Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-07-07
THE PRIZE PIN.

with all the places mt them filled but ours.
was seized upon and pumped down at
Dne of them, where Mr., Starr was alone,
and Molly was borne off In another drcc-
ton. was 30 glad that he had fallen to
my share, for he had told me just that aft
rrnoon as we were parting that he had
met my cousins this summer, and ]
plunged In about them at once. We had
Just got started when he interrupted mo
to say:
"'What Ia conversation partyY
"'What Is IA whatP said !.
"'A conversation party.
ga bore, l should say,' said 1. Ho
bowed in such hurt tone of voice that l
saw had done something, So / asked;
Are they special fayorites OF yours2 l
never heard of them.
"'Didn't you look ut your invitationp'
said he.
Never said l.
"'This is supposed to DO q conversation
party'-be was growing cheerful again
'and l relied on you TO explain to me what
that meant,
"'If this is conversation party, said
i, I'm going home. l never oonversed in
my life can't even talk. only chatter.
''At that moment up rose Miss Blank
She is very dignifled girl, wears apecta-
cles, and she Strengthened them and said
that there were to be six topics that she
had allowed one minute and half for
each; that she would read them off-sho
had paper in her hand-ono Mt time,
and as she re - oa oh ono she ,vculd strike
bell At thnt signal We would bcgin
operations At the end of minute and a
half she would strike 1t again, and then
would give us ten minutes rest before she
struck for tho next, Then she looked all
around and said When 1 strike the bell
the first time, each young lady will give
her partner q description of q football
game Then she struck her bell and Mr..
Starr and / looked at each other and he
began to smile was just wondering II
he would look better without his mus
tache, and had about decided that I'd ad-
wise Molly to advise him to shave 1t Of,
md 1 was studying his face from various
angles, when l remembered what l had to
do, and 1t broke me up SO that after sour
sying wildly round in my mind for some
thing to say blurted out;
"'Well, you know, the ball is round
And the bell struck.
"Then l scolded him for laughing, and
told him that women were always quicker
and brighter than men, and l gave him
full account of Bellies grabbing tho reins
that day when her brother went out of the
uuRcuft DdCkNuru as tHuy uIpNb OVER u
stump, and bow she never screamed or
turned u hair, but drove straight home,
and he walked after her, seven miles, as
soon as he had come to himself after fnint-
ing, and I'm sure "a man would have
stopped and made fuss over Ben. And
that reminded him Of u most amusing ex-
perionce of his in Lower California and
while he was telling 1t to me Miss Blank
said, when 1 strike tho bell each man
will describe to his partner the dress she
has on
~ knew that 1t was my innings then,
for Mr.. Starr looked me all over at least
six times. Then he began:
'It's--it isn't red?'
ono said /.
"'It's kind of bluey grecn.'
"'Wrong, said l. It's that lovely new
purple, you know.
"'It's silk
"'wronP again. You know it's chiffon
over satin.
It's trimmed with-embroldery.'
'EmbroidoryH said Qor even a man
might have known that. Its mamma 8
lovely old point laoer
"'It's very pretty he said meekly.
1--WE may as well call that right said L
Il think it's pretty myself. What morep'
"'It's very becoming
Excellent, said l, clapping my hands
go up head!' And then the bell rang
Then he began about my unlucky round
football, and said that he supposed that l
had never seen game, and was indig-
nant. told him that l Ind brother at
Harvard, two cousins at Yale and breyet
brother-in-la law at Princeton, and what l
didn't know about football wasn't worth
knowing; that | had been at every big
game since l was 10, and had worn foot
balls of every college color he had even
seen; that l knew colors. Just then again
our hostess came TO the fore and fired the
Egyptian pyramids at us for a topic
The pyrnmidsp said l. What Is there
to say about themS' And then told him
how Dick and Nancy decided to go to the
Holy Land for wedding tour, and went
to Iceland instead, and while we were dis
cussing the best ways of spending honey
moons and how long they lasted-the
honeymoons l mean-we found that we
had had something we hadn't heard sprung
upon us, and so we agreed that we would
put ON a bold face and seem very solemn
and perhaps they wouldn't notice.
And when the other two topios-Iye
forgotten them-were announced, we Just
stopped "a moment and looked Interested
and then went right on talking. He told
me great deal about lhw-how to com
NIT crimes and not DO punished for then
and what brought him to q, AND
when he was going away. 1 might have
known he wasn't there for life! And
showed him how to tell the difference be
tween lace and embroidery and told hin
about the handsome dragoman boy tina
kissed the soles of Marie's shoes when W,
came home from Cairo, lifting up one aft
er the other-poor little fellow, he wa
only 10.
And in the midst of II all the guest
got up and crowded round Miss Blank
and We went, too, and then the first thin
knew they were presenting me with tn
pri2e-this pin--and saying that Nov
York Ind carried off the honors, and tn
more protested the more Mrs. Blank an
tho judge cooed over me, and the judg
said that / added modesty to my bril-
liancy, and through the door 1 could Sc
MIR Starr and Molly out in the hall in fit
of laughter.
And that wasn't all, for the next dn
was Sunday, and coming out of churc
the president of the Literary club joine
inches awfully handsome--end aske
me if l were willing to write u paper fl
them the next week, and put down III
confession of ignorance to the same thin
my modesty. And when we drove dow
TO give some orders in town the next dl