but love got the better
of them all, and he answered solemnly,--

"Yes, I will take the Ming vase, and the Revolutionary papers, and the
old coins and you too, my darling!"

"Well, I _do_ like you," admitted Georgiella. Suddenly she began to
droop and tremble, and then to sob. Then he held her.

"You must give me a first mortgage; you must," demanded the young man.
"I must have everything--the whole--no other claims to come in from any
quarter of the universe. You understand. You've _got_ to be my wife!" he
exploded in a kind of glorious anger.

She could not deny him, for she thought it was the Northern way of
wooing, and smiled divinely.

"And now--may I?" He took the mistletoe branch from the Ming vase and
held it over her head. Their eyes closed in ecstacy.

Mrs. McCorkle gave a funny little feminine scream of dismay. She had
heard no sound, and had come in from the kitchen to see if they were
quarreling.

"And I'll put it in the trust deed," he whispered humbly, "that I will
make you happy, dear!"

When Ellesworth rode over to Sunshine for his next mail he found the
following letter awaiting him:

1111 COURT STREET,
BOSTON, MASS., _Dec._ 22, 1890.

_Mr. Francis B. Ellesworth:_

DEAR FRANK,--What the deuce do you mean by countermanding
Benson's foreclosure at this time of day? It makes a peck of
trouble. In Boston we are too busy to fool with affairs this
way.

Messrs. Screw & Claw desire me to enclose their little bill.
Mine will keep until you get here.

Yours truly,
JOSEPH TODD.

COLONEL ODMINTON

A SEQUEL TO

"A REPUBLIC WITHOUT A PRESIDENT."

The Colonel paced his cabin alone. The new expression which success
models was becoming intensified from day to day upon his face. He had
outwitted the greatest nation in the world; he had defied the best
detective service of modern times; he was rich beyond his dizziest
dreams; he could aspire to any position; he would be an eastern prince
perhaps, and drowsy-looking girls should wave peacock fans and soothe
his memory to rest with crooning songs. What a delicious future he saw
rising before him! His consummate stroke of piracy should purchase him a
life of lotus ease.

The Colonel, had at last achieved; and, as is too often the case with
extraordinary success, his stupendous act had robbed him of vitality and
invention. Already he felt and acknowledged a dismemberment of his will.
But