WICKLY'S
B 11. W.
CHAPTER III.
"Would you mind taking a little walk
with me. Miss Wickly? I want you to
see just what we are doing, and what
we are going to do in the way of digging
up your park, before we go too far with
It. Prof. Huntley mentioned the matter
twice last week. And after considering
it, we concluded that you ought to see
for yourself, and fully understand the
situation. We have concluded that our
researches must be much more extensive
than we at first contemplated. And per
haps Prof. Huntley thought that an addi
tional compensation ought to be given
you under the circumstances ; aud has
made such a statement to the to the
Hoard," said Mr. Mason, on a Saturday
afternoon some two weeks after the oc
currences detailed in the first chapter.
"I wish you would take her away
somewhere, Mason," exclaimed Jehu
Wickly in mock despair. "She's in one'
of her tensing moods, and has been tor
menting the life out of me for the last
tour. Don't take her, though, unless
you are fully satisfied that you can en
dure unutterable things. For I think
she takes about as much delight in teas
ing you as me."
"Teasing! Now, Mr. Mason, you shall
judge between us. Here are the Chicago
papers with accounts of the meeting of
the Wicklif heirs, illustrated with life
Jike portraits of a great many of them
pa included. Now don't you think that
family ought to get an estate of fifty
millions simply upon their personal good
looks?"
There was a very merry twinkle in the
mischievous brown eyes of Lizzy Wickly,
as she skillfully avoided the sudden
grasp with which her father attempted
to get possession of the papers.
"Now, remember, Mr. Mason, that this
is the way the Wicklif, or Wickly, heirs
appeared, to fair and impartial artists
who delineated them to the life. Areu't
they ugly? There ought to be some pen
alty attached to such unmitigated ugli
ness as these pages display."
"Oh, bless you; there is. A very harsh
penalty, too; since the victims never live
lung enough to serve out the sentence,"
retorted Mr. Wickly, with a laugh that
had something artificial in it to Mr.
Mason's ear. Therefore he hastened to
ay:
"If you are ready, Miss Lizzy, and
don't mind the walk "
"Oh, I shall be delighted, I assure
you," said Lizzy, putting on her hat be
fore the little mirror over the dressing
'iise.
They went along the sandy street
liedged with an enormous growth of wild
hemp and jimson weeds, wherever the
absence of a dwelling made it unneces
sary to clear away the rapid growth of
the hot June days. People stared at
them out of windows, and came to the
doors to prolong the view after they had
passed.
Little squads of men ceased talking as
they came up, and preserved a critical
and vigilant silence until they were well
past these spots on their way to the
woods. Everywhere Sandtown had its
three hundred pairs of eyes upon the pe
destrians, and did not attempt to conceal
that fact. Lizzy blushed a little indig
nantly. "1 haven't got accustomed to tne vil
lage Argus yet," she said with a light
laugh, as they turned out of the road
leading eastward and took their way up
a little straight lane crowded with the
staple jimson and wild hemp, the dead
white stalks of both plants glistening like
bleached skeletons with knotted joints
among the dark lustrous green ot the lux
uriantly growing young plants.
"Nor has the village Argus come to
know you thoroughly," answered .ilr.
Mason, smiling. "When it does come to
make your acquaintance thoroughly, you
will find it the most docile of animals,
ven winking at the largest of your pec
adilloes assuming that these are of
any magnitude at all."
"Which is an unwarranted assumption,
sir. Haven't I been perfect, even in the
critical eyes of the village Argus?"
There was the light and bantering air
of the merry young woman out to be
entertained, and entertaining, certainly.
But there was also a quick and search
ing after-glance that might mean some
thing more, something deeper.
"Do you mean to ask me a conven
tional question which should have a con
ventional answer, Miss Lizzy? You know
1 am so used to the bare and abstract so
lution of plain arithmetical and alge
braic propositions and problems, that "
He hesitated and glanced at her doubt
fully. "Let me be solved by the very sternest
rules of your science, Mr. Mason," she
aid, with her brows drawn just a trifle,
and the short upper lip now so com
pressed as to hide the gleam of her very
pretty white teeth. "I suppose that in
very truth a young woman is seldom fav
ored with a calm and impartial Judg
ment upon herself from a competent
source. And really, I think that all of
us have a secret craving to measure our
selves with those who have already at
tained eminence in some laudable di
rection." "And have you, too, that distrust of
the hasty 'and formal conventional ver
dict, that leads us to desb" to have the
verdict reviewed again?" he laughed.
"Come this way, Miss Wickly. You will
be floundering between a Scylla of wal
nut stump and a Charybdis of jimson
weeds in a moment. And that calls me
back to what I had Intended to say of
the Tillage Argus. I became acquainted
with it late enough in life to hate and
rondemn it at first, and afterward to
field It a tardy but ever growing respect
WOODS
TAYLOR
and esteem. The espionage of the vil
lage and the country is, after all, no mere
vulgar and despicauie curiosity."
"What else can It be, Mr. Mason?
What else but the evidence of a total
luck of good breeding? The rudeness
of an ignorant and uncu...valed people?"
she asked, her upper lip curling in scorn
at the very contemplation. "For in
stance, the gauntlet of bold and unblush
ing starings through which even you,
man as you are, did not come unwound
ed, just now."
They had gone beyond the utmost limit
of the straggling village of Sandtown,
and had even begun a series of gentle as
cents by which the road, no longer a rail
wulled lane, led gradually over gentle
knolls to the sharp wooded ridges of the
river bluffs.
As Lizzy concluded her invective she
turned and glanced back toward the vil
lage. At that distance figures of people
in little groups on the street or at doors
and windows could be seen fixed and mo
tionless, with faces toward the two stroll
ers. Mr. Mason turned also, and both
being struck by something ludicrous in
the situation, laughed very heartily.
"1 confess that a laugh is a great
handicapping of a philosophical proposi
tion. Nevertheless, I must say that so
far nobody has read the riddle of the
Sphinx aright. The progressive world
M-ls itself ubuut .the instantaneous re
forming, developing and lifting of the
lower stratum of society up to the higher
level ofseach epoch. In very fact, MiHS
Wickly, such a proceeding is as unphilo
sophical and materially Impossible as
that those apple trees should bear their
fruit before the flowers aud leaves, and
even the twigs."
He paused again and looked at her
scrutinizingly, and a little apprehensive
ly, but with the apprehensive element
slipping out rapidly.
"I think I catch your meaning totally
new and strange as It is to me. Would
you, for instance, have me give up my
effort to instruct and enlighten the very
ignorant children of the still more ignor
ant people of Sandtown? Or, more com
prehensively, would you have all effort at
instruction and advancement of the lower
classes, the poor and uneducated, stopped
for once and all?"
Now, indeed, the element of apprehen
siveness had disappeared entirely from
the look which Mr. Will Mason cast upon
his fair and serious, but skeptical ques
tioner. In its place was a half-suppressed,
eager, delighted anticipation, which
she saw there so distinctly, so unmis
takably, that she could not restrain the
involuntary smile of instant recognition.
Mr. Mason flushed a little, and his
smile had something of embarrassment
in it. Were his unuttered thoughts to be
seen at a single glance of this girl of
nineteen years? "You can hardly have
an idea, Miss Lizzy," he said, apologet
ically, and looking away while he made
broadsword cuts at the very vulnerable
heads of the jimson weeds with his hick
ory walking stick, "how hungry 1 get for
the companionship of educated and re
fined people. Or, rather, isn't it for a
sort of intellectual combat that we pine,
in a solitude of observations on the price
of wheat, the next election, and what
your friend Redden's Inst acquisition in
Alderney cows cost him? If I hadn't
discovered you and your tather and moth
er here in this secluded spot to which I
have been condemned by fortune, I
should have been tempted to try conclu
sions with fate by resigning my position
and fleeing back to the city."
"Not in the face of such a lovely scene
8B this, Mr. Mason, surely!"
CHAPTER IV.
They had reached the summit of the
highest of the sand mounds that lie as if
iu little eddies of that mighty stream
that once swept from the great lakes
down the valley of the Wabash toward
the ocean.
"Was there ever anything so lovely?
Look at that faint golden green of the
fringing willows of this bright, bright
river! And the darker green deepening
into blue and purple of the patches of
woodland on the other side. And then
beyond that, the upward sweep of the
strange, fair, lonely, lonely, solemn prai
rie. I could never be unhappy nor great
ly discontented In the presence of a scene
like this."
Lizzy had involuntarily turned away
from him, holding her hand outstretched,
in a sort of girlish ecstasy of admiration
toward the wide river bottom and the
boundless prairie beyond.
They stood in silence for almost a min
ute, their eyes resting upon a bright
reach of limpid, sparking river cut off by
a mass of the distant blue green wood
land, now upon a dim and misty light
blue vista of valley that from the dark
and defined border of diminishing line of
woodland drawn up in martial array to
witness the passage of the unceasing
flood of waters, led on and on into the
undefined dominions of northern sky,
islanded with banks of unmoving clouds
of creamy white.
"You are a poet, Miss Lizzy. And I
am not," said the assistant geologist,
presently. "I think this fact fully ex
plains the great difference between us.
You can never wenry of the beautiful
things of wood and field and flood. I, ou
the other hand, must have the beautiful
and the good In some human creature."
He spoke this last sentence almost in
an inaudible murmur, and now with his
head turned away and the cane making
broadsword sweeps among the ranks of
hostile jimsons.
"We must go on, Mr. Philosopher, or
we shall be too late to make a very thor
ough inspection of the field of your prlag
labor. And I have not forgotten, to,
that I had pat you upon dangeroua
ground by my question a few momenta
ago. How do you answer it?"
They began the walk again, now dis
appearing from the vision of the three
hundred pairs of eyes, in the thickest of
hazel and dwarf oak that intermediated
between the sandy prairie land of the
river bottom and the primeval forest of
th upland hills. Unconsciously they had
quickened their pace as if it had been
the beauty of the valley and prairie that
had held them back ueretofore.
"I meant to express my view that the
proletary is that immovable, imperish
able, immutable, base and germinal of
humanity out of which has always grown
tlje slender and comparatively sparse,
delicate and perishable roots aud flowers
the educated, the refined, the intellec
tual men and women, and even cities and
communities of the earth. But I'm afraid
you will look upon this as a lecture, Miss
Lizzy. And if I remember, you have
stipulated against lectures."
"Then your lecture at Mount Zion fom
weeks ago "
"Was aimed at you, Miss Lizzy, I must
confess. I thought that I saw in you
great possibilities, if only there were
behind you the motive power of necessity
for continued exertion, coupled with the
physical ability to cope with sustained
effort or rather to achieve sustained ef
fort. And if I mistake not, the seed fell
upon fallow ground. Have I not Been
you armed with hoe and sunbonnet per
forming prodigies in the well-kept gar
den behind your father's house? Believe
mo or not, Miss Lizzy, to the extent of
my deserts you have really taken a long
step toward quieting the Argus of Sand
town. After awhile it will blink com
placently upon nil your goiiigs in and
your comings out. There goes a fox
squirrel. How the wary scamp runs
straight for his own fortress, past many
inviting trees."
"But you are quite sure that my gar
den exercises are the direct result of
your Mount Zion lecture. Mr. Philoso
pher?" she saiil, with a little pique dis
closed In her voice, as well as in the
arched brows and the drooping lids.
"Might I not arrive independently at the
conclusion that I ought to 'work the' gar
den, as Mr. Redden puts it? But my,
what a heap of ugly red dirt, Mr. Ma
son. Is this where you get all the heaps
of ugly rough stones that I saw in the
office of the State geologist once?"
They went on through the woods slip
ping down steep declivities, through beds
of brown leaves knee deep, leaping across
little slender, shaded rills, pulling great
bunches of "sweetwilliam" her and there,
looking at the surprisingly tall, slender
saplings of ash and elm, aud poplar, and
hickory, that seemed to be in such a hur
ry of growth to get up into the sunshine
above the high tops of the parent trees
that they could uot afford material for
lateral growth.
Here a bunch of wild raspberry vines
held its clusters of blnck, soft, sweet
berries too temptingly toward them, and
their fingers and lips were stained with
the purple juices.
Here a hen pheasant, spreading her
drooping wings and erecting her black
ruff fluttered along in a way that so
amused the latent hunter instinct in
Lizzy Wickly that she intuitively gave
chase, and only relinquished the pursuit
when the wily bird, having succeeded in
her diversion, and being satisfied of the
security of her numerous little brown
biood, finally flew high up in a leafy oak
and immediately stood so straight up
that it looked very much like a bit of
dead limb.
Here a tangle of wild rose bushes cov
ered with the sweet smelling "forbears,"
of all the Marechal Niels aud the Jacque
minots and sweet tea ruses prettier and
sweeter than any of their noble and
haughty descendants, called the ramblers
irresistibly to them, and held them
long, long time in admiring investigation,
and delightful acquisition.
It was at the eud of this episode, and
when the glories of the wild rose tangle
hnd been exhausted, that Lizzy held up
a large bouquet of the roses, the sweet
williams, some wild pinks, some very
richly tinted bluebells and a setting of
long, rlcfi, yellow-green ferns to the ad
miring gaze of Mr. Mason.
"This bouquet I shall leave at your
tent for Prof. Huntley. If after seeing
this he shall still persist in keeping away
from Sandtown and the Wickly residence
1 shall be driven to seek him In his lair.
Isn't that the tent yonder, Mr. Mason?"
There was nn odd. puzzled, uncomfort
able, apprehensive nml abashed look or
combination of looks on Mr. Mason's
face, that made nn impression upon Lizzy
Wickly. Was he not hurt? Was the
poor old fellow so very jenlous? And
was she altogether right in romping
through the woods in this hoydenish way
with him?
For although his long and abundant
brown hair was plentifully sprinkled with'
gray, announcing tliat the 'cooling time"
of life hnd fully arrived, wus his close
shnven face not ruduy and preternatur
ally young?
"That Is the tent. Miss Lizzy. And we
are upon It in the nick of time. For
here comes a black cloud so rapidly and
unexpectedly that yes, we will have to
run or get a sprinkling. Quick! Give
me the flowers so ym can hold your
skirts. Now give me your hand. Not
the left hand. That's ominous in a race
like this. Now, hold hard, so I won't
have to hurt your fingers in my grasp.
Now, then. I'll never forgive myself if
I get you a wetting that would spoil your
pretty dress, and that love of a hat."
(To be continued.)
And There Are Others.
Oldbnch I tell you, sir, the women
are going to rule this country after a
while.
Enpeck After a while! Why, I
thought they ruled It now.
Borne what Different.
"And did she really tell you her
age?" asked the woman.
"Oh, no," replied the man; "Just the
age she tells people sho la."
ill
The recent determination of the
United States to assume temporary
control of the finances cf the Domini
can republic once
more brings that
restless little West
Indian government
into public view,
writes William K.
Lane. It has been
apparent that af
fairs in the repub
lic have reached a
critical stage. Its
MBSIOBKT HOBALBS. C ll 1 C f difficulty,
eliminating the ever present tendency
to revolutionize at the slightest pre
text, seems to be a wonderful capacity
to get into debt and a corresponding
incapacity to get out again.
The national debt of the tiny mulat
to republic now amount to the re
spectable total of $35,000,000, which in
consideration of the comparatively un
important figure cut by Santo Do
mingo in the congress of western na
tions Is altogether too great. That has
been the opinion of its iiupntlent cred-
itors for a long time, and more than
one of them has protested that som3
settlement should be effected. Some
of them .have even declared their will
ingness to undertake a receivership,
promising to wind up the affairs of
the improvident republic with amaz
ing celerity.
Such a proposition from a foreign
state Santo Domingo has shown a
SANTO DOMINGO'S
remarkable Impartiality in the selec
tion of her victims, many of them
being European could not be toler
ated by the United States. The shade
of the late James Monroe would rise
in lndlgnaat protest at tlw mere sug
gestion. If there is any adjusting to
be done it Is clearly the privilege of
the United States to do It There does
not seem to have been the slightest
objection to that way out of the diffi
culty. It 1 most satisfactory to the
foreign creditors, and the Dominican
themselves were o enthusiastic over
the proposition that they tried at once
to borrow more money on the strength
of it
In the carrying out of Its Interfer
ence It will be necessary a a prelim
inary first step for the United State
to restore the republic to a condition
SANTO DOMINUO STREET SCENE.
of Internal quietude. When this Is ef
fected the American readjusters will
proceed to take charge of the country's
revenues and pay off It obligations,
those to American citizens receiving
first attention. Reduced to Its final
terms, the proposition seems to be that
the United States shall make the Do
minicans behave themselves '.ong
enough to pay their debts. When that
is accomplished the dusky republicans
will be free to resume their spend
thrift career if they so elect It la
possible that by that time they may
become so enamored of the thrifty
business method of their guardian
that they will choose to walk In their
footstep ever after. It If certain that
EN TRANCE TO SANTO DOUINOO HARBOR.
Iflflsf r
II
iiiiil
I he Improvident
Little West In
dian Republic...
the Dominicans are ardent admirer
of the greater republic.
The Inland on which the republic of
Santo Domingo is established is, next
to Cuba, the largest of the West In
dies. One-third of Its nrea Is devoted
to the republic of Haiti, and the re
mainder constitutes Santo Domingo.
These contiguous republics are often
confused, but they are quite dissim
ilar in most features. The Dominicans
are much more refined and circum
spect In their ways than their neigh
bors and are less addicted to actual
bloodshed in their periodical revolu
tions. They are for the most part
mulattoe of Spanish and negro origin.
The few Spanish families that have
not Intermingled with the prevailing
type constitute the aristocracy of the
republic and hold themselves loftily
aloof from their lees fortunate neigh
bors. Education ' In its proper sense is
practically unknown. The average
Dominican has not yet awakened to
the necessity of adding to the knowl
edge with which nature has endowed
him. The mulatto population, number
ing at least half a million, is not In
clined to be quarrelsome, but trouble
Is fomented by political tricksters who
are trying constantly to obtain an op
portunity to l""t the pnbHo treasury.
The people are for the most part In
dustrious and patient, submitting to
continual mlsgovernment and official
peculation with remarkable good na
ture. The president of the republic is
practically a dictator. Aa often a
suits hi convenience he submits to an
election, and he is careful to have it
occur at a time when there is no welf
organised opposition. The general
system of government is copied after
that of the United States. Officials are
plentiful, and the national revenues
are far from sufficient to maintain thi
annual expenditure. Add to this thi
fact that a large proportion of the 1
NATIONAL PALACE.
gaily collectible revenue never reachea
the national treasury, and the cause
of Santo Domingo's bankruptcy be
comes apparent
The annual revenue is $1,700,000,
and the military establishment. Includ
ing the navy, cost $4,800,000 a year.
All the officials are the personal ap
pointees of the President, and the
army is composed of men friendly to
his Interest. Judging from the past,
the chief object of each administra
tion baa been to mulct the people ofl
the largest possible amount before
revolution bring about a now divi
sion of the spoils. Under these cir
cumstances politics has become the
chief business of the republic, and oth
er and equally Important Interest
have been neglected. Agricultural and
commercial pursuits have suffered so
greatly from the rapacity of the gov
ernment and lack of encouragement
that they are practically at a stand
still. Santo Domingo Is the garden of the
western tropics. Nature has given It
n soli adapted to a wider range of
products than can be found In any
corresponding area In the West In
dira. The list Is a long one, including!
cocoa, tobacco, all kind of tropical
fruits, sugar cane, coffee, vanilla, rub
ber and many other valuable things.
In the Interior mountainous region
forests of mnhogany and other timber
abound. The whole country Is In a
state of constant verdure, and thermal
fluctuations are almost unknown.
General Carlos F. Morales Is the pres
ent head of the Dominican govern
ment. One Small Pair.
"Well, Mr. Hart,' 'wild the doctor,
"I congratulate you. You are the
father of "7 "Ah!" exclaimed the
proud man, "A Hart turns up, eh? I
hope It's the Jack that la, a boy."
"Two boys. Twins, in fact." "The
deuce." Plillndlphla Rword.
Terra Firms Good Enough.
Sunday School Teacher What lee
son are we supposed to learn from the
story of Jonah and the whale?
New Pupil Dat a guy orter bars
sense ernuff to stay on dry land.
Nothing take the conceit out of
some men like being compelled to
serve on a Jury.