Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1914 — GIRL FROM THE CITY [ARTICLE]

GIRL FROM THE CITY

By DONALD ALLEN.

(Copyright, 1914, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Now and then a college tudent Is called by his name is his mother gave it to him, but in the vast majority of cases it is Ly a • Ickname. Sometimes the appellation ts th individual, and sometimes it v rom it; but once bestowed .dole Brian Jeffries had been college a month before his hum .'.ettled on a nickname, and there was muc *ejuioIng that it fitted him. He was walking ut one evening from his boarding ouse *7he- .e was set upon by .hree oung ten. They were supposed .c be -tudents, and to be mistaken in their man, and they made it warm for oung Jeffries .or a minute. Then he rallied, and when he had landed three separate punches on three individual chins Che battle was over. Brian had delivered "the punch,” as sporting men say, and from that time on he was • nch” Jeffries. He was neither proud o' it nor disgusted with it When the summer vacation came the young man went to his home on the Sound. He might have gone camping or yachting or tramping, as *o many students do, but he was way behind in his studies, and his C ither had inquired of him: “Do you think I sent you to college to learn to row, swim, box and kick a football?" “Hardly, father,” was the reply. "You stand very low in your studies, my boy; and you must catch up. Spend your vacation at home and do it.” * It was a bit lonesome at The Oaks. Brian was an only child, and his mother was a semi-invalid and his father a quiet man who seldom entered into conversation. There were fishing and boating, and there was a trip to the village now and then in Che auto, and the remainder of the time was put in reading law and wondering why men with sense enough to peel a potato could not enact a law that a half-baked judge could not interpret twice alike in the same year. On his homecoming he had noticed two young ladies at Wave Crest —the next manor house below. One of therm was Miss Pryor, whose father owred the property, and the other was a stranger to him. When he sought Information of his mother she replied: “It is a young lady from the city visiting Miss Pryor. I do not even know her name.” “Hang it, if I,had ever been introduced to Miss Pryor here is a big chance for a flirtation.” “I’m sorry for you, but perhaps you’ll survive the disappointment.” At about the same hour Miss Callie Floyd, the visitor from the city, was asking of Miss Annette Pryor: “And who are the people at the other place ?” “Their name is Jeffries.” “Aren’t there any girls?” “No, only a son.” “College student?”

*.‘l believe so, and home now on his vacation.” “He must be a bit lonely.” “Well, it won’t be for us to cheer him up. I have heard that he was very wild and reckless at college.” “Why, he doesn’t look It,” said Miss Callie. “Oh, you are a physiognomist, are you? You can tell by a young man’s face fifty rods away whether he Is wild or not!" “I —I thought he had a pleasant face.” , “Let me tell you what they call him in college. It is ‘Punch’ Jeffries ! ” “But why? Does he drink more punch than anybody else?” “It must be that.’ A young man who knows him told me that he had three brawls before he had been in college a month. I hope he will make np excuse to get acquainted with us. We must prepare ourselves to snub him at-the first advance.” “Yes, ‘we must!” sighed Miss Callie as she turned away. Three days later Brian saw the young ladles, start for the village in the runaboqt, and he got out his auto and followed. Why he did it he did not stop to ask himself. Perhaps it was because he had a hope that he might get a near view of the girl from the city. - He was half a mile behind them, and keeping their . pace, when he heard a toot behind him and glanced back to see a young man burning up the road. That toot meant but one thing. It meant: “I am coming and you small potatoes with your cheap machines had better take to the woods!” » Even without the insulting tooting the oncomer would have found one ready to do him battle. Brian didn’t like the shape of his headgear. He didn’t like' his goggle?. He didn’t like the pose of his chin. Therefore, when the young man came sweeping up and would have passed on—he didn’t pass. He wanted to badly enough, but he couldn’t just manage It. With the two machines running neck and neck, the runabout was quickly overtaken and passed. Brian was on the Inside, and he was crowded oyer until the wheels'rubbed each other, and both young ladies screamed. They both recognized the college man. **The loafer!" exclaimed Miss Pryor.

"But he was racing!” extenuated Miss Callie. “And it was nothing to him whether he killed us or not!” “Didn’t hw have to race when he was challenged?” “No!’ < “And shouldn’t he want to win the race?” “Callie Floyd, you were within an ace of death, and yet you are ready to excuse such recklessness!” It was a week later, and Brian was in the village, on an errand and had no thought of the young ladies, when an auto, coming from the railroad depot and containing a lady as a passenger, began to act in a very queer manner. It ran from side to side of the street, and the screams of the lady soon collected a crowd. It was Brian Jeffries who first made out wiu th trouble was and sprang forward. The machine “had not got beyond ontroh but the chauffeur was too drunk V know what he was about The man vas hauled from his seat and cast into the road, and Brian expressed his willingness to drive the lady to her home. It was then that he noticed the Pryor runabout and the two young ladles, and he thought they .egarded him with -’omething like horror. “Isn’t it brutal!v shameful!" exclaimed Miss Pryor at she looked down at the man on the ground, and in a voice meant to be overheard. “But why did he do it?” queried Miss Callie. “Because he is a ruffian!” < “You are mistaken, young lady, ’ said a man beside their machine. ‘He did it because —” But the runabout was put in motion. Miss Pryor didn’t want to hear «he rest. There was something about «he Incident in the village paper three days later, but she refused to read. X Miss Callie returned to the city a week later, and although the young man was/ in no sense smitten ne hoped,and believed that she wasn’t so down on him as Miss Pryor. A year elapsed and Miss Callie came to spend the summer again, and Brian was spending another vacation with his law books. His father had said: “No use wasting your time. You will never make even a shyster lawyer. Why don’t you go fishing? It’s far more fun.” And the young man had said to himself: “I’ll just read up the law on hog-stealing and pretend to myself that I have been admitted to the bar.”

He saw Miss Callie, but she was twenty rods away and looking up an apple tree. He saw Miss Pryor, and she wasn’t but ten rods away and had a bludgeon in her hand. Brian Jeffries’ time was coming, however. One morning when the whales gamboled, the mermaids sang and the waters of the Sound were like w bogus half-dollar, the young man went down to take a dip In the briny. Before taking the dip he cast his eyes abroad, and a mile from shore he saw a female rowing a boat around with* one oar. He understood at once. She had lost the other oar and the tide was taking her toward Halifax ;.t the rate of four miles an hour. He waved his towel, uttered shouts of encouragement, and sprang into a boat rnd rowed as if life were at stake. As Brian drew nearer he saw that the girl was Miss Callie loyd. Nearer yet, and he saw that she was not a bit perturbed. The other oar lay in the boat. “Why, I —l thought—” he began, when she interrupted him with: “Mr. Jeffries, why are you called ‘Punch’?” “Because I punched three fellows who set out to punch me.” “I see. Why did you try to smash your runabot ’ last summer?” “Why, It Was merely a close shave, and I knew I could do It. The chap in the other auto was a ginx, and I didn't propose to let him crow over me.” "A very proper spirit, Mr. Jeffries, but why did you assault that poor chauffeur in the village?” “He was drunk and endangering the life of the lady In the tonneau.” “Proper spirit again. How many brawls have you had?” “Not one." “Um! Um! Mr. Jeffries, you can row back and I will follow at my leisure. And a man of proper spirit ought to be able to think up a way to handle* Miss Pryor.”