The Portland daily press., 1900-07-10
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DurnS
Hattie blushed deep scarlet.
"Was it you, Hat? Well, of all things.
What's come over you, girl 2" But he
smiled approyingly, and to have your
cousin approve of you when he is 1S and
YOU are IL is rare indeed.
The day came The town had never
been more alive. The visiting crews
had been shown every possible honor,
and every one was longing for the race
to be over that the festivities might be-
gin, for it must be insisted upon that
the people had not the usual interest in
the race. They had too poor an opinion
of their own men, and, while they did not
expect the defeat to be one which would
cause any of them to blush with shame,
yet they apprehended that it would be
sufficiently conclusive to forbid anything
like town celebration.
Long trains of fiat cars, built up with
tiers of seats and drawn by locomotives,
had been put upon the tracks, the inten-
ton being to run these along beside the
boats and at the same pace. On the riv-
er, too, there was all available craft, and
the shore was lined. Hattie Meredith
had secured a place on one of the fiat
cars and sat there amid great company
of her kinfolk and her friends
The boats made a clean start, and in 30
seconds the Wyandots dropped behind
an appreciable degree.
''There go our boys backwardY' called
somebody. Hattie felt as if a hand had
clutched her heart. The other boats
forged ahead with slight vicissitudes for
a few seconds more; then the Wyandots
began gaining on them, got bow to bow,
nosed ahead cunningly, and then swept
on with a full stroke and led the race.
A thrill went through the people. That
form of patriotism which stirs the breast
of the patron of home sports was awak-
ened in them. Their minds underwent a
complete transformation. In a moment
they ceased to be disinterested spectators
and became fanatical advocates.
They're ahead! They're aheadT' they
screeched. They fell on each others
necls; they shouted to the blue heaven;
they waved handkerchiefs, coats, hats,
and the locomotives, unwilling to be
voiceless amid the popular clamor, whis-
tied their shrillest.
Now at last Hattie, the hero worshiper,
felt the thrill for which she had always
longed Now she had the glorious salts
faction of beholding the triumph of her
chosen. The ecstasy of enthusiasm
which she felt became almost overwhelm-
ing, and it is doubtless if she had con-
seriousness enough left to really see the
boat when it shot past the stake and the
plaudits Of the astonished multitude an
nounced the victory of the Wyandots.
There were tremendous Publications
that night. Hattie had been hidden to
them, but she was disinclined to go. No
and her cousin had, cousinlike, gone off
with another girl. She sat in the quiet
living room, where her mother rocked and
famed herself peacefully and her father
nodded over his paper, and wondered how
it would seem to be a popular girl. She
concluded it must be pleasant. 1t must
also be exceedingly fine to have a pretty
frock. She looked down at her plain
lawn with feelings of mixed satisfaction.
1t was not the sort of frock she would
have liked. But then it did not matter.
No one would see her in it. She might go
out on the front porch and watch the
skyrockets, but all things considered
perhaps it would be as well to go to bed
and forget how lonesome she was.
What was that remarkable noise? A
murmur of many voices, a confusion Of
laughter and the tramp of many feeti
1t was a most unaccustomed turmoil for
that quiet street. Father Meredith sat
bolt upright to listen. Mother Meredith
stared, with fan suspended and mouth
open. Hattie, pale and still as usual,
INDUCED herself in these exciting sounds.
but did not let her face show her delight.
The sounds ceased apparently just be-
yOnd the porch, and on the warm summer
air broke a chorus of male voices;
Stars of the summer night,
Far in yon azure deeps
Hide, hide your golden light.
She sleeps,
My lady sleeps,
Sleeps
Now of all agreeable things there is
none more agreeable than the sound Of a
serenade when young men sing in the
bland darkness, and Of all serenades none
can be so beautiful as the one that is
sung to you if you be a girl. Hattie was
girl who had not known many pleasures
of the lighter sort-the sort which come
from having the world in general and the
opposite sex in particular regard you in
a complimentary manner. Therefore her
delight was all the greater.
OF course it seemed like a dream. It
was still more like a vision of that star
lit night when she ventured coyly upon
the porch and heard the shouts that rent
the air at her appearance.
"Cornstarch bags! Cornstarch bagsI
How can you tell a Wy-an-dot? By his
cornstarch bagsw Three times they
yelped it-young and DID, girls and boys,
nen and women-for there was a great
'oncourse of merrymakers out among
he Meredith naples, and after the last
epetition there came the concluding
bout Hattie Meredith
BY every course Of reasoning Hattie,
who had never been in q conspicuous
place before in her life, ought to have
been overwhelmed with confusion But
she was nothing of the sort. She bowed
and smiled and fairly danced, standing
on tiptoe to wave her acknowledgements
to the farthest member Of the crowd,
and when the rout turned for the village,
running, leaDing, laughing. shouting and