The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-01-06
JOHN BooNE's HEART.

uOeS make you ike him
~ don't know" said little Rose Frazier,
| sitting with her chin in her two soft palms,
| and gazing drcamily into the fire. ..
He's more disagreeable than any man
ever knew. Is always saying such un-
comfortable things. | don't wonder that
everybody shuns him." .sIl.
81 don't shun him"
"1oul No; you are just like kitten,
purring around everybody. Your liking
him Is proof that you can like any body"
mo 1t isn't, josie" said Rose, suddenly
looking up into her cousins face. ~ do
not like every body, but / do like John
Boone. He isn't bad, or course, or vulgar
man. There is something wrong about
him, | know. He seems TO like to say sharp
things that make people feel uncomfortable.
| am always afraid of getting enthusiastic
over anything before him, for fear he'll
make cut at me. He sneers at everything
that's bright and innocent and happy; but
Josie, ! sometimes wonder how he feels in
his heart; lie wasn't always such a fobd-
ding taciturn man. Once he was a little
boy, you know, and he must have liked to
run and play In the sunshine, like other
children. can not help believing that some
time in his life something has gone wrong
with him and made him bitter and cynical
something that he can not get over.
quite believe it Joise.' .H,
Rose sat at the door of the paror. Some
one going along the entry said, "Thank
YOU"
Rose started and turned, but the hall
door changed, and the hall was empty.
"Who was that, Josie?"
~ don't know didn't see" said Josie,
who hadn't heard, either.
The latter, seated at the piano, went on
with her practising, while Rose, little
disturbed by the last words she had heard,
turned to the fire again. She was very
thoughtful; the glow burned one delicate
check TO a bright damask. but she did not
mind. She was wondering how it must
seem TO live when a person had an inclina-
tion to sneer down everything bright and
innocently fair. Why there could not be
any joy for them anywhere! What ifthey
proved that getting delighted with pretty
| things or nice people was silly, where was
the satisfaction in proving itP What was
left but to get along in stOlid cherries
way. and never feel happyY One couldn't
be happy If there wasn't any pretty
things, nice people or sunshine, could
theyY
BY and by ii grew so dark that Josie
couldn't see the notes of her music, so she
stopped playing and looked around. Rose
still sat upon the ottoman, but she had
dropped her head upon velvet chair seat,
and had fallen asleep.
81 don't WONDER" sighed Josie, thinking
of her three hours practice 81 wish could
go TO sleep when practising time comes"
1t was an early April day. There was n
soft rain falling outside; inside, the room
seemed warm and close to Josie. She opened
the window little, and then left the room
and shut the door.
Suddenly the red Goals cracked sharply,
and spark flew out upon the hearth rug.
If Rose had been awake, she would Instantly
have put her foot upon il; but, as she was
not, the scent of burning wool arose in the
room, and soon n smouldering fire ran
along the rich carpet. IL swept around n
chair, and rushed up against the folding
doors, which were of wood, one soon began
TO crackle and roar. The smoke pufied and
wreathed, and Roses sleep changed to a
heavy stupor. She lay insensible i'm the
burning room, saved from entire siffoca-
tion by the sweep of rainy air from the
window. .-...
IL has grown quite dark. Ii was strange
that people from the outside did not see the
fire, for the room was full OF lurid light.
The red flames and black smoke crept,
writhing, up the fair walls TO the rich pic
lures, and the light lace window drapery
dropped down In burning fragments The
scent and smoke were sitting in and the
midst of the scene lay the unconscious girl,
as yet unharIncd, though the flames darted
around her now and then snatching at her
sOiL ufapeTy ana flanSlnRs.
Suddenly there was q shout Of fire, and
simultaneous a crash. The folding doors
fell in, and through them came the inmate
of the next room, John Boone. The flames
and smoke met him like a wall, but he
sprang forward and snatched Rose up with
a passionate exclamation.
To his very arms the flames leaped upon
her, crisping her eurls, sweeping their black
lines across her unconscious face and
fpb N gr L..
with set teeth, his own flesh burning, both
their clothing on fire, as he fought his way
back TO his room. ..l
The fire pursued him and clung TO him.
In this emergency he refrained from OPEN
ing the hall doors his presence ofmind was
not In the least impaired. Flinging heavy
shawl around Rose, he wrapped her in n. |
extlnguished the fire, tore of his own smok- |
ing coat, took up Rose again, and went out |
upon the piazza, shutting the window after |
him, though the alarm had spread, and en- |
gines and accompanying crowds, were
Hooking about the building.
The outsiders saw and shouted mt him. |
A ladder was put up against the piazza,
and he came down, but just as a fireman
took Rose, u sudden dizziness and prOstra- |
tion overcame him, and he tainted.
Il was nearly two months before he saw
Rose again. Both were considerably |
burned outwardly, and injured by inhaling |
the hot, dense atmosphere. But, at the end /
of May, Boone one day rode out 10 Jamaica
Plain, where Rose was 10 spend the sum
mer. IL was a very strange thing for him
10 do; he was not given TO calling upon
young ladies.
Rose was in little garden, which was
full OF late lilies and early roses, fresh,
place, ringing with the songs oil
birds. She was training the rose vines. her
hat hanging from her neck by its strings