Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-05-18
BUTTONS.

don't even know his name. ! cant I'M
agine why you girls are always teasing
me about him" And Mary petulantly
went ON with her work Of rcarranging
the disordered showcase and with femi-
nine tact displaying the newest goods In
the most conspicuous places.
But, despite her disclaimer, pretty
Mary was thinking more about But
tons" than she was willing to confess.
In fancy she could see his broad shOul-
dcrs and the half baslful, half conscious
smile on his face as he appeared before
her counter on the previous week. lie
certainly was strong young man. She
could tell that by his brown. muscular
hand. And besides there was such an
honest look in his eyes. She recalled his
hesitation, too. when he asked for the
buttons, from which the girls had nick
named him. and Mary argued from his
ingenuousncss and his respectful manner
that he must be entirely different from
the young men whom she encountered
on her way home nt night and whose
bold glances Of admiration always made
her blush.
A hundred times a day Mary found
herself looking down the long store
toward the door. expecting and even
hoping. although she did not confess the
hope TO herself--that lie would come
and to tell the truth, he had bought
enough buttons to keep him in those use
ful articles for five years. What he could
want with SO many buttons was more
than Mary could divine.
In anticipation of his coming Mary ar
ranged and rearranged the buttons in
the case. There was an almost endless
variety of buttons. China shirt buttons,
bone coat buttons, wooden buttons COW
cred with cloth; glass buttons, iris tinted,
rejecting the gaslight in cleaning rays.
But not one of these shone SO brightly as
the eyes which had met hers over the
had been hidden by the long lashes which
dropped over them.
The chances of his coming back seemed
very small indeed to Mary when she re-
membered that he had bought two cards
of shirt buttons and enough trousers
buttons to start a small store.
II wonder If he is going to sew them
on himselff said Mary to herself, a
smile indcnting two dimples In her
| cheeks. "lf he does. he will have but
! tons all over him.
In fancy Mary could see him sitting in
| his shirt sleeves with q slender needle
between his clumsy thumb and foreiin-
ger, trying to fasten button on his
shirt. She could see 1t all. The com
| pressed lip, the slip Of the needle as 1t
stole under his thumb nail, the muttered
imprecatiou; and she laughed at her
| thoughts in such a merry way that the
floor walker cens,red her, and she re-
suined her work with aconscious blush.
But the memory OF Buttons" gradu-
ally faded from Mary's mind as the
weeks went by He did not put in an
appearance again, and as the girls
stopped their chatting there was nothing
left for the interest to feed upon. Then
great many of the girls were interested.
Their sympathetic hearts were attracted
by the golden hopes of a possible era
when all want, all misery, all poverty
would be done away by the new theories
which were SO rife in this city. What
comforts, new dresses. unlimited ice
cream and peanuts were contained in
those magic words ''anti-poyerty"
And so, urged on by her desire to help
the community at large, and perhaps
hoping just a little that she was going to
he benefited personally by the movement,
Mary entered into the fair with all the
zeal of n 2calot.
She was assigned to take charge of a
stand containing articles Of vertu and
bric-a- brac, and in addition to these was
an assortment of sleeve buttons, a most
beautiful array, made of gold. pearl,
onyx, and some inlaid with precious
stones.
Every night after the store closed
Mary FASTENED, sometimes very tired and
footSore from standing all day. to Madi.
son Square garden. There were prettier
girls than Mary behind some of the
counters, but none with a more demure
and winning manner, none with more
sunshiny smile or brighter eyes, and SC
the table over which she presided had nc
lack of customers.
One night when the band was playing
and the bunting shining in the gaslighi
Mary looked up and found buttons
confronting her. AS their eyes met Inc
stammcred:
"Oh, excuse me, miss ! didn't know
1t was you, | just called around to sec
| if--if'----
"lf whatg' said Mary. kindly. anxious
to relieve his embarrassment.
The young man fingered his cane un
easily and carefully averted his gaze
from Mary. for he could feel that she an
tcipated his want Then he mustered
up courage and blurted out:
"lf you had any buttonsr
Before she could reply he added has
thy:
"The fact is that those shirt buttons
bought of YOU down at the store hat
such small eyes that ! could not get TIN
thread through them. 1t may he tina
the thread was too coarse. But, con
found it all" he continued, his embar
rassInent melting away before her as
suring and synipathetio smile, "iv'
had To pin my shirt collar together eve
since came to the city. Besides that
you can imagine what a job it is for mi
to pin one of these stiiily starched col
lars around my neck"
but | thought gentlemen were in tn
habit of wearing collar buttons" saiC
Mary, with reassuring glance.
"SV they do here in the city. But wheI
I left OtseGo county my mother made IN,
half a dozen new shirts in the old fash
ioncd way, and perhaps l-l-T-
Here he coored up again, and Mary
came To the rescue with:
"Of course, you like 10 wear the shirts
because your mother made them. II
tell you how you can fix it. Bring tn,
shirts down To the store tomorrow anC
I'll get poor woman to fix button hole'
in the shirt 50 that you can use collal
buttons"
He stammercd out his thanks and
bewildcred by the glamour of the brigh
eyes which bcamed SO kindly upon him
he bought 50 red velvet album, fo
which he had no use and which sug
gested each time he looked at it as it Ia,
in his bedroom tho dainty hands whicl
had wrapped it SO deftly in the pape
parcel, the string and the paper of whicl
he had hidden away in his yalse.
Mary was not aware of il, but tina
night when she boarded a Madison ave
nue. car to go home, tail, swarth,
young man, with bundle under hi