The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-08-02
rJohnssa Efxst..partV

There was = fire. on the broad hearth.
and that, withAhe tallow candles on the
mantle-piece, made quite an'illumination
insthe room, and enabled the boys, who.
were mostly on one side of thereon to see
the girls, who were: ON the other quite
'plainly.:' How sweet and {leinure 1.-THE
girls looked, to be sure!, Every boy was
thinking if his hair was slick, and feeling
the full barrassment of his: entrance
into fashionable life. lit was Queer that
these children, who were So free every
where, else, should be, SO constrained now,
and not know what to; do, with them
selves. The shooting Of, =: spark out
upon the carpet was a great relief, and
was accompanied by q deal Of scramb-
ling to throw 1T back; into the fire. and
caused much y.giggling. It.lslwas~ only
gradually that the formality: was at all
broken, and the young people got togeth-
er and found their tongues. -;
T. John at length found himself with
Cynthia Rudd, to his great delight and
considerable embarrassment, for Cynthia,
who was older than John, never looked
SO pretty. To his surprise lie had moth
ing to say to her. They had always
found plenty to talk about before, but
now. nothing that he could think of
seemed worth saying at party. ..
ut lisa pleasant evening" said John.
sit is quite 50" replied Cynthia.
did You come in a cuttcr?' asked
John, anxiously.'o. .;:T 81" -
mo; 1 walked on the. crust, and it was
perfectly lovely walking" said Cynthia,
in burst Of confidence:
Twas it Slippery" continued John.
"Not very" i
John hoped it would lie slippcry,-vcry
when he walked homo with Cynthia,
as he determined to do, hut he did not
dare to say So and the conversation ran
aground again. John thought about his
dog and his sled, and his yoke of steers,
but he didn't see any way to bring them
into conversation. Had she read the
"Swiss Family Robinson?'' Only a little
ways. John said it was splendid, and he
would lend it to her, for which she thank
ed him, and said, with such sweet ex-
preston, she would be so glad to have it
from him. That was encouraging.
And then John asked Cynthia if she
had seen Sally Hawkes. since the husking
at their house, when Sally found so many
red ears; and didn't she think she was a
real pretty girl.
eyes, she was right pretty;" aud Gym
thia guessed that Sally knew it pretty
we'll. But did John like the color Of her
eyes!
No; John didn't like the color of her
eyes exactly.
''Her mouth would be we'll enough if
she didn't laugh so much and show her
teeth"
John said her mouth was her worst fea-
ture.
!"Oh no." said Cynthia warmly; cher
mouth is better than her nose."
John didn't know but it was better
than her nose, and he should like her
looks better if her hair wasn't so dread
full black.
But Cynthia, who could afford to he
generous now, said she liked black hair,
and she wished hers was dark. Where
upon John protested that he liked light
hair-auburn hair-of all things. And
Cynthia said that Sally was dear, good,
good girl, and she didn't believe one
word of the story that she only really
found one car, at the, husking that night
and hid that, and kept pulling it out as if
it were new one.
And so the conversation, once started,
went on as briskly as could be about the
paring-bce and the spelling school, and
the new singing master who was coming,
and how Jack Thompson had gone to
Northampton to be clerk in d store, and
how Elvira Reddington, in the geogra ply
class at school, was asked what was the
capital OF Massachusetts, and had ans
wcred northampton and all the school
laughed: John enjoyed the conversation
amazingly, and he half wished that he
and Cynthia were the whole of the party.