Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-03
HER PROPOSAL.
ICopyright, 1895.

Copyright, 1895. Mir. James O'Donnel was-and is-a proofreader on a morning newspaper. He goes to work at z o'clock each evening, and six nights in the week he quits an hour past midnight, locks up his pipe and lead pencils, washes his hands in very | Eisreputahle looking lavatory, puts on his hat and coat and goes home. The seventh night he stands the dog watch'''-that is, he remains at his post | till o'clock in tho morning If the city, country and foreign corre- spondents behave themselves, James has l little to do after 1 o'clock these long nights and has plenty of tino to do it in. | But sometimes an annoying reporter will l turn up q big story at 3 o'clock in the morning somc millionaire murdered openly or married secretly, some fire that threatens total destruction of crowded homes, some confession of criminal on | whom the public eye :s rivctcd-and the night editor orders a second edition. Or, if tho reporter behaves himself, the country correspondent is likely to rush in | D story too important to slight, or the ca | ble may begin to flash and bother with empty news about some empty hc;ltls abroad crowned or othcrwise-and the result is the same.
 Mir James O'Donncl has to wake up | and read proof
 This was the night of tho long watch, | and the veteran sat there waiting patiently, ! as he always did, but with moro time than he could use to advantage. He watched l the clock and wondered if a man could sec | the movement of the minute hand. Of course he could. It tired the eyes a bit, but he could see it crccping past tho ", past the little black lines which marked the minutes, past the V. | Heigho! Well, that wasn't a bad way to l kill the hours. Only it didn't mako much difference, he reflected, as he came to the | saloon at the corner and went i'll for the regular and single glass of bourbon with | which always ended the night. It didn't 1 make much difference whether a man was sitting there at his table in the pro0frdom, comfortable and cuntrntcd, or lying asleep | like a log in his bed at the boarding house. He must have paused a long time over | his drink, for it was 0 clock when hc left | the saloon. Yet he knew he had only drunk once or ho would have remembered it. | His habits wCrc too we'll established to | vary them unconsCiously. | And for that matter, he might well stand there in the saloon as sit in the proofroom or lie in his bedroom. There 1 wasn't much in lifo anyway. Here he lad bcon reading proof six years, buying new suit of clothes every six months and a new pair of shoes every three months, going to the thcatcr every | Wednesday afternoon and living an un- | varying life at Mrs. Tabor's boarding | house.
 He was thoroughly adjusted, was adding | a little every week to the sum in bank and having mighty dull time, it must be | confessed
 "Wcll!" he ecxrlaimed addressing no one | in particular. This car must have been l Stollni bnrH If is G n clOpS. hDf jewellers sign is liar. 1 am certainly | varying the monotony of my life.
 Mrs. Tabor was mending linen in the | sitting room as he went through. He didn't remember ever to have met her OK ccpt at table.
 You arc up carly" he said as ho paused and looked at her.
 Not earlier than usual, " she said. "1t | is you who arc lato.
 "Yes, he said and sat down moment. He wondered if her hands flew all day as swiftly as they were flying now. He won dered, too, how she kept plump and fresh and young. If she always worked as stirringly us this-still, to be sure, she worked in the daytime It was labor by gaslight that aged person.
 "Yes, I'm late," he confessed. And
 then he told her what he had been think
 ing When he had f1nishcd-and he had a l
 somc-she smiled up at him, took up an- other garment that had lost button, and
 said:
 II suppose WIG all have our little trou-
 bles, Mir. O'Donncl l was just thinking
 when you cnmo in, as l have thought a
 good many times before how empty of re-
 suit is this long struggle of mine. Now,
 when my husband died six years ago and
 I opened this boarding house, of course 1
 didn't expect to get rich. But thought
 would lay up n little money year by year
 and some time be able to buy q little home
 of my own, with garden and COW and
 some chickens, and live easy the rest of my
 life.
 "But was mistaken. Of course don t
 complain, but there is no money keeping
 boartlers. have just enough gentlemen
 here to bring me out even at the end of the
 year. If there was one less, I would be
 short on my rent just the amount of my
 profit on that man."
 Mr. James O'Donnel looked at her and
 remarked to himself:
 "Well, she doesn't get much out of it,
 does she?''
 "Somctimes," resumed Mrs. Tabor,
 smiling checrfully, "I have bit of sick
 nass thore is n niece of furniture I have