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VHANDS UP!"
By George Elmer Cobb.
'I "will win oyer your father yet,
Leila." -v.
"Oh, Ned, I sincerely hope so! But
he has changed he is .not like the
dear old papa, who used to enter into
all our joys and sorrows. I can't un
derstand it"
vi can," asserted Ned Walters
bluntly. "Your falther was a fine busi-
"Hands Up!"
ness man. He retired too early in life
Idleness never yet suited a nature like
his: The result has been hypo
chrondria." "Oh, dear!" uttered Leila Taylor
ttismally. "What a dreadful sounding
name. Is this hypo hypo "
, "Ghrondria, exactly," nodded
T$ed a disease? Not in the true
sense." It's fancy, imagination, but its
Wph'm Riiffprs A hilcinpca man lilrii
your father finds himself at leisure,
nothing to work for, nothing. to oc
cupy his mind.' Result; the megrims.
He gets all kinds of ridiculous ideas
in his head." ""
"Well, papa's seem to be a nejw dis
ease every day. He mopes, takes no
exercise, says he can hardly walk.
The doctor told mamma there was
not an earthly thing the matter with
him. We- can't persuade him as to
that, though. 'He is crabbed and cross
to all of us. You are the last object
of his' aversion. He has forbidden you
the house oh, Ned, hurry! There is
papa now."
Robert Taylor came into view as
his daughter spoke. She and Ned had
met clandestinely at the garden
fence.
There was a hurried exchange of
kisses. Pater familias, looking strong
enough to meet a giant, but wearing
a scowl and slouching along as if his
feet had dead weights attached to
them, came to the spot where his
daughter stood.
"Leila, who was that?" he chal
lenged sharply.
"Only a neighbor, papa?" reported
Leila demurely.
"What neighbor?"
"It was Ned that is, Mr. Walters
oh, papa, dear, don't be angry!"
But instantly the retired merchant
went into a paroxysm of his usual
rage when anything crossed him.
"If I find that young man on these
premises again," he stormed, 'Til
thrash him within an inch of his life.
H'm Ned! Why isn't he at work?
Loitering his hours awaysweetheart
irig, wasting his employer's time. I
never did that, and see where I am."
"Where he was, Leila reflected sad
ly, was at a climax in his life where
money was a surfeit and time a bur
den. The tears came into her eyes
as she contrasted, the soured, imperi
ous tyro with the old-time, cheerful,
hustling man of business.
"You've heard me say," snapped
out Mr. Taylor viciously. "If I learn
of your meeting that young man
again, I'll I'll loclr you -up'
iicjJif4i
