ment when Minerva should illumine the ring with her presence.

He had not to wait long. To the strains of "See, the conquering hero comes!" the lions' cage entered, drawn by milk white horses. Once more Minerva was between the lions; but this time one happy beast was resting his head on her knees, and her muscular but shapely arm encircled his tawny neck.

She that perforce robs lions of their hearts
May easily win a druggist's.

Elisha could not conceal his agitation. "Oh, do be careful! Do take care!" he heard himself saying, loud enough to cause amusement to his neighbors-but he was unconscious of himself.

The cavalcade went slowly around the ring and passed out, amid the applause of the people, the rustling accompaniment of breaking peanut shells, and the appreciative munching of pop-corn. Elisha slipped from his seat and followed at a respectful distance. With trembling fingers he pressed a piece of silver into the willing hand of some functionary in uniform, and took a modest position at the door of the tent into which the lions' cage had disappeared.

"I-I wish to speak to-to Miss Minerva Montague," he said in a nervous whisper, trying to assume the manner of a habitual haunter of greenrooms.

"Yes, sir; she'll be out directly. I'll tell her you're waitin'," replied the official, departing with an alacrity which only bribery could have induced. In a few moments he returned. "Miss Higgins says she don't know who you be," he announced; "but she says she'll be goin' outer that side entrance in five minutes, an' if you've any business with her, you can wait there."

"Thank you very much," said Elisha, politely, "but I don't know Miss Higgins. It's Miss Montague I want to see-Miss Minerva Montague."

66

"Same person," replied the man of many buttons. Stage name, Minerva Montague. Real name, Matilda Higgins."

This was a trifle disillusionizing, but Elisha reflected that her character and her physique certainly belonged to a Minerva, not a Matilda. He waited at the appointed tryst for a long five minutes, until the flap of the tent door was pushed aside and a large woman stepped out, enveloped in a black “ "gossamer" water-proof (the kind that rolls up small), and wearing a hat covered with bedraggled red plumes.

'Well, if you ain't the little feller that threw me the rose!" cried a good-natured voice. "I thought it was awful cute of you to think of doin' it."

"Are-are you Miss Minerva Montague?" asked Elisha, timidly approaching her and raising his hat.

"Yes; I'm Matilda Higgins. I look kind o' different in this rig, don't I?"

The electric light shone relentlessly on her painted cheeks and the few wisps of black hair showing beneath her hat.

"Yes, you do at least that is well, I thought you had yellow hair," stammered poor Elisha. "But I wanted to see you to tell you how much I admire you for riding in the lions' cage. It it's splendid of you, I think. I should never dare to-"

"Oh, that ain't anything," cried the amazon, in tones scornful of her own prowess. "Why, the lions are as quiet as lambs, and I only get into the cage after they've had a good square meal. Besides, if they did get mad, I'd shoot 'em. But they know me, an' they know I ain't afraid. I don't know what 'tis to be afraid of anything."

"Oh dear, just think of that!" exclaimed Elisha, feebly.

"You can walk along with me to the place where I'm stoppin'," the damsel went on. "I hate sleepin' in the tent. It's more genteel to have a place outside, an' I've always been used to genteel surroundin's. The Female Contortionist and the Mysterious Lady don't seem to mind, but it's the one thing I'm kind o' set about. I do like to sleep in a house."

Elisha hurried along by her side with short, nervous steps. The top of his head was on a level with her chin, and he was quite overpowered by her physical and moral superiority.

"Why did you want to see me, anyway?" Minerva demanded, after a silence, during which Elisha had been trying to think of some appropriate remark.

"Why-why-I admired you awfully this morning," he said, so incoherently that she had to incline her ear to catch his words. "I've been thinking about you all day. I just couldn't keep away from you. That's why I'm here."

"Well, well, to think of that!" said Minerva, evidently much flattered. "An' what's your name?"

"My name's Elisha Jenkins, and I work in a drug-shop. I have my evenings free," he added, with some pride.

"Then come and see me evenin's, after the performance. I get through before half past eight, an' I'd be real glad to see you. You ain't married, I s'pose? You're real young

lookin'."

"No, I ain't married," Elisha confessed, after a second's pause, during which the idea flashed into his mind that he might plead guilty to a wife and seven children, and then disappear forever. But when, after the acknowledgment of his unattached condition, he left Miss Higgins at the door of her shabby little boarding-house, it was with the understanding that he was to call at half past eight the next evening, and take her-or be taken by herfor a walk.

After this things progressed rapidly. Every evening the ill-matched couple started forth to some place of amusement, or spent an hour on some secluded bench in a public park. Matilda Higgins, or Minerva, as Elisha preferred to call her, carried on most of the conversation, and sometimes her startling aud picturesque revelations concerning life at the circus caused the modest hairs of her escort to stand on end with surprise and horror. Many of his childlike illusions were cruelly dispelled by the wisdom of Minerva.

He had not yet dared to speak to her of love, but neither did he dare to postpone the subject much longer. If courting must be done, he hoped that she would do it. She was to be in town but one week more, and he thought, with mingled dread and hope, that their present indefinite relations must soon end. The decisive moment came one evening when they were sitting on a damp bench by the shores of an artificial pond.

"'Lisha," the lady said, "you know I can never leave the circus. I just love my life there, an' the manager promises me more work an' a raise of salary later on. He thinks I can do some snake-charmin' for him next season, besides the lion-tamin'-"

Elisha murmured his congratulations. "Look here, 'Lisha," Minerva said, facing

him suddenly. "Here you've been keepin' steady company with me for over a week, an' you 'ain't never said a word about our gettin' married. You don't seem like one o' those sneakin', deceivin' kind o' men that think every woman's as disrespectable as they be themselves. An' I think it's time I knew your intentions."

Elisha took a long breath. His hour had come. He must prove himself a man of honor. "No, Minerva, I ain't one of those kind of men," he said, grandly, "an' I'd like to see one of 'em come near you. They wouldn't dare to, not when I'm here." The heroism of his own words inspired him. "Of course I want to marry you, just whenever you're willing. I supposed you understood that without my saying

80."

"Well, I guess I did," Minerva confessed coyly, taking her lover's hand fondly in hers. "An' I've thought up such a beautiful plan for our weddin'! You see, I never forget my profession, even when I'm with you. I'm always tryin' to think up some novelty that will take with the public, an' I've got an elegant idea this time, an' you're to be in it too. I won't tell you a word about it till I've spoken to the manager, but you're sure to be real pleased." She chuckled to herself, and Elisha felt his knees trembling with apprehension.

"Will-will I have to join the circus?" he asked, timidly.

"Well, I guess you'd better get free from sellin' fizzes right away," his fiancée announced, decidedly. "I'm sure I can get you somethin' to do, even if it's only goin' round with pop-corn and lemonade at first. Perhaps later on you can help me with the snakes."

A low groan escaped from poor Elisha.

"You don't think you'd like to give up the circus and settle down here quietly with me?" he asked, tentatively. "Some time I shall be a real apothecary's clerk, putting up prescriptions and then then we should be very happy," he ended, lamely.

"Me, the wife of an apothecary? Well, I guess not!" cried the Queen of the Lions, laughing aloud. "Lisha Jenkins, you do beat all. No. You're to travel round with us, and do any odd jobs that turn up; then later we'll see. I'll get hold o' Mr. Williams to-morrow, an' talk to him. We'll be married Saturday night, so you can be seein' about the license, an' I'll 'tend to the rest o' the business. I'll tell you all about it to-morrow night."

The next evening, when Elisha rang the boarding-house bell, Minerva rushed forward, and after greeting her lover with a resounding salute, dragged him into the untidy little sitting-room, and in a tone of great excitement commanded him to sit beside her.

66

Mr. Williams is just wild over my plan," she exclaimed. "He says it 'll be the biggest drawin' card we've had for years; an' what's more, he's goin' to give me a good share o' the profits-an' me's you, you know, or will be, then-so chirk up, old boy, an' don't seem so anxious. Look at this! To-morrow there'll be three thousand of 'em to distribute all over the city." Minerva put a green poster into Elisha's trembling hands. "That tells the whole thing, and in elegant language too." Elisha's dazed eyes read the following an

nouncement:

UNIQUE EVENT!

MARRIAGE IN THE LIONS' DEN!!! On Saturday Evening, May 27th, Directly after the Regular Performance, A WEDDING

will be celebrated in the

LIONS' CAGE

In the Smaller Tent.

MISS MINERVA MONTAGUE, The Celebrated Lion-Tamer, has at last yielded to the shafts of Cupid, and consented to wed MR ELISHA JENKINS,

one of the well-known Society-Leaders of this City.

A prominent clergyman has kindly volunteered his services.

Elisha collapsed utterly. "Oh, Minerva!" he groaned, “I suppose I'm an awful coward, but I don't feel as if I could go through with this. The lions don't know me-they'll see that I'm afraid -and they'll eat me," he ended, feebly.

"They'd be ashamed to eat such a chickenlivered thing as you!" the scornful lady replied. "But there, 'Lisha, I don't want to be hard on you. I s'pose you can't help bein' a coward; it's because you're so weak an' little. Never mind; I'll protect you." She gave him a loving slap on the back which almost knocked him off the sofa. "I tell you I know those lions, an' they're gentlemen, that's what they are. They wouldn't take advantage of your bein' in their house on a matter of business. I thought you'd be real pleased to see your name in such big letters, and as a society-leader too.”

"Oh, I am pleased at that,” replied Elisha, with an effort, feeling that he had been ungracious. "But you will see that the lions have had a good dinner that night, won't you ?”

"Of course I will," she responded, heartily, "an' I'll take you to see the lions to-morrow, an' they'll be real pleasant if I tell 'em who you be. An' I've thought of somethin' that ain't goin' to be put on the bills. You see, the public likes to have things done on a handsome scale, an' I don't want to have anything mean about my weddin', anyway. So I'm goin' to give people more'n their money's worth, an' throw in the Fat Lady an' the Livin' Skeleton.”

"Throw them in the lions' cage ?" asked the bewildered bridegroom, now proof against surprises.

"No, you stupid! Throw 'em in for ten cents. I thought 'twould be kind o' nice to have the Fat Lady for my bridemaid—we've always been great friends, anyhow-an' she an' I will walk in together. But I guess she'd better not get into the cage. She'd be pretty temptin' to the lions even after a big dinner.” Minerva laughed, and Elisha tried to echo her mirth, but failed dismally.

"And what is the Living Skeleton to do?" he asked, meekly.

"Well, I thought it would be a kind of a comfort for you to have some one to come in with, an' he's a real nice man, though there ain't much of him. But I think he'd be a sort o' support for you. Of course you could have one o' your friends for your best man, but the public wouldn't like that near as well. They'll be awful pleased to see the two freaks without payin' extra.”

Elisha was beginning to enter into the spirit of the occasion. "We might have the Wild Men of Borneo for ushers," he answered; but his more modest bride thought that that would be sensational.

"No. I want to keep the whole thing real simple," she said, firmly. "Of course we could turn in the whole side-show, but I think that would be sort o' vulgar an' cheap. I wonder you don't feel the way I do, 'Lisha."

"Oh, I do, Minerva," he said, fervently disclaiming a desire for a melodramatic union. "I think it will be beautiful, if only the lions won't mind being disturbed at night."

"Oh, they'll be all right if I take you to see 'em first," replied his lady; "and now, 'Lisha Jenkins, you just stop worryin'!"

On Friday afternoon Minerva took her lover into the side-show and introduced him to the Living Skeleton. "I thought 'twould be pleasanter for you to meet before to-morrow," she said, graciously, as she presented the two men.

A skinny hand was extended from the platform where Mr. Adams, the thin man, was exhibiting himself. Elisha murmured a few words of awkward thanks for the favor Mr. Adams was to do for him the next day, but that gentleman seemed to feel so strongly that the favor was mutual that Elisha wondered whether side - show etiquette demanded that the best man should receive a fee.

A group of visitors came up to examine the thin man's anatomy, while Minerva and her fiancé stood in rather awkward silence before him. The young people made such outspoken comments on Mr. Adams's subcutaneous display that Elisha feared his feelings would be hurt. But the Skeleton proved himself fully able to protect his bones from insult. He held out a mysterious object in a frame, for the inspection of a rosy - cheeked damsel, saying, confidently, "There's a picture of the girl I'm going to marry." The unsuspecting maiden looked at it and saw her own face reflected in a small band-mirror. The mixture of dignity and anger with which she handed it back to the Skeleton at once turned the general laugh against herself, and Elisha saw with pleasure and admiration that Mr. Adams was equal to the emergency.

The lions looked at their quivering visitor with eyes that were curious but by no means hostile, and the dignified gentlemanliness of heir manner said plainly that any friend of Miss Minerva Montague's was their friend.

Elisha and Minerva had agreed not to meet on their wedding-day until evening, so it was already eight o'clock when he went to the circus-grounds and once more stood watching her lead the procession around the ring. He noticed with a sigh of relief that the lions were more lethargic than usual. Decidedly his lady had not forgotten to order that her beasts should be given extra rations. A glow of pride and tenderness for Minerva's perfections drove out fear from Elisha's heart for the moment,

as he heard the populace, mindful of coming events, cheer her loudly. She wore a new white silk dress, made in honor of the occasion, and her cheeks showed the brush of an artist, instead of the customary daubs of the

amateur.

Before the circus performance closed, Elisha was admitted into the smaller tent. The place was festively trimmed with green shrubs and branches, and the lions might well imagine themselves at home in their native jungle. Elisha thankfully observed that they were both sound asleep in a corner of their cage. He was timidly inspecting them when the Living Skeleton stepped forth from behind a sapling which had entirely concealed him, and the bridegroom's nerves were in so tense a condition that he almost screamed aloud at finding his best man so unexpectedly near him.

Greetings having been exchanged, the two retired to a leafy alcove, where they were concealed from view but could obtain glimpses of what went on. Mr. Adams proved to be a complete man of the world. He tried to amuse and encourage the trembling bridegroom by various matrimonial anecdotes, in the telling of which the recounter himself became so convulsed with mirth as to suggest that the evening's entertainment might include the death of the Only Living Skeleton.

At last the circus ended. Hundreds of people crowded in and grouped about the lions' cage. A flowery aisle was left free for the bridal party (extra broad, Mr. Adams said, for the bridemaid), and the band struck up the Wedding March. The Living Skeleton advanced, towing the poor little bridegroom after him. Elisha's knees bumped together, and his staring eyes were fixed on the lions, who, for the first time, seemed to be taking notice of their surroundings. Out of the tail of his eye he saw Mr. Russell, his former employer, and a group of old associates from the drug-shop. Hysterical laughs, eager whispers, and tentative applause broke from the multitude.

"Take a cough-lozenge, Elisha." "Drink Tonickine for your nerves," his former companions called after him.

"It's the most sacrilegious thing I ever saw. Say, let's go out," said another.

"Poor little chiap! He looks frightened to death, an' I don't wonder," spoke out a goodnatured matron. Elisha looked at her with grateful eyes.

They reached the cage and paused, facing the audience. The minister seemed to have arisen mysteriously out of the sawdust, and stood waiting, book in hand. Slowly up the aisle came the Queen of the Lions, her crown replaced by a long white veil, her yellow wig falling in luxuriant curls down her broad shoulders. Behind her waddled the Fat Lady, carrying an enormous bunch of peonies. A fresh wave of mirth broke over the assembly,

sational.

Her quick professional eye saw that he had scored a success.

“I— I'm awfully sorry, Minerva," Elisha murmured, somewhat refreshed by a glass of wine, though still ashen-white from his recentalarm. "That roar just finished me."

"Ob, that's all right," replied his amiable bride. "You won't mind it the next time."

She held out her hand to greet the first unknown friend who had stepped up to congratulate them.

"What do you mean by the next time, Minerva ?" Elisha asked, anxiously, before another well-wisher arrived.

"Well, of course this is the real weddin' to us," Minerva explained, cheerfully, "but the public won't know that. We'll get up some new features each time. P'r'aps next year we can work in some snakes-that would be nice, wouldn't it?"

He put his little hand in hers and tried to

He needn't be so awful scared," said another. "I reckon they'd take her first. He ain't nothing but a wish-bone."

The clergyman waited in dignified silence for the criticisms to cease; then he opened his book. The service began, but Elisha's thoughts were on the beasts of prey behind him. Between the bars he caught the eye of his best man, who encouraged him with a furtive wink, and the bridemaid smiled fatly at the world in general. With quavering voice he made his responses, but just as the binding words had been pronounced, a protesting roar sounded in his ear, and Elisha promptly fainted.

He would have fallen forward in an ignominions heap but for Minerva's supporting arm. She spoke a soothing word to the lion, who was expressing surprise, but no resentment, and the good-natured creature submissively turned over and went to sleep.

For a few blessed moments Elisha remained unconscious, and when he recovered himself he was being supported out of the cage by his better - and stronger-half. The best man and the bridemaid, arm in arm, followed the bridal couple down the aisle, their aspect doing much to relieve the tension of the occasion. A burst of applause broke from the crowd. The fainting of the bridegroom was a touch of nature which made the marriage something more than a cheap advertising show. But poor Elisha felt that he was disgraced, branded forever as a coward. Still, he did not much care, in his overwhelming thankfulness that the dreaded ceremony was over.

Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins took up their position under an arbor of green, prepared to receive congratulations, and the bridemaid and best man formed a rival attraction close at hand. The bride was radiant with the success of everything. Even Elisha's fit of unconsciousness had not been an undesirable feature, though bordering on the dreaded sen

"You see, 'Lisha dear," she went on, gently, "this has been a grand success, au' we mustn't miss a chance of rakin' in the dollars. You won't be frightened after you get used to it. I've about made up my mind that in every new place we go to we must have a weddin' in the lions' cage."

MISSING VACANCIES.

A SHORT time since quite a discussion arose among the officials of one of our prominent Southern railroads as to the reason of the many vexatious delays and troubles in the transmission of local freight. It was claimed by some of the parties interested that it was caused almost entirely by the stupidity or inefficiency of the local agents, and as there was some difference of opinion on this point, it was decided that the matter should be tested.

To this end a tracer was prepared in due and formal shape, calling for the whereabouts of "One Box Post-holes," which it alleged was missing from a prior shipment. This was sent out in the regular order of business, with nothing except its "internal nothingness" to draw attention to its unusual character, and passed agent after agent without eliciting comment or information save the stereotyped endorsement, "Not here."

Some fifteen or eighteen local agents were actually passed in this way, until the tracer fell into the hands of a bright young fellow who was accustomed to looking into the busiDess passing through his hands, and who speedily came to the conclusion that the tracer had gone far enough. At any rate the document went speedily back to the general office with the following endorsement: "Box of Post-holes, as per enclosed, held at this station for local charges to amount of $2 50. Will be forwarded on receipt of same." Under this endorsement was written: "N. B.-The price of beer at this station is $2 50 per keg." It is said that the charges went forward.