Morning journal and courier., 1894-06-02
TALES OF TEN TRAVELLERS.
CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAax.1

IL cou1o, yee, eno Ru6WoIeOs tuEu- ng her dark eyes upon their companion with tremulousness which hinted of many a hesrt-ach and aspiration behind. ''I don't know how 1t is to be; but surely 1t is to be somehow. Is that fatalism, Neds"
 "Whatever 1t ia, it is absurd. Did you ever realize the years of labor, prepara- tion, expensea"
 "Labor and preparation are nothing" she replied quickly. ''The cost Is every thing. But that will be provided" she concluded, with a simplicity of faith which startled him.
 "I certainly hope it will notl" answered Ned Watson almost pstulantly.
 "Why do you hope that."
 "Because am going to be doctor my self"
 "And what has that to do with my be- ing one, or not?"
 "Well, If I must tell you; I have been thinking would like to be great one and rich one; and every summer of my life come up here and"
 "Visit with. the postmistresses of So- honk just as you are doing nowl"
 Here the two little barefooted women laughed SO loudly, 90 tauntipgly and so merrily that old Peter upon the porch started from his dozs and dropped his pipe upon his pudgy knees.
 "No, Sister, I would like to make you that great doctors wife!"
 Ned Watson was es scared as the elder postmistress of Sohonk, who was yet scarcely sixteen, ct the boldness of his speech. He colored deeply and fidgeted in the old raw-hide- -bottomed chair where he sat, while trying to think just how the brave words had escaped him. Heswon- dered, too, what the strange creature be, fore him would do. Something pretty and coyish, no doubt, he thought. But here he was to be bewildsred again.
 She sprang upon the littls bench among the date stamps behind the TOW of boxes, held one knee in her hands with judicial air, while the toes of her disengaged foot entered upon sort of lonely race back and forth upon the old brick floor. Then Sis clambered up beside her, gathered both of her knees in her arms and looked curiously from one to the other.
 It was the oldest wooing Sohonk had ever known, though it might not be the strangest nor the last.
 'tI have never thought of that;" che at rlast answered, looking far away into the oeiltng above Ned Watson and not at him. "Conldn't doctor have doctor for a wife, Neda"
 "Neverl--no more than lawyer. a nov elist or poet!"
 "Why?'
 "You have read pretty nearly every thing" he said with an impatient gesture of his head toward the hostel psrlor and the books. Didn't you ever run acroas anything of the sort in thema' "My, yes Always quarreling;" inter rupted Sis in 8 matter-of-fact way, ss though the lessons of the books should have been better learned.
 "And we would quarrel like thema'
 She said this without changing her DO sition and more as if thinking aloud than in the nature of a question.
 "No doubt about it!" replied Ned with the air of a sage.
 She sat little longer beside her siste, on the perch. Her eyes were still fast ened upon the ceiling above, and as if upor some point infinitely beyond the hand some, earnest fellow In the old rawhide bottomed chair. Perhaps in those few moments the elder postmistress of So honk became woman, mature in plaI and purpose. If not then, surely so be fore Ned Watson left her side. Her dream or musings were soon inter rupted by the notes of Mat Stuyvesant'i post horn. Sis brought the incoming | pouch from the cart, carried out the out | going bag and with it generous suppl, l of milk to the duety and hungry carrier gagged distributing the daily mail. Mat l thew had scarcely departed on his up-val l ley journey when merry voices were heard in front of the ancient inn.
 ''There's his heell" said one. as thoug1 proof of the presence of 8 culprit hat | been discovered.
 ! "And this is his lsir!" cried another tri
 umphantly. "What little rogues thes
 postmistre sses of Sohork must be, indesd
 to win Ned Watson from the charms of u
 girls over at the Lske!"
 "Wby, he's made love to score of ue
 in turn, over there!" laughed another.
 "He gives promise of speedily attaining
 fine family practice, on graduationl" re
 marked another gaily.
 And then lively party of young wo men from the Lake hotel burst into tn
 Sohonk post office.
 My, but this is an old curio!" shoute,
 one of them enrapturedly, as shs trippe' | from place to place about the ancien
 room. "Gracious! I muat sketch thi
 irstantlya"
 Her companions hustled about her, pro
 vided her with seat, and then, giggling
 criticising, taunting, leased her with sug gestions in her work.
 ''I'Il show this to Ned Watson the mex
 time he makes love to mel" said the artis
 of the party ss she filled in ths outlines 0
 the interior rapidly.
 "Won't that bs jolly, thoughs' gurgles one of her companions. "Gst in thos
 bohbing heads behind the boxes, dol" | Thud! thud! tbudl went the letters ant | papers into their compartments with nor l than usual emphasis and force. | "Oh, and don't miss those sirens feet exclaimed another under her breath | though loud enough to be heard by tn | postmistresses of SohonB.
 "Feeta I should say sol'' chimed in an
 other. "Why, the very curving of tnos
 rufsl toes have character in them! Won der if the anatomy of those toes csugh | Ned9"
 | Then the group laughed that merry
 savage, high-pitched laughter that come
 60 cruelty from wcmens' lips, when the, | know they are etabbing other women wh' | are for the moment beneath them ant | helpless.
 | But the speaker had certainly caught a,
 artistic truth. Twenty bare and pink lit
 tie toes, tense from mute indignation a
 the cruel inquisition, behind the boxe
 were eurving down and inwsrdly upon th old brick floor, like the trembling talon
 of birds as they are startled into precipi
 tate flight. Tears were also falling st | thfckly that there was little lull in thu l humping and thudding of the letters ani ! papers into their respective receptacles. Suddenly the artist gave 8 little scream Her companions crowded about her in | stantly. She pointed under the opsr | counter to where Ned Watson sat crouch ing and undergoing his shars of menta torment, and then asked in voice oi mock tragedy:
 "Girls, do you know the gay cavalier to whom those tan Butchers belonga" "Gracious me!' "My goodnesa!" and | "Mercy on me?" were at first their emoth. cred ejaculations; and then they all loudly chorussd:
 'Ned Watsor!'
 "And Ned Watson is proud to have his tan Butchers in SO innocent and good a picture!" said the young fellow, manfully rising in his place head and shoulders above the row of boxes. "OuchP' cried the inquisitors, scram- bling psll-mell into the roadway in body; all but one.
 Thet one was the imperturbable artist. Advancing to the little window, she took a good look at the postmistresses of So- honk. She saw in their faces the first tempest of confusion and self-conscious shame they had ever known or felt. Then with exasperattng coolnses she made lit- tie pencil memorandum at the bottom of her sketch.
 s'I will call it," she murmured as a last stab while writing:. ''Stolen sweets -Or, The "Reminiscences of Sohonk!"