Life — October 17, 1895 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A LEAP IN THE DARK. - LIFE: dows hills, 'mgoing ve thema spill the next time they try that game. FORTY-ONE (spite- falls); Don't be too fresh, or you may get sold, and sent away from me. him about buying a dem in October. Forty What, a tandem! Why, he simply de- tested riding with a woman until we came here; said that they always wanted the best road, and crept Toverheard something tan- say TO A COQUETTE. DO not ask you for your heart, For surely [ were mad, To ask that you should ever part With what you never had! OVERHEARD IN THE STABLES. Scexn: The storage room for bicycles—midnight. No, 4o—A gentleman's wheel, high frame. No, 4t—A lady's wheel ORTY: Lam awfully tired, That was a hard run they gave us this evening. Forty-one (petulantly): And it’s all the fault of your master. Before he came I had a nice, easy time here in the shade, and got to be quite chummy with the groomsand the horses. Forty (patronisingly): Ob, it’s a cinch riding with a lady wheel. When the boss and I are alone we are scorchers—but since I've been down here with you, we've simply loafed along nice shady lanes, and stopped at pretty brooks, and regularly dawdled away the time. Forty-oxe: Why, you just said that we'd had a hard ride this evening ! Forty: That's different. (Confidentialty) Say, my dear, something must have happened to-night. other for the last ten miles, but raced home as hard as they could go in the moonlight. My sprocket fairly aches. Forty-one: And I broke aspoke. (Medi= tativelyy Well, 1 think 1 could guess what happened, Forty : (Concitiating) ForTY-ONE : stopped on the top of the hill that overlooks the ocean, and the moon rolled out of it on its golden tire? Well, when they leaned us up against the fence, you went to sleep, but I listened. Forty (grufiy) : You did not hear much, For a week they've been very stupid company —just keep looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes, and hold hands going ‘They never said a word to each You always know too much, What happened ? Do you remember when we along like snails. Well, my mistress changed his mind for him. Do you ever catch him going out without her now ? Forty (regretfully): No—puncture him ! (Which is the worst swear word a bicycle can use.) What did they say anyhow on the hill-top ? FoRTY-oNE. : I only caught little bits of it, for the tree-tops were making a singing noise, but he was in a very bad humor, and she was having fun teasing him, I know her moods from her eyes. This time she was in for fun, and did not care how it hurt him. Forty (indignantly): He's too good for her—can do his twelve miles an hour all day. Forty-one : What did they say? Oh, he looked sort of silly, and made some remark about the moonlight brightening up the whole dark ocean, just as her smile brightened up his gloomy life. Forty: The hypocrite! He never had a better time in his life than for a year past— long before he ever met her. Forty-oxr: You need not worry. She saw right through him—looked at him sort of saucy like and said, ‘It’s a pity about your gloomy life. You look so pale and thin! (He weighs 180 and is as red as a lobster.) Why don’t you try real work for a change ? It’s a better kind of sunshine than my smile, which I simply wear for everybody because | have white teeth.” Forty (ringing his bell): She bit him there. He hasn't done a stroke of work since his governor died and left him a fortune. ORTY-ONE: Then he did get mad! He swore that he would prove to her yet that a man was not necessarily a fool because he had money; that all brainy men did not wear spectacles and dowdy clothes; that a fellow who went in for athletics and sport in addition toa moderate amount of work was a better combination to tie to for life than a thinking machine with great ideas and a bad digestion. Forty: Good for the boss! There's something in that. (startled)? Forty-9: Oh, yes. She admitted it, but said that the trouble with him is that he does not belong to either class Aor B, He's in class C, that plays all the time and never works. Forty (ringing up another hit): Pretty clever little woman that, if she can’t ride up a big hill. Then he said she was a cruel, unthinking girl, who put on airs because she had gone to college—but he vowed by the great white moon that he'd marry her yet, and make her respect as well as love him. “I never told you I loved you !" she said, with a little break in her voice—and just then she jumped in the saddle and rode me home, ten miles, like a mad witch. Forty: And they never spoke a word in the whole ten miles, That settles it—no tandem in ours. ForTY-oNE: Don't be too sure. Just as the groom led us down the lawn, I saw her in the moonlight turn on the top step, and say demurely, ** Wouldn't it be great fun to ride a tandem on a night like this in October down the valley of the Loire?” And he caught her hand and said, “You are a witch, but I love you! Droch. OUR FRESH AIR FUND. Previously acknowledged... 2163 May, Sallie and Helens $s each beste “Smith to Tannhauser.. 3.00 comicbooks.com