The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 10, 1903, Page 1

s leaving the room and thanked you got to ded, looking at the floor moodlily. W he asked, surprised t sce w you want to make fun | beg your pardon, Cynthia,” he sa‘d, gravel “1 didn't mean to do that. I n't been considerate. 1 didn’t think 1" be- displeased. I'm very sorry. t you pin it on my coat?” d in grateful pleasure rose to his lapel Her h large and red and trem- bed. § i the flower, and saying kily, *I don't know as 1 could do it ht,” seized violently upon a plle of dishes and hurried from the room Harkiess rescued the rose, pinned it on his coat himself, and observing intern: y for the bundredth time that thé red haired waitress was the queerest cremlure in the village, sét. forth gayly. upon«is holiday When he reached the brick house on tie pike he discovered a gentleman sunk in an casy and contemplative attitude m a big chair behind the veranda railing. A the click of t e the lounger rose and disclosed the stalwart figure and brown, smiling, handsome face of Lige Willetts, an habitual devotee of Minnie Briscoe and the most elig bachelor - of Carlow. “The ladies will be down right off,” he said, greeting the editor’s finery with a perceptible agitation and the editor him- self with a friendly shake of ‘the hand. FROM THIS BOY S LA D 1T O ~——— -~ o F “Mildy says to wait out here.” I iMDivwate., wavet was 4 faing rst- ling ‘within the house; the swish.of dra peries on the stuirs, a delicious ing when light feet descend. tapping. hearts that beat an -answer, shic We wome! We com are near!” Lige Wi lotts stared s. He had never thought the latter good-looking until he saw him step to the door to take Miss Sherwood’s hand and say in a strarge, low, tense votce, “Good-morning,”. as If he were announcing at the least, uvery ane in the 1d except, us two died last night. Tt is a solemn thing, but T am very. Lappy They, walked, Minnie and Mr. Willetts a little distance in front of the others. Harkless_could not have told afterward whiether they fode or walked or floated on a~-alrship to the courthouse. All he knew distinetly was that a divinity in a pink shirt waist and a hat that was woven of guuzy cloudsby mocking fairies to mike him toop lildeously to see under it, dwelt for the time on earth and was at his side, dazzling him fo the morping sun- shine. Last night the"mbon had lent her a silvery glamour; she had something of the ethereal whiteness of nightdews in that watery light, a nymph to laugh from a sparkling fountain at the®moon, or, as he thought, remembering her courtesy for his pretty speech, perhaps a little lady of . = — King Louis' court, wandering down the vears from Fontainebleau and appearing to clumsy mortuls sometimes of a Juaa night when the moon was in their heads. But to-day she was of the clearest col- o1, a pretty girl, whose gray eyes twink- led to ‘his in gay companionship. He marked how the sunshine was spun mto the fair shadows of her hair and seemed If to catoh a luster, rather than io art it, nd the light of the June day drifted thrdugh the gauzy hat, touching her face with a delicate and tender fush that came and went like the vibrating pink of early dawn. She had the divinest straight nose, tip-tilted the faintest, most alluring trifle, and a dimple cleft her chin, “the deadliest maeistrom in the world.” He thrilled through and through. He had been only vaguely consclous of the dimple in the night. It was not until he saw her by daylight that he realiy knew it ‘was there. 3 The village hummed with life before them. - They walked through shimmering airs, sweeter to breathe than nectar is to drink. ‘She caught a butterfly basking on a jimson weed, and before she let it go held*it out t6 him in her hand. Tt was a white butterfly. He asked her which was the butterfly. “Bfavo!” she sald, tossing the. captive craft above their heads and watching the small salls catch the breeze. “And so you can make little flatteries in the morning, Tt is another courtesy you should be gan to fasten the pink rose {n place of the having from ma if it weren't for the dust- come to the She did not ask him, directly or indirectly.' who had put the white omne there for him. becauyse she it was phned that he 13 it that ev'ry board walk. her knew by the way had doné it himse1f. “] know very well a lad morning brings me thesd lovely’ flow'rs?"” ‘ot a pretty She burlesqued;-as hie Berit ove? her. some 'big pink he answered, indicating these, that would be blithe to a token of any lady’'s high esteem.” a very Doint him oug to you i1 and, also, Mr." Bodeffer, the oldest inhab- —and crossest.” £ Will you present them to’fne?” ““No; they might talk” to you and take some of my ffne with you away from e «parkled into hfs for the of a second, lagghed half ‘giockingly. Then she drop- ped his lapel, and they progeaded. did not put'the white You must see him, up-and-down glance from head to foot, half-quizzical, but And then he was glad he had with the youthful and all his other festal vestures. “And a very becomging flower a white * she continued, “though Itam a bold girl to be blarneying with af young gentleman I met no. longer ago than last cartied. it. The square was found the straw hat Be¥ belt, but heaving with a jostling, “But why shouldn’t you blarneyswith'a:-goodnntured, happy and gonstantly in. gentleman when you began by saving his ' creasing crowd that overflowed on Main street in both directions: and the good the gentleman had nature of this crowd was augmented in to gallop-gbout the county ~the ratid that with me tucked under his arm?” stood_ still and “Or, rather, when the politene: its size increased. She streets were a confusion of, many colors, and eager faces-filled every window dpen- ing on Main street or the square. She*had taken one of the 9 o'clock all those of the courthouse had he stood, been occupied;and here most of the dam. laughed. saftly, but.con- summately. and her eves closed tight with the mirth of it. roses from her waist, and, holding it by the long stem, {ts petals lightly pressed her lips. “You may have it—in exchange she 'gallantly posting themselves at the dark, T and earty f s inamorata, and, after a ing and propounding half of it, again retired into hin smit with a biisstul them conversed ndicated that t m ach other by palsy. Nearly all al the sidewalk be- oknd way through daubed cherub on cat (borpe with long other: followed by a sther children hangin azzing exaspsrating!V nd blue toy halloons of spiral-steiped losed, sadly sticky ousand cries rent the air; the g mouritebanks and gypsying the peanut vendors; the boys with palm-leaf fans for sale: the candy sellers: ‘the popcorn peddlers; tha Ttaltan with the’toy balloons that float like a cluster of colored bubbles above the heads of ‘the crowd, and the balloons that wail like a baby: the red-lemonade man, shouting in the shrfll . volce that reaches everywhere and endures forever “Lemo! Temo! Ice-cole lemo! Five cents, a nickel, a half-a-dime, the twen- tiethpotof lah! Lemo! Tce-cole lemo! terating harbingers of their wares. Timid dim corr and stands? ane e ped the erfmson Ev- erywhere the hawk dinft B S ere was heard the e squawk of the toy balloon. But r all rose nasal cadence of the Cheap John, re tory from his big wagon on the cormer: “Walk un, walk vp. walk up. es and gents! Here we are! Here weé are! Make hay gather the moss. Wa Here T put this solid up, -one a and golden. eighteen car eighteen golden. catais of the priceless pather of metals. tofled fer Pacific slope. eighteen garnt ring. Tich ar the hangkac ruled note pape and. penholder. W takes ft. Jadies and Hig tangve curled out his words: he seemed to love t Fer a quat-of-a- doliah! Don't turn away, voung man vou feller in the on necktie, there. Wa al see 1-langris package. wummin’ on vour arm is olden ring and the ever won falr and you'll Go—and be happy! Now, ) to git solid with his ter. doliah? Life is a mysterus. a inviolable. shadder, my friends: who k rgéries? To- day we are w we may he fn jail. Only a t-a-dollah! We are Seventh-Day Adventists, ladies and gents, a~givin’ away our belongings in the awful face of Michael, fer a qua a- each-an nt. mas dollah. The same priceé ery ‘individual, lady and T (with some ) what ated might game winked upon t its vision: it an itch to dat ted) a growir was so dive two operats g the luck ville people too It was won f worked their way arm- thickest crowds, never separaung. Ev at the lemonade stands they drank hold- ing the glasses in their outer hands—such rifiges ‘demanded by etiquette. But, observix e graclous outpouring of fortune upon the rustic with the rare ac- cent. a youth in a green tie disengaged his arm—for the first time in two héurs— from that of a girl upen whoss finger there shone a ring, sumptious and golden, and. conducting her to a corner of the yard, bade her remain there uptil he re- turned. He had to speak to Hartley Bowl- der, he explained. nged. red-faced an excited, e about the shell manipu- lators. and offered to lay a wager. “Hol' on there, Hen Fentris,” thickly objedted a flushed young man beside him, “iss my turn. “I'm first, Hartley,” returned the other. “You can hold iyer hosses & nmul-.ll the game. are the reckon.” “Plenty fer each and all, chents.,” terrupted one of the shell-men. “Place wer spondulicks on de little ball. W'ich is de next. lucky one to win our money? Chent bets folir siXty-five he séen de lt- tle ball go unfler de middle.shell. Up she comes! Dis Jme we wins; Plattville con win evepy tfime. Who's de mext’ chent?" Fentriss, edged slowly out of ‘the circle, abashed, and - with ~rapidly whitening .chegks. Hs paused for & modent, out- side; slowly realizing that all his money had ‘gone In one wild, bilnd whirl—the money he had earned so hard and saved so hard, t¢' make a heliday for his sweet- heart and® himself. He, stole one glance around the building to where a patient figure walted for him. Then he fled down sels congregated to enjoy the spectacle & side alley and soom was out upon the of the parade, and thejr swains attendad,, country road, tramping soddenly homs- colgnes . ward through the dust, his chin sunk ia sald. He bent down to her, and she be- of less vantage behind the ladies. Some his breast sad his hands clamcbed Hghd r