The Newtown bee., 1900-01-12
,rouch was quite familiar, told him shas


 Crouch was quite familiar, told him that her first opinion of the uncommunicative young man was practically unchanged. And early in January she returned to the after answering his knock | at the kitchen door, with disgusted face. | 1T can't make no headway at all gettin' acquainted with that critter." she cried, "If say it's nice day, he don't even answer me. When them ter rible hot days was last summer, I thought p'raps he'd like little sympathy an so says, Must be awful hard for you this hot weather An if you'll believe 1t, he answered up kinder short. sOh, this ain't very warmp an pranced away with that heavy can without 50 much as lookin' up Acted as If he wanted to show me didn't know nothin' an no business speakin' to him. anyway. Twas just so last week when that dreadful cold snap was. I heard bim slappin' his hands to warm lem before opened the door; but when says, My ain it awful coldy' he says, sOh, no, as pert as you please. Made me mad, I tell you. Now Si Green, to Sharon, he useter act so pleased if I spoke like that an he'd tell me how the thermom- eter stood at places where he'd stopped; an I'd bring him out some ice-water or cup of coffee, an he'd thank me like a human bein'. But then" scornfully, t'what else can be expected when folks leave good, nice neighborhood, such as we had to sharon, an go traipsing off to the ends of the earth?"
 MT Crouch rose hastily and put on his hat. His cup of coffee was extremely good and he had not quite finished it, but he had of late, made point of escaping, if possible, at the end of hIs wife's first paragraph.
 "Yes, yes !too;bad !"he murmured, sym pathizingly. "But the milk's good. Can't you hang out till the first of April, s'posef"
 l "Lot he cares about my feelin's," nut tered his wife as the door closed upon his discreet exit.
 ! And then the blizzard came. It began to snow Saturday night, and it showed all day Sunday, while piercing wind piled the dry flakes into emmense drifts. It was still showing Monday morning and the streets were impossible. Narrow paths had been cut through on the sidewalks, could be kept open.
 For the first time the milkman failed to appear at the usual early hour.
 1T sin't got 8 drop of milk in the house, an don't seem so could get through my breakfast without milk for my coffee, said Mrs Crouch, plaintively.
 MT Crouch looked out of the window with 8 calculating eye.
 "Don't believe the milkman'1l be in fol 8 week." he said; country roads'll bt chuck full, an the farms good five milt out"
 "Clark's folks, over acrost. sell milk, observed his wife, anxlously. "Lik' enough you could get quart of them S'pose you could get over there, Jona than"
 1 "D'kuow. I could try, s'pose." He came back with quart of milk which he set down on the table with curious smile.
 Had to give the old lady eight cent for't,'' he observed; "she said she hate dreadfully to charge so much, but fee would prob'ly be high count O tn blockade; an she expected they'd hay
 to feed the cows extra, too, bein' it's g cold. So she'd got to charge accordin'. Mrs Crouch blazed with indignation
 ''eight cents !" she exclaimed excitedls "What made you pay it? Why. I onl
 give the milkman fivel I warrant y Clark's folks have got plenty of feed t last till the storms overl It's just 8 excuse to get all they can outer thei
 nelgbbora They think we can't hel . ourselves I tell you one thing, Jons
 than Crouch, I'll go without milk befor IT pay them eight cents for anothe = quart! 'Tain't the money Pm thinkin
 of, but never was one to stan bein' in posed on. Folks can run right over 70 . just as they're minter, but they can
 mel"
 ], All the forenoon her wrath seethe q and boiled furiously. She was to us , her own term, "hoppin' mad" Her tul
 buIent thoughts were interrupted 500
 after dinuer by an imperative knock. Sh opened the kitchen door, then steppe
 back, utterly amazed.
 ssFor the lands sake! How'd you gs
 here? ?" she gasped.
 It WAS the milkman. He stood thes in the bitter cold, amid the whiriinf stinging snowfiakes, Rlim, boyis , figure, with heavy milkcan tippe - against his knee, and an anxious frow 7. Eupon his forehead. One hand wa = stretched forth impatiently. 'Milki he interrogated, sharply. Mrs Crouch brought her pitcher i dszed silence. Then she burst oi
 again: s'Why-the roads ain't broke o, yet, be theyP'
 "No," he responded, as he hurrie
 away; "I come through the fields with N farm wagon an four head O horses" E "Well, well !" she murmured as st
 shut the kitchen door, "If that don