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----- {{myantp235.png}} || The Hired Girls ||


the picket fence. Antonia was standing there,
angry and excited. Young Harry Paine, who
was to marry his employer's daughter on Mon-
day, had come to the tent with a crowd of
friends and danced all evening. Afterward, he
begged Antonia to let him walk home with
her. She said she supposed he was a nice
young man, as he was one of Miss Frances's
friends, and she didn't mind. On the back
porch he tried to kiss her, and when she pro-
tested, -- because he was going to be married
on Monday, -- he caught her and kissed her
until she got one hand free and slapped him.

Mr. Harling put his beer bottles down on
the table. "This is what I've been expecting,
Antonia. You've been going with girls who
have a reputation for being free and easy, and
now you've got the same reputation. I won't
have this and that fellow tramping about my
back yard all the time. This is the end of it,
tonight. It stops, short. You can quit going
to these dances, or you can hunt another
place. Think it over."

The next morning when Mrs. Harling and
Frances tried to reason with Antonia, they
found her agitated but determined. "Stop go-
ing to the tent?" she panted. "I wouldn't


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