Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-11-14

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him calmly as he swept by. He tried tC
throw all his admiration into that on'
Aeeting glance. but doubted if 1t hao
been successful, for she did not look af-
ter him but continued sewing.
It was a week before he could get her
to show the least interest in his progress
by the window. This piqued him, and
he determined to smile at an imaginary
Girl in the window above, and see if he
could not awaken her jealousy. But the
window above was occupied by an old
woman at least sixty years old, and he
accordingly gave up the idea aud threw
the bundle of morning papers to her in
stead. They hit her on the shoulder,
and he could not see what she did, as
they were behind time and going rapidly.
On the next trip she looked up and
bowed ever so slightly and flushed as
slightly. Andy made a deep and
reverent bow which was not finished be-
fore he had reached Eighteenth street
After that it was more or less easy. He
threw all the papers he could collect that
were not too much rumpled, and even
purchased the comic papers for her, at
the Fifty eighth street station. To a
large and choicely selected package OF
these he attached a note, with much fear
and trcpidatiOn, which read;
"Would you do the writer the pleasure
of taking you to the Eden Musee this
EVENING" If so, will be pleased to wait
for YOU at foot of Twenty-third street
station. south side, this evening, half
mast seven. ANDY CLAFIN."
He tossed this in through the window
on his 1890 trip up, and was disap-
pointed at not finding her at the window
on his return downtown, but on his way
IN he saw her there, and as he passed
she threw package back to him, and
he caught it gladly and with numerous
mods and smiles. He had not played
first base on the Harlem Tarriers base
ball nine for nothing.
He tore open the paper covering
anxlously, and found to his dismay that
the package consisted Of the periodicals
for which he had paid $1.15, and that
his note was returned with the words
"No, thank YOU written across it in
pencil. Andy hurled the comic papers
down on the head of an unfortunate and
unofending old lady on the street below,
and banged the gate on another old lady S
skirts because she did not get out quickly
enough.
After that rebuff there were no more
papers tossed in, and Andy turned his
back when he passed the window. He
found this harder for him than for her
after week of it, and continued to look
in at her window; but with such deep
and dreadful scowl that even had the
young girl wished to smile she would
have been scared out of it.
Then Andy found his romance was
causing him great unhappiness. He
took no pleasure in shouting airy per-
siAages at the ticket choppers or in
smiling at the blonde German girl Or
the Jewess, and he became so gentle
and civil that the passengers decided
that he must be ill, and imposed upon
his good nature in consequence. He
thought she did not look very happy
herself, and her profile, which was all he
ever saw of her now, grew somewhat
pinched and sharp. He wondered if she
was pining away for him, or whether
she had another "feller" who was not
treating her well. He felt inclined to
punch this other feller's head. And then
one day, just as the car drew ont Of
Fourteenth street station, he saw man
running to the fire alarm bsx, and look
Ing up the street saw smoke coming out
of a third story in the middle of the
block, her block, And as the train
drew on he saw that it was from her
house that the fire came. She was at
the window as he passed, with dark
background of black smoke sweeping
up behind and around her. She had one
knee on the sill and both hands against
the sides of the window. She was white
with fear, and trembling, and she could
hear the people below shouting to her
not to jump.
"Ho.d on, he called to her; don't
let 20 for Gods sake, wait!"
When the train slowed up at Eight
eenth street he was out of it and down
stairs like madman and through the
crowd about the blazing shop-front as
though they had been so many stalks OF
corn.
He went blindly up the stairs through
the smoke and across the floor that
cracked aud bent under his weight. He
could see her dimly through the curtain
Of smoke that blinded and choked him,
but he reached her just in time, so they
told him afterward, as she fell back
fainting. lie put one arm around her
and felt his way back to the door with
the other, and stumbled down the stairs.
At the bottom the flames rose up IN
front of him suddenly and cut oil the
way, but he jumped from the fifth or sixth
step out and over them and fell into the
aims of two brawny fremen, one Of whom