El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-15
The yellow Tomatoes
And How They Gave shape to an
Engagement Ring.

~c\~.~s>s\S~S~S
When Dominicus Van Brunt first
went to the public school i'm his adopt
ed country. he had the felicity of sit
ting opposite little girl with freckles
and blue eyes Her name was Bertha
Henderson, which was difficult name
for DOminicus TO remember. But II
was not at all hard for him to remem-
Der the dear little girl with freckles.
She wore tiny black taSselS at the top
OF her shoes and white aprons. ruffled
and tied upon the shoulders with large
airy looking bows. and the ends of her
smooth braids were tied with ribbons
now the color of the violet and now the
color of the rose.
Dominicus said to himself that in
Amsterdam he had never known any
little girl so freckled and so dear
Il wish she would look at me-"
thought little Dominicus Van Brunt
But he thought it in Dutch, although
when he spoke aloud he managed to
make himself understood in English
1t must be confessed that little Ameri-
can children are too egotistical to be
polite Thinking as they do that they
are nodded on the right pattern, they
are inclined to regard all children diff
fering from them as curiosities. They
considered the round faced Dutch boy.
with his shy ways and deferential
manner to the teacher, a strange little
fish indeed. And no one In all the
school was more amused than the dain-
ty Bertha who looked at him covertly
out of her gray blue eyes. However.
she did not laugh at him. So Domini-
Gus, who did not know that she was
amused and who perceived only her as
pect of gravity, thought her kinder
than the rest and was grateful. II only
she would have spoken To him or look
ed at him as IL she were his friend, he
would have had nothing more to ask.
He could even have been patient with
that terrible English language which
every one around him was jabbering
He determined to do something To
call the attention of his freckled hearts
own to himself, and one day he hurried
into the schoolroOm the first minute
the doors were opened and laid three
pear shaped yellow tomatoes on her
desk. The scholars came, saw the
pretty vegetables, and had little trou-
bic In deciding from what source the
tribute came. For who else in a fash
ionable suburb would have yellow to-
matoes. except the son of the Dutch
gardener? The school INDUCED in IN
restrained giggling, but Bertha, in
stead of participating, shot defiance
from her gray blue eyes, and. turning
with an adorab BILE smile toward Domin-
icus, carefully fitted one of the yellow
tomatoes into her red mouth and de-
voured it in the same spirit in which
= Hi, LII. Ii To
was evident that Dominicus had been
right. Bertha was different from the
others. His happiness stained the boys
amiable face scarlet, and while the 9th
er boys jeered at him, number of
them felt distinct pang of jealousy.
They were quite alive to the extraor-
binary favor which had been shown
him.
From that day on Bertha, the daugh-
ter of a prosperous lawyer and little
maid distinctly conscious of her social
opportunities, and Dominicus, the son
Of the man who raised garden truck,
were friends. There came a day when
Bertha. having reached the proud age
of 10. gave a birthday party on her
fathers lawn, and insisted on having
Dominicus among her guests-a ia
nous day for Dominicus. in which he
saw his princess in all the glory of her
best white frock, with her hair crimp
ed down her back. and had the rapture |
of eating cream tarts in her company!
But there was yet n prOuder day in |
which DOminicus was permitted to re- |
turn this social attention and was al |
lowed to invite Bertha and three other |
friends to the snowy kitchen of his |
home back of the garden, where the |
mother of DOminicus sang beautiful |
songs TO them IN a language they could /
not understand AID fed them with /
cruIIers and grape juice. Bertha |
thought she had never seen any room |
so charming as this kitchen. with its
racks of blue plates, it's shining pans
and its illuminated notices upon the
wall.
Bertha was not more than II when
she was sent to private school, and
Is the years went by she saw people of
I,Iite a different sort from DOminicus
ind his father and mother and ought.
,roba bly,, to have forgotten all about
hem But it is an undeniable fact.
houph il may have shown some evil
Iences of vuIgarity i'm her nature. that
III the years that she was occupied |
With other matters, such as boarding
chool and summer resorts and com
NJ ont and the gayeties Of a winter
n the city, she remembered that curl
us kitchen and the people who lived
D il and wondered where they hao