An Old Man's Darling.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8008, 20 December 1905, Page 4

An Old Man's Darling.

Grandpa Porter had become a source of modi anxiet; to his ton and his son's wife, Mr*. John. The; were lull; persuaded that hewaain danger of being married for hia monej, and that by a ;oung minx that might well be hi* granddaughter. That grandpa had taken a fane; to the girl the; were sure; that he thought himaell deepl; in lore with her was evident; he was no longer hia usual joll; careless old self. He moped abont in fits of abstraction; he read romances, and he had hunted up his old, cracked flute that he had not touched for ;ears, and stayed out on the porch in the evening playing "Robin Adair" and other bygone ballads, with a whesx; wail that was distressing. "I can hardly bear it," Mrs. John exclaimed, punching up her pillow vainl; trying to get to sleep. *' He acts like a lovesick bo;. I tell ;ou, John, we've got to get him away, up to Eben'i, or somewhere out of her reach."

"Tea," John assented, dronsily. "I'll write Eben, if you'll coax pa to go." "Grandpa Porter, don't you think a change would do you good?" Mrs. John asked the next morning. " Yon know Eben'i folks would like yon to come there an; time you please, for a visit." "No, I don't think a ehange'd do me good; I don't want to go to Eben's 1 I won't stir a step! I don't like Mrs. Eben; we ajjrays quarrel. If von want to turn me out, I'll go over to. Widow Smith's and board."

•» And tbe Widow Smith was the mother of that minx!

" Wh;, grandpa, nobody wants to turn Jon out," Mrs. John hastened to appease im. "It was just that you seemed out of aorta lately, and we thought a change would perk you up." ' "I'm not out a* torts I I suppose yon think I'm getting old and helpless, and haven't much life left. I'm as spry as an;, bod;. Look here I" He turned down a chair and skipped over it. "And look here!" , he pranced out across the porch, jumped the steps, ran to the woodpile and brought in a big armful, saying as he threw it into the box, "I guess John couldn't beat that very mnch, could he, hey 1 I don't go down to tbe gym so often for nothing." "Why, Grandpa Porter I" Mrs. John cried, amazed.

A laughing face looked in at the side door and a blithe young voice said, gayly: " Good for you, Mr. Porter t I told you the other day you were younger than half the boys. Yon ought to see him on the taming bar, Mrs. John!" She set a basket of eggs on the table, adding: "Grandma Taylor was bringing you these eggs and I came aTcng to carry them for her, she looked so tired and fagged out Take this chair, grandma." She brought an easy chair with ostentatious solicitude, and the brisk, anything but "tired" or "fagged" looking old lad; who had followed her in sat down Btiffly, and the girl, unmindful of the frigid atmosphere, rattled on:

" I can't (top a minnte, Mrs. John. Mr. Porter, isn't it about your time for gjm practice ? " with a suggestixe smile. «Grandpa got bis bat with alacrity, and tliej went off together, stopping in the yard for the joung minx to fasten a rose in his buttonhole. "'Mr. Porter!'" Mrs. John burstont, jngrily; "it used to be grandpa with her. She came on purpose to get him; she's don* it before, the bold jade 1" " I didn't want any of ber help, she took the basket right oat of my hands, making Believe I wasn't able to carry it across th* street. One would think I was too old and feeble to walk alone to bear her talc* on!" Grandma Taylor sniffed, a red spot on each cheek. " I'm two years younger than be is," she declared with flashing eyes. " I suppose rou saw him making a speck of himself. Of coarse he had seen ber coming, and it was to show of! for her benefit. It's disgusting, the way an old man will act when lie takes a notion to a girl. I wish his old Bute was in the store, and I'd put it there if I dared. I get so tired of the tooting! And I know it disturbs yon folks, M." Grandma did not answer. To tell the troth, she kept her window open on purpose to hear it; the old-fashioned tunes appealed to her heart, awaking memories of youth and love " If Grandpa Porter has got to be so foolish, I den't sec why he couldn't hare taken a notion to grandma," Mrs. John reflected, regretfully watching grandma, trim and upright, (ralLinc away briskly. "That girl will keep him off til] noon, I Bpcct."

a Which she did, and then hung on the gate at her own home, and "flirted" with him, till Mrs John wad obliged to send Tommy to call him to dinner. Tommy ran back, with big eyes, exclaiming, " You just ought to 6ee grandpa! " They all looked with big eyes when he uuue in. He was lii.ivnd clean of all his beautiful white beard, only a moustache left, and that waxed till it shone. His hair was cut lii the latent mode, aim with his ruddy cheeks, and twinkling eyes be appeared absurdly yonng; almost younger than his son. " Well," he laughed as they stared, " isn't it an iinprovemeut? Polly is delighted with the change." Words failed them! "I'm prepared for anything now,'- Mrs. John confided later to her husband. "It's

plain she put him up to it. Maybe if she knew about his will she wouldn't be so bent on marrying lrni." " She does know. I had a good chance and told her yesterday how pa had willed his property, and she just laughed and said folks changed their wills sometimes. She's a sharp one, and she'll make him change it quick as she's got him." " Maybe if you talked to him and showed him how ridiculous it is, and how folks are laughing at " "No use, Lucy," her husband interrupted;" Pa'd just get mad and leave in a minute. You know how touchy he is." Mrs. John groaned. She knew, and also she remembered the threat to go and board with the mini's mother. Like enough he'd be glad of an excuse. Sunday grandpa ranie out dressed for church in the extreme of style, twirling a dainty cane as airily as any dude, and boldly marched away to the waiting minx, who hud a bash rose for him, the mate to her own. "Yonsee," Mrs. John said, bitterly, to Grandma Taylor as the two families walked along together, after the ill-matched pair. "There's no fool like an old fool!" quoted Mrs. liny, grandma's daughter. " Old Mr. Porter is no fool, though he does let like one," grandma remarked. "No; more's the pity." John wgretted. "I'd interfere and stop it if there was the ghost of a chance that way. But hj; made too sharp a trade last week to have anything the matter with his mind."

Oh, he knew well enough what he was about, grandma reflected; and he was a fine figure of a man and walked as stipple as a boy.'She looked, with envious eyes, at the girl beside him, mass of fluffy white*."*hen at the sombre black unenlivened by a hint of •olor, in which it wai considered proper for

too. l tided; ladies to ana; themselves, and then and there decided ehe would no longer go about looking like a funeral. "He's two years older than I am," she again told her selt

"Mamma," small Bessie complained, a few days later, " the girls at school laugh at me, and sa; that Poll; Smith is going to be in; grandma." . " Well, won't she be a sweet little grandma? " grandpa asked, with a cackle. Mrs. John bit her lip to keep the hot words back.

" I do believe it's catching," Mrs. Kay ran across that afternoon'to confide to Mre. John: " Ma's been and got a lavender colored lawn, and some white ties, and a jaunt; bonnet trimmed in lavender and violets. She says she's smothered in black all she's goin'-to." " That's not so bad; as long as she don't go gallivating around with somo ;oung fellow."

"Oh, ma'd never think of marrying anybody. I just wouldn't allow that, old or young," Mrs. Ray declared somewhat incoherently. " Well, you can manage an old lady, but an old man you can't. I feel as if we were disgraced." She was sure of i( when one day Grandpa dressed up, brought a liver; rig and took the minx for a ride, out to bis farm. She clapped on her sunbonnet and went to appeal to the minx's mother.

"Don't you think it disgraceful for a young girl to go traipsing oft that way with an old man, Hannah Smith?" she demanded with asperity. " Mr. Porter is a man of good character and a church member," Mrs. Smith bridled defensive!;. " Oh, I understand I You're in the game for the old fellow's mone; too 1" Mrs. Smith merely clossd ber mouth firmly and tossed her head. Mrs. John gave it np and went home; she knew Hannah Smith well enough to know that you needn't say an; more when she looked like that.

m. Grandma Taylor, in the lavender lawn, with her hair dressed high about an amber comb in the prevailing fashion, was just leaving a neighbour's when the couple returned. She bowed with freezing hauteur and thereat the saucy minx laughed gayly. Grandpa's other two sons, Eben and Charles, made their appearance, in answer to the urgent appeals of Mr. and Mrs. John, Grandpa Hew into a passion. "I won't have anybody meddling in my affairs 1" he stormed, stamping about. "I'll do as I please, and it's none of your business !" Eben remonstrated, and Charles coaxed in rain. Then the; went off to tackle the minx. Eben gave and took immediate offence and left to go over it again, .uselessly, with his father. Charles sauntered in when the storm had spent itself. " You're a gay old boy, pa," he laughed, slapping grandpa on the back, "and you mu3t bring Grandma Porter to see us." "Now, that's something like!" grandpa cried, shaking his hand warmly. Her last hope gone, Mrs. John subsided in tears and a headache; and grandpa shut himself up in triumph, and played " Blue Bells of Scotland " and everything he could remember with a more distinctly wheezy wail than ever. Across the street the lavender lawn, with Grandma Taylor in it, sot just out of sight, near the window; she was listening with furtive tears. Grandpa and the girl were thicker than •ver after that, and then one day he again . dressed in his best- and again took her for a long ride in an expensive turnout. It happened that Grandma Taylor,'in lavender lawn, white tie and new bonnet, had that (day gone across the town to visit an old friend, and Mrs. Ray was at liberty to ran over and condole with Mrs. John on the approaching marriage, which might take place any titne, even to-day, if the old gentleman chose. The girl would, of course, snap at the chance at any time he pleased. " I don't know what I would do if it were ma, for I'd never consent to her marrying again." " l'a Porter don't ask anybod;'s consent, and I guess ;ou couldn't help youreelf, in my place." i "Maybe not. But ma knows my mind too well ever to think of such a thing. Why," she continued, laughing, " when she first came to me, I was a little anxious about Grandpa Porter, they look up to each other so. But she hasn't had much to say to him since I went for her about it."

g".That would have been a suitable mulch, and we couldn'Vhavc objected to it," Mrs. John replied. "But I suppose Grandma Taylor is too old to suit him."

" She's younger than he is, and looks it, too, ii\ her new things," Mrs. Bay responded sliarpiy. Then she smiled. ""What nonsense ! It's no matter whether she's old or no!, ma knows I'd never allow another man in my father's place." •' Well, you can manage an old lady, but you can't a stubborn man," Mrs. John reiterated, mournfully. Toward night, Mrs. Ray hurried in again. "Polly Smith has come home afoot and alone 1 What do you suppose she's done with grandpa ? "

" Come with me and I'll find out." The minx was at the gate, apparently on the lookout for something or someone. "Howdid you hear?" she asked as they approached. "We've heard trothingi" Mrs. John answered shortly. '' T want to know what's b& come of Grandpa Porter!" " Why they're riding around. I cwne away right after the ceremony." "The ceremony I What ceremony?— 'riiere? " shrieked Mrs. John. " " T p at the parsonage, of course, and " " fou came off alone as soon as you were married!" interrupted Mrs. Bay. Mrs. John was speechless. " But I'm not married," the minx smiled serenely. " Then who " began Mrs. Ray, wild suspicion seizing her. " There they come I " the minx cried, " Don't they look sweet ? " as a buggy turned towards them.

"M—m—ma Taylor I " gasped Mrs. Bay. " Grandma Taylor-Porter," Polly corrected gleefully. " And we've had such a time with her, grandpa and I. She was so afraid of offending her family that s'ae wouldn't listen to grandpa at all until she got wretch edly jealous of me. Poor grandpa was so miserable—and grandma herself wasn't happy, were you, grandma?" of the cheerful lady descending from the buggy, gallantly assisted by the proud old husband. "No," grandma assented, "and I decided that you shouldn't break both our hearts, Emma!" She turned complacently to her gaping daughter. Sirs. John went off into peals of hysterical laughter, aided by the minx and jovial bridegroom.

Mrs. Hay turned her back on the hilarious crowd and fled. Eventually she relented and took the old couple into favor, but) She never forgave Mrs. John that laugh!