The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-25
Our Daily Short Stories
BELLE OF BEAR CITY.
BY WILLIAM PERRY BROWN.
Copyright. 1901. by Authors syndicate3

man? What life! If one could have
two years without sight Of a man
now"
She glanced at Sterling meditatively
from the hammock, as he swung one
long leg over the arm of his chair and
twiddled raw gold nugget doing du-
bicus duty as a watch charm.
Gould you imagine such a horror?'
he quizzed.
1T would be heavenly. Men grow
wearisome when they fancy them
selves in love.
"All of them-O, most sweet sati-
ety."
''M-m-tell me about your life up
there" she said, briskly. "Of course
the cold must have been terrific, and
with no news, no papers, no women,
no-er-'
mo anything desirable, you might
add, except the grub the fires, the
gold dust and-yes, there was one
thing else which became to me, at
least, more satisfactory than all the
rest of our meager comforts"
This last with a steady admiring
stare that caused Miss Lamar to slow
ly droop her eyelids, as if the long
lashes might veil the faint flush that
seemed to ripple beneath the white
down of the rounded cheeks below.
And what was this eminently desir-
able thing?" she continued, imperi-
ously.
I'VE called her the Belle of Bear
City. Fun" he chuckled to himself.
You would have thought it dizzily
absurd could you have seen us line up
every morning and make our bows.
We even reserved our smartest small
talk to her? seemed as If she could
hear you know"
Why not, unless she was 'dizzily'
deaf? So the most desirable thing
turns out to be feminine after all.
might have guessed it, if there was a
get-a- bic woman inside the arctic cir
Gle. What was she-some Esquimau %
This last as sort of debative chal-
lenge.
Not on your life. Neither was she
a Siwash, Chilcat-nor any Alaskan
monstrosity. All! how we did adore
that girl!'
Well, really!" Here Miss Lamar
evinced sundry dignified symptoms of
rising. How do you reconcile this
with your staying two years in that
horrid hole without seeing a woman
1T is a solemn, lugubrious fact" he
gravely asserted, that we did"
wit is one thing, Mr.. Sterling" said
she, adding hauteur to dignity. Men
dacity is quite another. Even actresses
are supposed to know that"
She rose, darting at him a final
glance, neither meditative nor debative.
Had he not seen her look that very
way at the unsuccessful sutton in
Hearts Are Trumps," her latest stage
success? Was she really going? APP
palled lest he had offended. yet
thrilled indefinably that anything he
might say could be of more than
zephyrlike importance to move her.
Sterling timidly put out a OBTAINING
hand.
"Please don't CO." he ventured. "1
had no idea of-of-you see; 1t was
only a picture. after ALL"
Miss Lamar paused tentatively, with
her hand on his chair back.
"You seem overburdened with con-
undrums to-day" she commented.
"Why not solve them YOURSELF"
But, do you not understand"
IT am a poor hand at guessing. Be
sides, it is too much trouble" This
with sort of dry WEAKNESS which,
however, seemed to impel her to for
get her previous intention and sink
langudly back in the hammock.
Sterling grasped his opportunity by
linking his hands together around one
drawn-up knee and gazing sleepily
into vacancy, as if still mesmerized by
the magic memory of the elusive Belle
of Bear City.
There were seven of US fellows
Gagged in one large cabin that winter.
Most of us, being college bred, we
herded together-birds of a feather
you know. 1t was a dreary time. Nc
sun at all for three months. the mer-
curry so degrees below or worse, with
an believing surf grinding the
mush ice along shore, and not SCRAP
of news, nor a, woman nearer than
Nome City, 1870 miles away"
Always excepting the mysterious
Belle of Bear City" she interpolated
suppressing a strictly artificial yawn
Poor thing! Alone among all those
men-what did you say was the popu-
lation?"
Il did not say, but there must have
been a hundred showed in under the
Tundra Bluffs, and every mothers
son of us man" He grinned feebly
Always except" she began again
when his eyes caused her to relent.
Don't" he pleaded. You queens Of
the stage have your trials, of course
but they are apt to be those resulting
from safety rather than starvation
We seven got so that we hated the
sight of each other only degree less
than we abhorred the average Beal
Cityite cached in the other cabins
Fling a dozen society swells into a pit
sty and they will herd together; not be
cause they weary OF each other less
but to avoid the pigs"
mo wonder she was popular" Satir'