The Kiss

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Old Man Hathaway was a trapper and lived with his only daughter in the mountains. Pretty Claudine often went forth to visit the traps with him and one day, when no bound, they saw a youth kiss a maiden affectionately. Seeing a chance for an object lesson, the old trapper sagely shook his head, saying, "My child, such kisses are poison. Guard against them." Claudine had a herd of goats which she tends carefully, and one say, sitting one a rock with them scampering about her, she made so pretty a picture that Ralph Walters, a young artist from the city, asked her to pose for him. They arranged an engagement for the following day. He posed her prettily and then, overcome by her beauty, impulsively kissed her upturned, inquiring lips. Claudine fled in shame. From a distance she watched him, debating her father's advice. Then, plucking a handful of poisoned berries, she went again to him. He ate them gladly. In a few moments he fell, deathly sick, across the rock and Claudine ran, badly scared to her father. Together they rescued the sick artist, and took him home. He recovered, and one day, while away with her father, she told him her reason for giving him the poisoned berries. Furious at the insult offered his daughter, the aged trapper hurried back, gave Ralph a gun, and offered him a chance for his life. Overcome by feeling, Claudine stepped in between them and spared Ralph from the deadly hatred of the old man. A few minutes later Ralph was picking his way through the boulders, pondering upon the quaintness of backwoods ways and the ease with which an innocent expression of admiration was transformed into an excuse to kill.