbits at first, but now ho says he'll catch 100. Hb'b cross-e;. cd and redheaded, and he's got an awful temper on him." Miss Gertrude was absent from the room four or five minutes, and theu returned with a reply for the awful man. It road: "Sir I reiterate that you are a villian vil-lian !" That was all. No "sincerely," no "respectfully," no "your very ob't servant." liven tho initials "G. A." wero lacking. Mr. Alnsley was away from home, aud when the mother learned what hud happened alio said: "You wero always that way from a ! child, and you can't help it, I suppose, , but 1 hope you won't carry It too far in this cate. Calling a man a villian ' is slander, unless he Is a villian." "But of course he is I " was tho re ply. 'Would anyone but a villiau hire ' a boy to murder a poor rabbit? If, he catches a robin or bluebird or quail I'll I'll !" Miss Gertrude clenched her hands and breathed hard and left It to be understood that something very terrl- bio would happen to the cross-eyed i and red-headed man. Next morning she went up to the woods again. She went In the forenoon fore-noon because she suspected that boy "YOU CAN'T BE THE VILLAINI" would set Bnares over night and visit them early. She walked the paths and found four, and the wires were thrown far away. They had snared no vic- timB. I As she was on her way home she met the young man of the day before, j , She looked at him more closely this , lime, and she liked his appearance. Surely ho was a gentleman. The boy was not Been until mldaf-ternoon. mldaf-ternoon. Then he brought another note, and as he delivered it bo said: i "I was lying up there in a brush 1 i heap this forenoon when you destroy- j ed the snares, and O, wasn't the aw-, ful man awful mad when I told him of It!" Aud the note read. "Miss Alnsley I must again politely polite-ly request that you ceaso to meddle with my affairs." The same name was signed as to the other, but the "sincerely" was lacking. lack-ing. Carroll Denton was no longer sincere. Ho was grumpy. A reply was sent as promptly as before be-fore It consisted of the few stirring words: "And I must repeat that you are a villian!" It was afternoon of the next day ' when Miss Gertrude went up to the woods again. Almost at once sho beheld be-held a robin with a broken wing fluttering flut-tering about. She had picked it uo and seated herself on a log and was crying over it when a soft voice at her elbow said: "Please give it to mo. I thing 1 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 1 can use splints and make it bound again after a bit Nature is very kind to animals 'v . .-"-'? t"'. I HUH Hfli BHHsHoSflHI and birds. Hope that old maid won't j hear of this. She'll say I used a club on the bird and call me moro vil- j H "What old maid?" was asked, for- ! getting that he was facing a stranger 1 "A MlfiB Alnsley, She's close on my trail." "Why why, I am the only Miss Alnsley, and I am not an old maid. j ou cant be the the villian!" Then of course it came out. Tho boy had lied for revenge. There was no old maid, and thero was uo cross- j eyed, red-headed man. Mr. Denton was a naturalist, and ho wanted his specimens alive and sound that be might study their habits He was 1 merciful to a degree. Miss Gertrude heard his explanlna- tlon with blushing cheeks and down- I cast eyes, and at the end sho was generous enough to reply: "Well, that makes a diiference." And it did. The naturalist found his way to the house to tell her how j the robin was getting along, and the day the bird flew away he said to him- ' Bell that h? had discovered c "spec- j iincu" worth all others put together. 1 3 |
