Frostburg mining journal., 1895-08-17
PUPPY LOVE.

was 10, and pretty Lois Tanner was
three years my junior. Sweet 16! Is
there in all this world anything sweet
er? There may be other sweet siXteens,
but the comparative degree of the ad-
jective in this connection has grown
rusty from long disuse, and sweet 16 re-
mains positive in kind and superlative
in degree.
And Lois Tanner was 16.
From the first day of our meeting
we were the children of wealthy parents
and were summering by the sea-some
intangible influence some ineXplicable
force seemed to draw us to each other
and to run the lines of our lives parallel.
For two years we had known each other,
and one day-it was the third summer
after our meeting-we sat on the rocks
by the shore, and as the waves beat in
rhythmic measures upon the silver sand
stretching out at our feet I looked into
her sweet blue eyes and knew that La
chests, as she drew two threads from
Clothio's spindle, was twisting them
into one cord, forever indivisible.
In early youth how far the eyes, un-
dimmed by years, can see into the future
and how keen is young love to decipher
the handwriting on the wall!
"Lois," I said as we sat there i'll the
fading twilight, edo you know how long
we have known each other?"
"Docs it seem long, Mr. Beldon?"
she replied, with coy little smile.
''It has been two entire years, Miss
Tanner" said I, falling into her mock
formality of manner.
"And one learns a great deal in two
years, she added.
''In ono direction have learned moth
ing, Lois" 1 said, with quietness I
did not feel
"Why, Jack" she exclaimed, 81 don't
sec how you could stand still"
"But have" " insisted.
How" and her eyes looked her
guilelessness.
"m loving you, Lois broke forth,
~ couldn't love you any more i'll thou
sand years than I loved you after our
first meeting"
ooh, Jack" she cried nervously,
"what made you say that?'
"Why shouldn' t say it?" Ianswered,
with q dogged resolve not to be put
down by any woman's whim.
Because, Jack" she said very ear
nestly, papa has been saying all along
that you and were together too much,
and the first thing the family knew there
would be case of puppy love to cure.
Did your father say that?" asked,
with the anger showing in my face.
He did, Jack, and he says
"Well, I don't want to hear what he
says, or has said, or will say" inter
rupted. eff he says anything like that,
he doesn't know what he is talking about
and hasn' t the most remote idea of what
a man truly in love with the one wom
an in all the world for him feels.
"He ought to know something about
it, Lois said hesitatingly. "You know,
Jack, he has been married three times. "
"That's just it." growled. Hes
not 100 years old don't know my own
heart and am irresponsible into the bar
gain. If it weren't for you, Lois, l
added, ameGorating my wrath to n
slight extent, II wouldn't have a man
like he is for my father-in-law under
any circumstances.
Papa isn't so awfully bad, Jack,
she said in extenuation of the paternal
weakness.
II never thought he was either until
you told me what you have" I admit
ted "But, Lois" and I grew hard
again, "you must know that no father
who regards the future happiness of his
daughter can take the position he does
and assume to dictate the course of two
lives which in the nature of things must
be independent of his -
Papa says your papa said the same
thing and agreed with him thoroughly, ="
she replied, arguing as women do.
"Lois," 1 said in my firmest tone,
"don't speak to me of your father
again. If you do, shall be tempted to
do him some bodily injury"
The dear little woman laid her hand
on my arm restrainingly and smiled
with such irresistible sweetness that I
even forgot the wound my own father
nau given me.
"Let it go, dear" she pleaded "They
have forgotten they were ever young"
The shadows were growing into a
deeper purple, and the waves took on the
mellower shades of the evening sky.
The night wind, just rising, tossed Lois
golden hair about her smooth white fore
head, and the pink of the sunset brought
a roster glow to her cheeks brushed
my hand across my eyes and looked into
her face.
"Do you remember what I said few
moments ago?" I asked, returning to
the previous subject
"What did you say?" she replied,
trembling a little, 1 thought, for she
surely could not have forgotten so soon
"I said, darling"-it was the first
time l had ever called her that, and it
almost frightened me-'I said that