The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-06-25

eS W 0clldtt ueCeltly lOf Tic lutuIc.
What shall he buy?
He finds himself near a large toy
shop at the time, and in the window
are displayed severa! regiments of
brightly colored tin warriors-the
very thing Lionel is still young
enough to delight in Them.
Feeling in his pockets, Rolleston
discovered more lose silver than he
had thought he possessed, and so he
goes into the shop and asks for one
of the boxes of soldiers. He is ssrv-
ed by one of the two neatly dressed
female assistants, who stare and gig
gle at one another at his first words,
finding it odd, perhaps, that fellow
of his age should buy toys-as if, he
thinks Indignantly, they couldn't
see that it was not for himself he
wanted the things.
But he goes on, feeling happier
after his purchase. They will see
now that he is not so bad after all !;
it is long since he has felt such
craving to be thought well of by
somebody.
A little further on he comes to a
row of people, mostly women and
tradesmen's boys, standing on the
curb-stone opposite a man who is
seated in a little wooden box on
wheels drawn up close to the pave
ment. He is paralytic and blind,
with pinched, white face framed
in an old fashioned fur cap with big
ear lappets /; he seems to be preach
ing or reading, and Rolleston stops
idly enough to listen for few mo-
ments, the women making room for
him with alacrity and the boys star
ing curiously round at the new ar
rival with a grin.
He hardly pays much attention
to this he is listening to the poem
which the man in the box is reciting
with a nasal and metallic shuttle in
his voice
There's harp and crown,
For you and for me,
Hanging on the boughs
OF that Christmas tree ~
He hears, and then hurries on
again, repeating the stanza mechan-
ically to himself, without seeing any
thing particularly ludicrous about
it. The words have reminded him
of that Christmas party at the Cor
don's, next door. Did not Ethel
Gordon ask him particularly to
come, and did he not refuse her sui
lenly? What brute he was to
treat her like that! If she were to
ask him again, he thinks he would
not say no, though he does hate par
ties.
Ethel is a dear girl, and never
seems to think him good for moth
ing, as most people do. Perhaps it
is all sham, though-no, ne can't
think that when he remembers how
patiently and kindly she has borne
with his senseless fits of temper and !
tried to laugh away his gloom.
Not every girl as pretty as Ethel
is would care to notice him, and per-
sist in it in spite of everything yet |
he has sulked with her of late. Was
it because she had been kind to Lii
onel? He is ashamed to think that
this may have been the reason.
Never mind, that is all over now
he will start clear with everybody.
He will ask Ethel, too, to forgive
him. Is there nothing he can do to
please her 2? Yes F.; some time ago she
had asked him to draw something
for her. (He detests drawing les
sons, but he has rather taste for
drawing things out of his own head
He had told her, not too civilly, that
he had work enough without doing
for girls. He will paint
her something tonight as surprise
he will begin as soon as tea is clear
ed away it will be more sociable
then reading book.
And then already he sees vision
of the warm little paneled room, and
himself getting out his color box and
sitting down to paint by lamp-light
for any light does for his kind of
coloring-while his mother sits op-
posite and Lionel watches the pict-
ure growing under his hand.
What shall he draw? He gets
quite absorbed in thinking over
this; his own tastes run in a CORY
but perhaps Ethel, being
a girl, may not care for battles or
desperate duels. A compromise
strikes him; he will draw pirate
ship: that will be tirst-rate. with the
black flag flying on the mainmast
and the pirate captain on the poop
securing the ocean with big glass
in search of mere hantmen all
about the deck and rigging he can
put the crew, with red caps and
belts stuck full of pistols and dag
gers.
And on the right there shall be a
bit of the pirate island, with a mast
and another black flag-he knows he
will enjoy picking out the skull and
cross bones in thick Chinese white
and then, if there is room, he will
add cannon, and perhaps palm
tree. A pirate island always has