Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-07

back to Bogus LcathcrwoOd'S supper tablo on that April evening of the ar- rival of tho beautiful bays and their drivers.
 Being at times in tho employ of the landlord, I, too, very often sat down at his bounteous "sccond table" along with tho cooks and tho waiter girls, and moro particularly with "Miss" Leatherwood and her only daughter, Polly Ann.
 Now that tho court and tho itin- crant bar and their foreign clients and other strangers wcro making 9 deafcn- ing chatter with knives, and forks, and plates, and cups, and sawccrs end loud talk-carricd on principally by tho court and bar, and listened to by tho other boarders, I slipped elyly into the large cast room, in which, at such times, Polly Ann is usually brushing up tho floor or combing her black hair down into flnt bands over hcr temples.
 There sho is, indeed, at this time as usual, but not engaged in any of her ordinary occupations. She is looking brighter and gaycr somehow, in her makeup. Thero is bunch of rcd ribbons in her hair that adds an incal- culable amount to her "attractivc- ness," must say mosv. At that day only the word beauty could havo been wrung out of me as applied to her- even by all the known appliances of inquisition.
 "Why didn't you go in to supper along with the rest, Jim?' she says, in way to astonish me, while she sud- denly occupies herself in rearranging the chairs according to some myste- rious formula wholly her own. In my boyish simplicity answer bluntly that 1 am waiting to eat with Buck and the rest of the family. She laughs little, and says: "Yes, of course. forgot" in way to astonish mo more, and to set mo wondering and thinking until feeling akin to resentment is quite prominent, if not paramount, in my breast.
 "Why! haven't ben do-un thata- way all the time?' I ask, with rising inf1exion on the latter part of the sen- tence She walks rapidly past me, brushing my right side with her new white and brown check gingham dress, sending a thrill of something from my crown to my soles. Then she goes swiftly to the door and closes it almost, with quick movement, but at the very last holds it an inch from the casing and peeps through the crack while she seems to be manipu. lating the latch in the act of shutting it completely. Somehow I remember that movement and dwell upon it much altogether too much. Then she comes slowly toward me, smiling and biting bit of something thatsh holds unconsciously in her hand. I see that it is little twig of willow, and won. der where she got it.
 ''Why, yes," she answers, in a very surprised way. ''Of course you have But I thought t--''
 And here she stopped because the door opening admitted the slender, tall and agreeably smiling gentleman al- ready noted for having driven the splendid bays, and cut the ''pigeon- wing' on the door-sill.
 'Hope I ain't intruding," he says, coming forward on his tip toes, and beaming that very frank and winning smile of his. ''I didn't git back in time fur the first table. Iwalked down to the river to rest my legs after the days drive. What purity willow switches! And such lot uv um.'
 His face was toward me, and his black eyes were upon Polly Ann's brown ones. Somehow 1 had had prejudice against him from the moment he had pulled up in the river bottom and asked me the way to Bogus Leath- woods. Now; l suddenly coupled his smiling remark about the willow switch es with the movement of Polly Ann at the door and the willow twig between her white teeth and her red lips, and my prejudice deepened and broadened.
 70, no!' Polly Ann hastens to say, and turning quite away from me to say 1t. ..We're jist waitun h-yur fur the second tahle n T,ho,, ,bo 1ool,a oo