The Tell-Tale Parasol

Hiram Perkins is not a flirt, but that isn't because he's so fond of his stern old wife. On the contrary, he's exceptionally obliging to those of the fair sex who cross his path, and so it is not surprising when he gives Minerva Smith (quite unmarried, if you please) a lift in his one-horse shay as he meets her on the dusty road. And she discretely keeps her fancily-decorated parasol over their heads all the way to the village. Both enter the general store, and it just so happens that the horse considers this his cue to take a walk unguided; and he does. Hiram's chagrin is intense, to say the least, but instead of starting quietly on the scent, he starts a hullabaloo and gets the whole town out searching for his team. Mrs. Cynthia Perkins bears of it, of course, and arrives on the scene just as the strayed quadruped is being walked back by the finder. But Hiram's joy is changed to dismay, and finally panic, as he sees that Miss Minerva Smith's parasol is still lying on the seat! P.S. Mrs. Smith is averse to explanations, and has a fine muscular development.