Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1895-07-03
AS SOMETIMES HAPPENS

| three years my Junior. Sweet sixteen!
Is there in all this world anything sweet
er? There may be other sweet siXteens
but the comparative degree of the adj
jective in this connection has grown rusty
from long disuse, and sweet sixteen 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 sapds
stretching out at our feet, | looked into
her sweet blue eyes and knew that
Lachesis, as she drew two threads from
! Clothes 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" | said, as we sat there in the
fading twilight, ''do you know how long
we have known each other?'
Does it seem long. Mr.. Belden:" she
replied. with a coy little smile.
1T has been two entire years. Miss
! Tanner" said |, falling into her mock
And one learns a great deal in two
! years." she added.
I'm one direction I have learned moth
| ing, Lois" [ said, with a quietness [
did not feel
"Why. Jack" she exclaimed, II don't
| bo1
But / have" / insisted.
How and her eyes looked her guile
lessness.
IN loving you, Lois I broke forth
I couldn't love you any more in Il thou
sand years than | loved you after our
first meeting"
"Oh, Jack" she cried nervously, what
made you say thatT'
Why shouldn't [ say it?'' [ answered
! with a logged resolve not to be put down
by any woman's whim.
Because, Jack" she said very earnest
! ly, papa has been saying all along that
you and | were together too much and
would be case of puppy love to cure.
Did your father say that?' l asked
with the anger showing in my face.
He did. Jack and he says
We'll, l don't want to hear what he
says. or has said or will say l inter-
| EupJeU IL lie says amy IulnS ike Jnat
| he doesn't know what he is talking about
and hasn't the most remote idea of what
q man truly in love with the one woman
! 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 he's
not 100 years old | don't know my own
! heart and am irresponsible into the bar
| gain. If it weren't for you, Lois
| added, alneliOrating my wrath to slight
extent, Il wouldn't have a man like he
is for my father-in-laW under any cir
! cumStances.
Papa isn't so awfully bad, Jack" she
| said, in extenuation of the paternal weak
ness.
1 never thought he was: either, until
you told me what you have" I ad-
mitted. But, Lois and [ 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, l said in my frmest tone, don't
| speak to me of your father again If you
do | shall be tempted to 90 him some
| bodily injury
The dear little woman laid her hand on
my arm restrainingly and smiled with
| such irresistible sweetness that | even
| forgot the wound my own father had Civ
| en- me.
Let it go, DEAR" she pleaded ''They
have forgotten they were ever young"
The shadows were growing into a deep
er purple and the waves took on the
| melloWer shades of the evening sky. The
mic ind Oil,
| hair about her smooth white forehead
| and the pink OF the sunset brought q
roster glow to her cheeks. l brushed
| my hand across my eyes and looked into
! her face.
DO you remember what I said a few
moments ago?' [ asked, returning to the
! previous subject.
What did you say she replied, trem-
bling a little, / thought, for she surely
could not have forgotten so soon.
i said, darling-it was the first time
[ had ever called her that, and it almost
frightened me-"I said that there was
one thing / had not learned in the last
two years, and that was to love you bet
ter than [ did when | first met you. Do
you think [ should have learnedF
Perhaps, jack she blushed, eff you
had you would have gone ahead of me in
the Glass;
"Oh, Lois" [ began to say, and then
stammered and grew red in the face.
could feel the blood fly along my neck
and my hands shook so / could not have
put them out to her if she had asked me
to. / had never spoken of love to a
woman, and now my ineXperience was
painful to me. [ knew that the brave
man could win a triumph now, but l was
not brave. On the contrary, [ was a
coward. an arrant coward, and, in my
fear, | slipped down off the rock, where
we had been sitting, and walked out upon
the sand.
"Where are you going, Jack?' she
called to me. 81 don't like to be left here
all alone. I'm sure Charlie Verder
wouldn't treat me like that"
That was enough to set me wild. Yer
der was the one fellow [ dreaded. and he
hadn't known her six months, either.
went back to the rock and stood at the
foot of it, just near enough to touch the
/ hem of her gown-such a sweet. white
/ gown with a bit of blue showing through
it as the blue sky peeps in and out from
the feecy white clouds.
DO you like him." I asked sullenly.
j mot any more, [ guess, than you like
/ Matte Swami she retorted, with perk
of her nose and shake of her fluffy hair.
I1Tbop Won lilo him, rrot+v VOL - T