The Press., 1898-06-30
ROMANCE OF DELL.

Dell was tall. He had hair naturally blond and soft and it had been bleach ed by sun and weather until it was as lifeless as cured hay. His face was tan ned and he walked with the uncertain, lounging gait that comes from travelling after the blow, toiling over soft ground and keeping foothold on steep hillsides. Dell had lived to be 24 without even so much as looking at girl since his schooldays. In fact, Dell would have had little time to devote to girls. He was busy from early morning until night about the farm, and when there was few days respite there he hitch ed up his team and drove to Groveland to help his brother in his celery and sweet corn fields.
 One day there was excitement in the Mason farmhouse. Dell brought let- ter from the postoffice to his mother, and she read that Miss Hamilton, who had extensive forest interests in the vicinity, would be her guest for 8 day or two while looking over her property. "Do not make any fuss for me, please, " Miss Hamilton wrote. "I know how busy you are at this season. Have Dell run down hen and let me have . potpie for dinner.''
 Dell smiled at the. mention of his name. He had been too young to re- member Miss Hamilton when she went away, but he was proud to know she remembered him.
 ''I suppose I'll have to meet her at the t-r-a-i-n," said Dell, with the pe- culiar drawl that had come down to him from Puritan Green Mountain an- cestors- "I suppose I'll have to dress up"
 'sOf course, Dell, and put the best harness on the horses and take the wag- on down to the creek and wash off the mud"
 ''I guess she'll get used to m u-d, g said Dell.
 When the train climbed the hill and finally stopped at the hillside depot, Dell was waiting, holding tight rein over his fractions farm horses, which were unused to the "chaff chuff" of the exhaust of the locomotive. Two women | were handed down from the vestibule One Dell knew was Miss Hamilton and . small blond person by her side was @ stranger.
 "You are Dell, know" said Miss Hamilton, coming up. 'This is my friend, Miss Sayles," and the blond vision smiled at Dell and showed her pretty white teeth.
 | "Can you get in?' asked Dell, for the horses were restless and he couldn't get out to assist them, and all the way down the hill he sat very straight and handled the lines, conscious that the prettiest girl he had ever seen was sit ting behind him and probably contrast | ing him with the men who drove for her in the park and on the city boule- wards. When he stopped the horses at the farm gate and helped the ladies down from the high wagon, he thought to himself that it was like lifting doll when Miss Sayles put her foot on the step ard held out her hands to him. If she had been looking at him, she would have seen that he blushed clear up to his faded white hair. But she wasn t looking. She saw only the farmhouse hidden in the trees, was conscious ,ot the drifting scent of yiolets from the garden and felt the sunlight falling like a benediction over all 5. 5f Dell watched her going up the path \ to meet his mother standing on the porch in her best calico dress and fresh l gingham apron. ''She looks like yell low bird" he said to himself A thou sand times he had seen graceful bird boise just as she was poised on the steI I of the porch, seemingly ready for flight into space.
 The story of how Dell came to wor. ship at the fair girls shrine is a short one. The first thing he did that morn. ing was to pick great bunch of violets l from the border for her. In the after. noon he was her guide to the innermost recesses where nature slides away hel spring jewels of hepatica and arbutus. He threw stones into the creek that she might cross without wetting her dainty feet. He showed her where the win. tergreen berries grew thickest and laughed because she was afraid to cal them. He did not say much. Dell sell dom said much, but he loved to heal 4 her talk.
 "She's a pleasant girl," said the mother to Dell that night. s tF T ]
 "Yes," said Dell, "she's a great t-a-l-k-e-r. ## ttt tFt
 Miss Salyes might not have felt com plimented if she had heard Dell's com ment. It was sincere. To Dell it was ( great thing to be able to talk we'll.
 The days following were full of de
 light to the girl. All the glories of ths spring were heaped upon her. Birdi awakened her in the morning with { thousand musical voices. She brought home loads of delight from the field and woods in the afternoon, and in thu evening Dell told her stories of autumn hunts aud hus6ngs. He told how [
 woman he knew had become mission
 ary.
 "And she has gone to teach the heath
 en?" asked the girl. e11 aH8
 No" draw1ed Dell. 'rI guess she'
 what you'd call home missionary Gh goes around hlacEng s-t-o-v-e-R"
 DelPs mother explained that th
 woman in question had hghtnin
 blacking outfit, and she went about tn