Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-10-31
GUYS DISAPPEARANCE.

AS little Miss Bertha Finch came
down the village street to the railroad
station in a high wind, with that dry
brown hat Of hers curling up acutely on
her head, and glimpse disclosed of the
sweet pink face which she carried bent
down against the dust-clouds, you might
naturally have thought of arbutus bios
SONS IN their pale brown leaves. She
was SO small and young. and flower-like
and shy. As [ remembered her, she
seemed to be looking down half the time,
or else it was only that she was so short
as TO make lirect glance into ner eyes
no easy matter; so that when she looked
into ones eyes she had to turn her own
upward.
Yet she could be saucy, too. There
was good deal of independence about
this small slip Of womanhood, in spite of
her shyness, her pathos, and her tiny fig
ure. Bertha" her mother once remark
be, and you can't tell why she takes
her whlms, no more than you can why
cat does thus and so; but when she's
once got notion, she acts it OUT
And she had taken within, this par
ticular day, to go to town by the rail
road that went poking around the coun-
try in tie neighborhood of Glyddon as
informally as plow, running such mild
little trains up and down, that Bertha
felt as if all she had to do was to call out
"Gee-whoa!' 70 the engine, and it would
obey her.
The whim Of taking the cars, however,
freak of few days before. Not to put
the reader in suspense, will state that
she had refused a proposal of marriage
from Guy Alice, a reasonably good and
promising young man, who had been to
the high school with her in earlier DAYS,
and proposed now to graduate from the
position OF bashful lover to that of a
proud husband.
Guy had a position as clerk in the
postoffice and chief store of Glyddon,
while Bertha's father was not very
well-to-do farmer; so that the young
man had the argument of worldly pros
perity on his side. But then he might
lose his position; and somehow, Mr..
Finch, although he lived in a rather
broken-down old house, was always i'm
portant in town affairs. At any rate
Bertha rejected the young man gayly,
yet with a sense of her superiority that
was quite serious.
''What is your reason? Don't you love
me?" asked he in business-like way,
They were standing at the time on lit
tie unfrequented stone bridge, with blue
and white sky reflected in the water be-
low, and birds singing around them in
the young green boughs.
eff I did, do you suppose I'd tell you,"
returned Bertha, with irrepressible mirth.
Il suppose it's because you're proud,
then" Guy inferred. becoming gloomy.
l think am proud of knowing my own
mind, she admitted, (which all girls
don't.''
81 wish you'd tell me the real reason"
the unfortunate lover resumed.
"Well, then,' said Bertha, more ro-
guishly than ever, ''you're too young"
Guy kicked the bridge in his imp pa
thence. I'm month older than you,'
he declared, peremptorily.
81 never should be able to look up to
you" his companion assured.
This was so absurd that Guy laughed
In spite of his state of provocation. He
was nearly six feet tall and she hardly
five, so that taking the proposition LII its
linear or perpendicular instead OF its
spiritual sense, Bertha was egreglously
wrong However, "Then you can look
down to M" he replied. And as they
were both at that moment peering over
the side of the bridge, she adopted his
council literally, for there he was. or ap-