Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-01-23

NV smiled at hin
plea sanity, which made him conclude
quite correctly-that she was not from
the city, and that this was her first day
at the Fair, and that it was a very
great occasion, indeed, for her. He
was actually mean enough, was the
ticket taker, to keep his foot lingering
on the iron release moment before he
Just for the sake of seeing her look
puzzled. The ticket taker might not
lave done this if it had been buster
hour of the day. But it was still early
in the morning. There were few in the
Fair grounds yet, and the young
woman looked around in some surprise
at the almost empty avenues that
stretched down between the buildings.
Her limp seemed really painful to
the ticket taker as she made her way
over to where group of young
theological students stood silently
together by their Gospel chariots, u
as the irreverent newspaper fellows
had dubbed their wheeling chairs.
Some of them were raw looking fell
lows, and appeared much more fitted
for the wheeling of chairs than the ex-
ercise of oratory in the pulpit or else
where. Some looked rather weak and
inane, as if they had not positiveness
of character to do anything but pray.
But there was one among them who
was standing straight on his legs, as an
athlete naturally does, and there was
something in the lines of his firmly
closed mouth and the pose of his head
that made the young woman go up to
him and ask him what the price of his
chair and his services were for the day.
Not that she had any need to ask, for
she had read all about it in the papers,
and calculated on it very carefully.
But she asked by way of opening the
conversation. The student took off
his blue cap and answered her slowly,
and with an accent of indifference
that somehow was not just what
Mary Stuart had been expecting. Her
own blood was tingling in her veins.
It was almost unbelievable to her that
she was really at the Fair at last-the
Fair which had been before her eyes
as q sort of glorified vision for two
years, and for which she had saved and
planned and sacrificed. It seemed to
her that everybody must have been
working Just as she had been to get
there, and that it was only natural that
their voices should be tingling with
enthusiasm. She felt for moment as
If she would have liked to change her
young man and get one who seemed
less criminally Indifferent to the glories
of the moment, but she was too shy to
do that, and she made her bargain,
and seated herself with some embar-
rassment in the chair, blushing, as she
was rolled away, to feel that the eyes
If the young students were on her.
She was very light weight-so ligh
that the we'll oiled chair, on its easy
bearings, impelled the pusher to walk
use little resistance to moderate its
pace. The little black sailor hat she
wore had no trimmings but WAS swathed
in feecy black veil, as the young
man noticed on looking downward.
The simple black gown had neither
erinoline nor founces, as he noticed
also, but merely wide white cuffs and
collar, and the high tan boots and
gauntlet gloves had been selected with
careful reference to each other. One
foot was little shorter than the other,
ss was evident even as they rested on
the little shelf on the chair. So much
the young man casually noticed, and
that the body was very slight indeed
and had sort of tension in it as if
uerves and muscles were on the alert.
"Where do you wish to go?" he
asked perfunctorily, as he had asked
on many previous mornings of his
''fright." But the answer was not
forthcoming. Instead, the young
woman wheeled around in her chair
and looked up at him with some dis.
tress on her pale face.
'I haven't an idea," she said. 'r
haven't been here before. This is my
first day. I'll only have five days here.
might have had seven, only it takes a
day to come and another to go.
want to see just as much as l can. I've
been saving for two years to come here.
I'm typewriter-and a stenographer.
I CAM walk much at a time, or I'd
never have thought of taking a chair.
If it hadn't been for taking chair il
wouldn't have been SO hard for me tc
come. But you see how it is.
haven't been to school much. And
thought could get good deal of ed
ucation here. Perhaps you can tel
me how. It's very important to me.
The morning wind blew her reddisl
Drown hair about her face a little un
der the veil, and made her cheeks lool
paler than ever. Nathan 1ngersol
stopped the chair and looked down 3
her a moment. He had got in tn
way, during his thirty odd days al
ready spent at the Fair, of keeping hi
personality well out of sight. At first
to be sure, he had permitted himse
some feeling of personal interest in tn
women he wheeled about the grounds
and had ventured on a few occasion
to forget that for the time being b
was a paid servant, and had let h
thoughts speak themselves III their n
customed way. But he had suffere
three or four rather severe rebuff!
over which he had good naturedl
smiled, saying they were really ju
what he needed, and that they Wei
good training. But all the same
had smarted under them, and for Il
last two weeks had kept himself ~.
in hand, and been rs indifferent to y
persons he Was pushing around Il
ground as they were to him. Mes
however, there seemed to como ri
sudden existence . new condition
Evidently this was a case thatinvolvt
some moral responsibility. And Inge
soil was almost morbid on the subje
IMMORAL responsibility.