Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-06-10

wax -lady's smile as for the smile of a
friend, and would nod to her cheerful
ly morning and evening, and feel
! quite brisk and lively as he looked out
for customers on the curb-stone, with
one eye always on the hair-dresser's
window.
He felt now that there was some.
body waiting and watching for him.
who was glad to see him come back to
the same spot every day, and liked to
have him standing there, close to the
corner, even though he was so ragged
and poor.
And SO their loves went on smooth.
ly and without interruption for many
months, the wax-lsdy smiling at the
newspaper-boy every time she turned
round with her face to the window.
and the newspaper-boy smiling back
ct the wax-lady, on the best possible
terms with each other
One morning in August the French
hair-dresser went out early to dress
the bridesmaids hair for fashionable
wedding, and left his apprentice to
mind the shop, and wind up the wax
lady.
Now the apprentice-who was
Frenchman, too-thought this good
opportunity 10 imorove his English;
SO he sat down in red velvet chair
with his back to the light and began
to study oThe Art of Conversing in
the English Tongue" forgetting both
to wind up the wax-lady and to let
down the outside blind.
By-and-by, as the morning advance
ed, one client dropped in after another,
and the apprentice was always jump
ing up from his chair, and laying his
book face downwards to click the
scissors over somebody's bead and
give it a roll with the machine brush,
and sprinkle little shower of per-
fume over it, and flick away the loose
hairs with a snowy towel, popping
back to his book again without giving
thought to the poor wax-lady.
The sun rose high in the heavens,
and poured down its fiery rays upon
the plateglass window where stood the
helpless charmer, and it grew so hot
after awhile that if you had put your
finger upon it, would have burnt you'll
And in that fierce heat the wax
lady, whose complexion was very deli
cate, began to perspire, and to melt,
and to lose her fine pink color and the
redness of her lips; and the sweetness
of her smile began SO to vanish, and
the roundness of her cheeks so to dis
appear, that before the apprentice had
got to the end of Conversation the
First" the wax-lady's beauty was
ruined for ever!
When the newspaper-boy came
round as usual at five o'clock, he was
within an ace of letting all his papers
fall into the gutter.
There stood the wax-lady degraded
and transformed, with complexion
like yellow soap staring out OF the
window with. pitful stony stare
which went through his heart like the
keen thrust Of knife, and not even
the ghost Of her former smile on her
shapeless lips.
Poor newspaper -boyl He was as
sorry for his friend, and the loss of
her beautiful pink cheeks, as ever she
could feel herself; and all that even
ing he was as miserable as anybody
could possibly be.
81 shall 60 over the road to-day"
thought the newspaper boy to himself
the next evening, when he came to the
corner, ,'perhaps there won't be- SO
much difference, little way off,"
So he crossed the street to the other
side, and took up his position, where
he could glance between the carriages
at the hair-dressers shop.
And Lotto his great delight from
that distance the wax-lady looked just
as beautl full as ever, and smiled at
him just as kindly as Of old, and was,
in short, just the same as she had been
before her mischance.
And other and more serious lovers
than the newspaper-boy and the wax
lady would sometimes do well to con-
template each other from a little dis
tance. It keeps up the illusion, which
is almost everything in love matters.