Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-15

DeAA AS "S VIZ AAAlGu NAJ olduOEu tO come back t teach this winter. She ain't only the smartest an best egicated girl in Ka BCo, but she's like wise the purtiest. You'll miss it if you don't git your tongue limbered up purity quick, and tell her something be- sides: 'Waal now, I'll tell yer"
 Sabbath evening Clodine took her old time seat in the choir. The thrill which shot through the bachelor miller as his keen eyes noted the little changes ac- quired during her scholastic absence rendered him absolutely oblivious to the sermon.
 At the close of the sermon Clodine stood up and sang as he had never heard bird or woman sing before-sang as he fancied the angels must have sung the glad tidings of peace over the Bethle- hem hills! The sweet, simple strains of the sacred solo caught up his soul in an ecstacy of emotion which made the pulpit lights seem but an indistinct blur and the whole service a waking dream.
 Clodine paused to shake hands with the preacher, while the face of the Widow Book was lit with a salt-risinp smile of scorn.
 Barnabas fingered along with the old folks around the great box stove in the rear as Clodine came down the aisle, stopping here and there to shake hands with old friends.
 As he was grapphng after words in which to task her home," voice at his elbow startled him:
 "Why, how do you do, MT. Hutch ins?" she said. 'I am glad to see you again, and looking so we'll, too. hope you enjoyed the services"
 She had taken him by surprise. En. joyed the services? He was ravished by her singing and struggled to express the fact.
 "Wa'al-ah, ye see,-ah-:yes-yesP he stammered, in final desperation. ''I'n tell ye-ye know--ah-" Another ac- quaintance pressed forward to speak with her, and he stood still and hope lessly saw her drift away from him and finally vanish out of the open door.
 He sauntered or rather sneaked out ot the church and to the mill, entered the dusty ''office," lit the candle, sat down on the stool, and, leaning on his elbows on the high desk with his chin on his hands, gave himself up to remorseful meditations, cursing his hesitating stu pidity. The longer he meditated the more did the sweet image of Clodine haunt him. He resolved to school him. self to swiftness of speech and bold ness of statement to the end of declar- ing his love.
 Thereafter he occasionally made out to see her home, but as often saw her borne off on the arm of a rival. And even when he found himself the fa- vored one he still struggled helplessly and foolishly in the meshes of his fatal repetitions. The tolls which he neglected to deduct from grists during this period of his abstraction W ere not small.
 As to Clodine, she seemed to be al ways in the best of spirits. Certainly the school had never been blessed with such a teacher before. She quietly intro. duced several innovations which served to tighten the drudgery of that rule of three. Among these was the teaching of drawing and singing. In both she found apt pupils, but in drawing the Widow Boch's eldest son developed re- markable talent and was soon ablc to caricature his teacher and mates with ridiculous cleverness.
 Clodine took much interest in his drawing and often remained after hours at her desk to give him special instruction. As the winter wore on into February the Ka Bob store sud. denly famed out in gorgeous collec- tion of valentines, ranging in style from the ludicrous penny caricatures to dainty bits of sentiment framed in elaborately- embossed and decorated paper. The cheap prints caught the artistic eye of the embryo cartoonist and he studied them eagerly, but not more carefully than he did the miller's countenance. The valentine idea had evidently seized upon his fancy with great vividness. There was but one thing lacking to complete his prepara. ton for a large celebration of the day. By strange freak of fortune that one lack was supplied at the eleventh hour. It was after school and he had come to his teachers desk for his customary special hints upon drawing. He hap pened to espy an envelope addressed in her hand to ''Mr. Barnabas Hutchins." |" Some little time after the widows eldest had departed from the school room his teacher attempted to find the envelope which she thought she had addressed for the purpose of inclosing a leap-year invitation to MT. Hutchins to accompany her in a sleighing party. Not finding it, she addressed another and dropped it into the post office. Valentine morning, as Barnabas , Hutchins sauntered up to the post office, after the stage had come in, he was deep in throes of despair. It had | now been several months since Clodine's return, and he had not only ''seen her home" from church on sundry occa- sions, but had called upon her no less than thrice with the distinct determina- ticn to declare his love in the most di- rect and contentious words of which the English language was capable. But on every one of these blissful interviews language had evaded him like the tra- ditional flea, and when his eyes looked upon Clodine and his mind contem- plated the proposal his tongue, so long estranged from all form of definite