Wichita eagle., 1889-03-13
The authta Daily gayle aaednsdag aorine arth Is
looked better The light in Bisseps window

looked better. The light in Bisseps wIndoyg
cast his long shadow on the white ground.
1t wavered there, shrinking and lingering
then 1t pushed on and up to the door.
1t was not the custom in Fence Corners
to rap; 1t would have been looked upon as a
useless formality. He stepped into Bissel's
large, scantily furnished, rag-carpeted best
| room.
He gasped as he stood there. He had
vaguely hoped for little reprleve, but she
sat there by the lamp, alone, bending
over some work. She rose at his entrance,
and came forward a little to offer her hand
but he did not see 1t, and she dropped ii
back in awkward haste.
| won't you take a chair!" she said
She brought one forward. Thornton sat
down. He dropped his hat as he did 80, and
| picked it up with red face. Then he sat
still He would have tried to speak, but he
knew he could not; his tongue felt thick
! and i'm movable.
"lts showing, amt it, said the school
teacher; she bore the marks of dIffidence
herself in her timorous voice and look
Thorton nodded; it was all he could do.
| He stared at her f1xedly, almost vacuously.
His mind wandered back and strove to
anchor itself to something. Once he had
| spent an evening at Bissers, on the occasion
OF a sociable, and taken her hand in one of
| the games; once he h ad overtaken her. in a
wagon, on her way to school and gwen her
a lift. That was ali He thought it might
have b~en less hard for him if there had
bean something more, but that was all his
morbid self-distrustfulness had allowed
him.
The ticking of clock on a corner-stand
filled the silence. 1t was round, nickel
clock, and it licked so loudly as to force
| itself upon them.
"That's my school -cIock," said the teach
er. 81 am all ready for tomorrow. There
are my books over there with it and the
register
The school director dropped his miserable
eyes to the faded stripe in the carpet at his
feet, but he did not see it; his hat shook
with the trembling of his hands.
"Tve ben thinking how many I'll have,
likely" the school-teacher went on. His
misery impaired. itself to her in a degree of
nervousness, and she let her work drop 81
had twenty five this summer; there's al
ways more winters, amt thereW
He managed TO say yes. His eyes were
wandering about the room now, his lips
parted as if for air. He saw new pane in
the window, clumsiy puttied-a camphor
bottle left on the melode OLA break in the
cane seat of a chair-a small tub filed with
white asters still in bloom. He continued
looking at hese.
They're real late, amt they?" said the
girl. They're mine. / potted 'em myself
and guess they'll last best part of the wiz
ter; I've heard they will, took care of. Do
you want ones'
She put down her work and went aud
oir I'D Oh,
took her scissors and went back to them.
MAY be your mother'd like a few; she
hain't got 'em, has she?'' she said.
She made a bunch and tied it with her
black thread Thornton watched her; a
slight girl in q cheap and well-worn dress,
her dark hair in a girlish braid, and her
eyes mild. This she was, but who shall tell
what he was? His agony rose, eliminated
as she turned to him; he clutched his hat
till its stiff brim cracked She was coming
toward him with the flowers.
There, may be she'd like few she re-
peated, fain t-heartediy; but he did not hear
her. He felt his face afiame like fire, and
choking in his throat. He struggled to
speak, and did make an inarticulate sound,
at which she looked at him in wonder.
He looked up at her pitifully-and then fell
stumblingly on his knees at her feet and
buried his face in her SKIRT, and cropping
for her hands, pulled them down till they
pressed his throbbing head and rested
there, her happy, wondering tears falling
upon them.
Il
Bashful?" said Dave Kinney to Hanks,
the store-keeper. "Fd like to know what's
your idee o. bashfulness. Wy, jim Thorn
ton walked out o. this store that night and
up to Bissefs straight as a string, and told
that school-teacher that, OWN to circum-
stances that he didn't have no control over,
she couldn't have the school TINS winter, ner
likely there couldn't nobody else neither,
but if it'd be .ny consideration to her, she
could have HIM; told her that right up and
down, and didn't MAKE no bones of ii. If
Jim Thornton's bash.ful, wy, the Teller that
amt IS what I'd Ike to see. Emma A
Opper, in Leslie's Newspaper.