WINNING HER WAY 



17 



'round beggin^ ^n' breakin'' into folk's 

 houses. They'd o't to be sent to state's 

 prison, *n^ I wish I c'd be the means o' 

 sending' 'em there. I wonder what I'd 

 better do? I guess I'll rnn over 'n' tell 

 John, 'n' see what he thinks about it' 

 'fore I do anything else. I s'pose yon 

 Avouldn't dare to stay here alone, while I'm 

 gone, so y'n can come along, ef y' want to." 



Miss Betty interviewed John. It was 

 arranged that he was to come over to her 

 ])lace shortly after dark, bringing old 

 Towser with him. Further than this no 

 arrangements were made then. 



"I'll go home an' git reddy fer com- 

 p'ny," said Miss Betty, with one of her 

 grim chuckles- 



The first thing she did on reaching 

 home was to go to the wood shed and take 

 down a rusty old shotgun which hung 

 there. Judging from its looks it had not 

 been fired for many years. At first the 

 mechanism of the lock refused utterly to 

 respond to Miss Betty's attempts to oper- 

 ate it, but after she had oiled it and given 

 it what she called a "good goin' over," it 

 responded, after a fashion, to her manipu- 

 lation, and she announced, with consider- 

 able satisfaction, that she "ruther guessed 

 'r would do." 



"You aren't going to shoot with it, are 

 you?" asked Mary, looking at the ancient 

 weapon with fea-r and trembling. 



"I be, ef I git a chance to," answered 

 Miss Betty. 



Evening came, and with it John and old 

 Towser. 



"I've got an idee we can git the start 

 of 'em, ef we mannidge right," said Miss 

 Betty, as they sat down to decide upon 

 what course of action to follow. "Of 

 course, we don't know Jest what they'll 

 do, 'n' how they'll begin, 'n' all that sort 

 o' thing, but s'posen they sh'd git into the 

 room, 'n' we be all ready fer 'em — you 'n' 

 Towser, 'n' me — I've an idee we can take 

 'em so by s'prise that we c'n nab 'em. My 

 goodness, wouldn't I like to do it?" 



"I dunno 'bout their gittin' into the 

 room," said John. "01' Towser'll hev 



suthin' to say to that. Ef he barks or 

 growls he's a-goin' to scare 'em. They 

 won't come no furder after they find 

 there's a dog 'round, y'u c'n jest count on 

 that." 



"Then they'd jest back out, 'n' that'd be 

 the end on 't," said Miss Betty. "That 

 don't suit me a' tall. What I want is to 

 git the critters. I don't want to jest scare 

 'em — I want to captivate 'em." 



It is to be presumed that Miss Betty 

 meant that she'd like to capture them, but 

 just, then she was too excited over the 

 matter to be very much concerned over 

 the accuracy of her words. 



"Why can't we shet ol' Towser up in the 

 gran'ry?" she asked. "There he'd be out 

 o' hearin' of what was hap'nin' at the 

 house, until we'd got 'em into the trap, 

 'n' then, ef we needed him, we c'd let him 

 out in short meeter. What I want to do, is 

 to let 'em git into the house afore they find 

 out we're on the lookout fer 'em. Then, 

 if we jest let out on 'em, all together, we'll 

 have 'em so took by s'prise that they won't 

 know jest what to do fer a minnit, an' by 

 that time we've got 'em, don't ye see?" 



"Wall, yes, mebbe," answered John, 

 rather dubiously. "Pervidin' ev'rything 

 works right, that is." 



"Wall, yes, of course," admitted Miss 

 Betty. "But 's long 's we can't be sure- 

 how things is goin' to work, we might jest 

 as well act as ef we knew they was goin' 

 our way. 'T won't do to let onsart'inties 

 discourridge us. We'll jest do our best, 

 'n' then, ef we don't come out ahead, we 

 won't hev to think, after it's^all over, that 

 mebbe, ef we'd done 



(To he continued.) 



Star Scraps 



I know— blue, modest violets, 



Gleaming with dew at morn — 

 I know the place you came from 



And the way that you were born ! 

 When God cuts holes in heaven, 



The holes the stars look through, 

 He lets the scraps fall down to earth— 



The little scraps are you. 



— Will S, Faris. 



