"I'm being very patient," she whispered and her lips quivered with a

smile as two tears jeweled her black lashes.

But David had made his last stand--he folded her in, locked his heart and

threw away the key.

"Love," he whispered after a long time, "I know this is just a

dream--I've had 'em for ten years--but don't let anybody wake me!"

To which plea Phoebe was making the tenderest of responses, when the door

burst open and Billy Bob shot into the room.

"Hip! hip!" he yelled at the top of his voice, "six hundred and ten

plurality and all from the two coon wards--count all in and verified--no

difference now how the others go and--" He paused and the situation

dawned upon him all in a heap as Phoebe hid her head against David's

collar. "Davie," he remarked in subdued tones, "you're 'lected, but I

don't s'pose you care!"

"Go away, Billy Bob, don't you see I'm busy?" answered David as he rose

to his feet, keeping Phoebe still embraced as she stood beside him.

"Jerusalem the Golden! Have you cornered heaven, David?" gasped Billy Bob

again rising to the surface. "Help, somebody, help!" At which exact

minute Mistake succeeded in dispossessing Crimie of the last tatters of

the adventures of the bears and thus bringing down upon them all a tumult

of distraction.

Billy Bob caught up the roarer and threw him almost up to the ceiling.

"Hurrah for Dave!" he said, and to the best of his ability Crimie

"hurrahed" while Mistake joined in enthusiastically. The hubbub at last

penetrated the slumbers of the twins, who added to the uproar to such an

extent that Mammy Betty hurried to the scene of action and cleared the

deck without further delay.

"And," continued Billy Bob to Milly and the pair of serene and only

slightly attentive young people, "you should have seen Jeff, dressed in

Dave's last year frock coat and high hat, whizzing around the coon haunts

in Caroline's gray car handing out invitations to the Chocolate Country

Club jamboree! They put the bottle and the dimes completely out of

business and he voted the whole gang straight. They tried hard to fix up

the returns but Hob and I were at the count and we saw it clean. Holy

smoke, what a sell for the machine! Slipped a cog on the nigger vote that

they have handled for years!"

"And not a dollar spent!" said David with pride. Which goes to show that

at times women keep their own counsels, for Phoebe ducked her head to

hide a smile.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024