Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1898-02-17
ON NO. 90.
BY PERCIVAL POLLARD.
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began, as he prepared to take his sea
opposite the young woman who hat
been looking out of the window for al
hour OF so past with a good deal o
WEAKNESS in her gaze.
She smiled. Not at ALL" she muir
INJURED.
81 didn't know" he said, "but wha
you'd not care TO be disturbed"
He was little, spare sort of an an
cient, was the conductor. But age never
seemed TO have touched his joy Of life;
he was considered as 'spry" an employs
as any on that road. His brisk little
eyes flashed sharply about his pretty
| vis-a-vis.
Zine country, this" he said, slowly
as if reaching about for something on
which TO swing conversation. Ever
been in Ioway before?"
"Oh, yes. I've visited here"
"Ah; kinder sensed you wasn't from
Ioway yourself. Let me see; misre-
member where you are getting Off"
"Dincolnville."
yes, that's it. Lincolnville. Going
fshing?"
Mild surprise showed in the young
woman's face. Her eyebrows lifted a
little. "As l remember it," she said, II
don't think that county has any streams
or lakes at all"
"Oh," and the little old conductor
gave roguish sort of smile, there's
other kinds o. fishing"
81 dare say. But I'm married"
"You don't say! Pears TO me you
was mighty young when you made your
mind up. But that's the way with them
these times. There was my son Tom"
The engine whistled for a station Just
then, and the conductor got up and
made his way out to the platform. A
little dingy depot building, once white:
a sign that stated the number of miles
to Chicago and the name of the place;
Western Union sign over the window;
a solitary ramshackle omnibus and
few Indifferent idlers constituted the
scenery that Mrs. George Lennox looked
out on from the comfort of a Pullman
car that formed No. GAS trailer. To
the initiated she gave out at first glance
the air of the town. The something in
tangible and elusiyely perfect that is
entwined with the clothing of the New
York girl was part of Mrs. Lennox. II
was not, perhaps, so much what she
wore as the way she wore it, One can
buy the same materials in Lincolnville
that one can in New York; but the
something, the divine essence of beauti-
ful externals, refuses somehow to pass
beyond the portals of the metropolis.
A little of this reflection came to Mrs.
Lcnnox as she watched the two or three
women who alighted at this stopping
place and whose home it evidently was.
And then again feeling of shame came
over her at the harboring of such petit
ness; she blushed. and then smiled.
thinking of the utter femininity of her
reasoning. Clothes, clothes-what are
clothes2 There are better things about
men and women than clothes: and these
better things were as frenqent, as active
out here as they were in town. Hearts
and feelings are the broader humani-
ties.
Mrs. Lennox opened the window as
the train began to leave the station.
The morning breeze came in. bringing
with it the faint smell of apple blooms
and the sound of birds chirping. II
was world of green and blue. Far
over to the horizon stretched the I'M |
dulating fields of green, dotted here
and there with the brown and black of |
grazing beasts or the white. smoke |
haloed farmhouses. And over it all |
hung the blue curtain of the sky. Mrs. |
Lennox thought of the south side Of |
Twenty-third street and gave a sigh |
Of relief. The morning freshness came |
TO her like a tonic.
It was good to be in land of green
feds after all!
"As / was saying" came the con-
iuctor's voice presently. my son Tom,
be married at what sot down as so
young's TO be plumb foolish.
an / guess ! don't make any bones
about telling him as much. But I
reckon he knew; reckon he knew"
They're happy?"
20. happy's coons at circus time.
And what's more" he drawled his
words little as If to add emphasis.
i don't reckon any person ever lived
hat could make corncakes like my
'oD Toms wife. When come of the
weeks run, there's nothing rests mes
much as good fill of corncakes."
he looked out over theswaying fields
neditatively. and Mrs. Lennox. divin-
ng that his memory was lingering over
he joys Of past corncakes. forebore
disturbing him.
Now / wonder" be began again
Ifter little while. ~where you were
latched7r