The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-15

"
in for all you're worth-you need 1t!
Let yourself go. old man, for once. d
go with you if l hadn't got an engage
ment with my wheel. I say, man, I'm
powerful glad the boss has come round.
He amt half bad Now put on your hat
and start-shoo!
1t was half past eight-there was time
to get the 10 o'clock train that went
under the willows! There was time!-
time !-time!
If Peggy had only stayed long enough
to know 1t would please Peggy.
On the 10 o'clock train, Gregory Knox
sat back in his seat and wished again
that Peggy could know. He had half a
mind to telegraph her, but on second
thought, decided to wait and write from
Sims. He could tell Peggy so many
things that would be interesting, then
how her Uncle Simeon looked, and how
the old place had stood the wear and
tear of 80 years-and whether the tall
tree apples tasted as good as they used
to-and if the trout were biting well. He
would write Peggy long letter-the first
letter he had ever written to one OF the
girls. He was glad che first one would
be to Peggy.
Two weeks later, Gregory Knox, brown
and happy, got off the train in the crowd
ed city station. He walked away with
springy stride that fitted his little stoop-
ed figure oddly. People turned to look
again at his happy face.
The whim seized him to walk by Bruce S
and see how it looked from an outsiders
standpoint-to stand and look idly in the
big windows, as outsiders did. Then
another within to go in at the great swing
ing doors and loiter through the aisles-
all but the stocking counter aisle. Not
that-that would break the SPELL
''Ill buy little mite of a present for
Peggy-that's what" Peggy always said
that's what" and he smiled at the
thought His heart was hungry to see
Peggy, and he had reckoned that she
and ma and the girls would be home,
now, in a day or two. Their month was
over.
"Now, what'll l get?" he unused, idling
along lazly and refusing to look at the
familiar faces of the clerks What do
Peggies like? Fancy notions of some sort
Il may have to go to old Adams counter
now! Not if can help it. It's too near
my old stand, and I'm not stockin' tend
er yet-not till tomorrow.
He could not decide on what to get He
distrusted his own wisdom, in anything
but stockings. All, yes, stockings-why
not? Peggies all wore stockings, and sud
denly he remembered the rusty black,
gobble- darned stockings his Peggy had
worn that day at the beach. He would
have to go down the stocking counter
aisle after all.
"Stockin's it is, then" he said, tramp
ing away in that direction.
But just at the turn he looked down the
aisle and uttered a low murmur of as
constituent. He could scarcely credit his
eyes He was getting old and they might
be failing him. But nearer yet, the
vision was the same. He knew it was
Peggy behind the stocking counter.
Peggy! He stood and watched her. She
was waiting on a customer and did not
see him Her face was little pale and
weary, but she smiled overwhelmingly. and
twired the stockings about with an air
Of long acquaintance with their kind.
Peggy! In an instant it was all clear
to him. He knew it was to Peggy he
owed his beautiful two weeks of rest. 1t
was Peggy's doings!
He felt an irresistible impulse to vault
over the counter like a boy and take
Peggy into his arAh. The sly, little,
harum- scarum girl!-to cheat her old
Daddy! He wanted to squeeze her pale
little face between his palms and kiss it
a hundred times. He wanted to scold her,
and thank her. and get her away from
that place. The stocking counter at
Bruce's was no place for blthe little
Peggy.
The customer was turning away, and
Peggy was putting back the boxes. Even
from that distance Daddy could see tEat
she put one in the wrong place!
In the moment of starting down the
aisle, he changed his mind. An instinc
tive delicacy restrained him, and he hur
ried round the corner out of sight.
No. he would not spoil Peggy's little
scheme She would like it better to have
it go on uninterrupted. Peggy was travel
ing incog" now-he would wait But he
told himself that by and by he would
have it out with Peggy. There was a
reckoning day ahead, somewhere.
He went home and waited. Close up
at Bruce's was at sharp, but it was
late twilight when Peggy came home.
She knew Daddy would be there, and she
had fingered on the way He heard her
coming in and called out brusquely:
Who's there? Hold up your hands,"
Cant do it, daddy, they're plum full.
Why don't you have light?'
She spoke with nervous hiliarity, mum
bling something indistinct about trains
that lost time and herdic men that went
round Robin Hoods barn to unload their
passengers.
I'm the advance guard, you know,
Daddy" she cried. MA and the girls are
coming tomorrow. l had let-mm, that
is, the months up. No more putting on
airs for the Knoxes! Where are you,
daddy-on the couch? It's dark as
pocket"
"a man gets all-powerful tagged out,
tendin stockins, The couch oughter be
the place for him. he groaned dismally
She felt her way to him, across the room.
At the couch she knelt beside him and
felt his face.
IF find the crows feet, I'll know it's
you and not a counterfeit daddy. Here