Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-10-18
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: I]OW TOM MISSED THE
! II FIVE DOLLAR REWARD {
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1t was about a week after the ere
ward notices" had been posted that
little Mary Madderly was taken on as
cash girl in the big dry goods house.
Young Tom fell in love with her i'm.
mediately, as did every one in the
place. The young ladies behind the
counter who were wont to rap loudly
with their lead pencils and call Cash.
In tones of voice ranging generally
from sharp to savage grew kind and
gentle when they spoke to Mary. Usu-
ally it was: Forty mine, take this
package and have it done up. Be quick
about Is; the lady's waitng." But no
one ever called Mary by her number.
Somehow it would have sounded just
as absurd as to allude to Edward VII.
of England as X. No. Z. With this lit
tie cash girl it was always, MARY,
have this done up, there's dear" or
did you get your feet wet last night
in the rain?'
If you'd ever been a little cash girl,
you would know what all this means.
1t is the difference between being sim
ply tiny cog in vast network of ma
chinery and a human being with feel
ings and a soul.
Was she very pretty? l don't know
Neither could Tom have told you, l
fancy. And yet he was always look
ing at her, with the result that he was
constantly humping into folks and
knocking his elbows on sharp corners
till the floorwalker suggested he had
better go to an oculist to see if he
weren't getting blind or something.
Well, as | have said though Tom was
forever gazing at Mary, his own eyes
never got much farther than her great
big violet ones. AS Tom once described
It: at is like lookin at two beautiful
stained glass windows. Yer love to
look at 'em, but yer can't jes' see
through EN-" Now, of course, you
know when young gentleman gets to
talking about young lady's eyes and
likening them to stained glass win
dows it is quite certain he is spending
good deal of time thinking about her.
Worse than that, Tom got to thinking
about himself and wondered if, indeed.
she ever did. Now, no healthy boy of
twelve or fourteen ever thinks of him
self unless some girl makes him.
Often after he got to bed Tom would
lie awake quite a half hour imagining
delightful scenes in which Mary was
the heroine and Tom, of course. the
hero. Sometimes it would be big fire
and Tom in shirt sleeves and a fire.
mans helmet rescued Mary just in the
nick OF time. Sometimes he got Mary
Into a fearful runaway wreck and
again played the gallant rescuer.
sometimes in these mental picturings
he permitted himself to be slightly in
5ured so that he might give Mary
chance to shed few tears over him
and hold some smelling salts to his
nose. He had seen this operation per-
formed on many ladies who had faint
ed in the store, especially on bargain
days.
Perhaps you think this was all very
silly of Tom. You will if you are
very matter of fact person. But let
me tell you that large Imagination
goes mighty well with a small purse,
anu iOii cdiHcu just 90 week ana
had to live on it too.
One morning after having conjured
up an especially lurid scene the night
before, in which he had allowed him
self to be unconscious from smoke for
six hours, and Mary had cried over
him and told him she loved him more
than any one else in the whole world
he wasn't so unconscious but he could
hear her - well, as l said, the next
morning when he went to the store as
usual little Mary was so demure and
quiet and her Good morning" was so
absently said that poor Tom felt all his
castles in the air tumbling about his
ears.
All, Tom, if you might have seen
through those STAINED glass windows"
into that little girls heart
She was thinking about you then, IL
you had only known it! She is won
dering what you would think of her if
you knew about her mother-and all.
Every noon hour Tom made Mary
share his apple with him, for her own
little lunch basket was uninviting
enough. On pay day he Invariably in
vested in 10 cents worth of candy,
which was as far as his income would
allow him to treat the little cash girl.