Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1890 — Her Absent-Minded Lover. [ARTICLE]

Her Absent-Minded Lover.

Johnny Brown, one of the nicest young men in th<| village of Squashtown, was courting the belle of the village, a bnxom young lass of eighteen summer. But Johnny had one great failing: he was very absent-minded, and would often do very strange things when a fit of abstraction was upon him. The little maiden, who wns his promised wife, was well aware of his trouble, and never in any way made sport of him, even when he was at his worst. One day J ohnny and the maiden were walking through a very lonely forest, when in some way Johnny was so unfortunate as to step upon a large ant hill. In an iustant the big black ants ware crawling up the insides of his pants legs and making things uncomfortably lively for John. He endured it manfully for a time, vainly hoping that after a while the ants would get tired of biting and drop off; but they didn’t seem to drop. After the agony had become perfectly unbearable, he said to the maiden: , “Annie, darling, the legs of my pants are filled with ants and they are biting me unmercifully. I hate to ask you to stay alone tn this solitary place even for an instant, but I must leave you here while I retire further into the forest and remove my clothes and shake them. Believe me, darling, I will not be gone a a moment longer than is absolutely necessary.” Then tbe maiden seated herself at the foot of a large tree and gave herself np to reflections. In a short time she heard Johnny returning, and when he again appeared before her she looked at him a moment and then said to him, gently: “Johnny, darling, you will have to go back for your clothes; for you’ve nothing on but your shirt, my love.”—New For/c Mercury.