The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1902-08-07
t noon and RECESS. and-er-of


she finished, delightfully."- conscious
of his embarrassment and of the
cause-for SO pretty girl as this
teacher did not need other telling
than the CONSERVATION following his
abrupt MADAM" to know that she
had been an unexpectedly pleasing
parsonage. Boys are very destruct-
i've creatures"
81 wish there never had been one
on the face of the earth," he said
testify.
"Oh, don't wish yourself out OF
existence. Or perhaps you are new
man, and think the earth should be
peopled only by women. I've seen
several new women, but I've never
seen new man before"
She laughed, and although he did
not relish affording her amusement,
his face took on smiling curves in
admiration of her. Then she pulled
her mouth to decorous line, and in
quired whether the boys had done
much damage in his yard.
ooh, no, not much. It's the an
noyance mainly" He twirled the
apple-branch with the shamefaced
awkwardness Of 16-year-old lad, as
he wondered if she could have over
heard that ridiculous doggerel about
his scowling like fury. His backyard
adjoined the playground, and the
school windows were open this May
afternoon. He colored again, as only
a Shy and studious man can color.
"You see, I'm translating some Ger
man works into English, and I don't
like to be disturbed
sOf course not" she said warmly.
''Well, I'll do what can to keep
those boys on the playground; And
shall I take in this apple branch
as an object lesson"''
He gave it into her hand-thinl<ing
how well the pinky bloom matched
the tintings of the arch face which
flashed back at him as he turned
away, with grave brow. Walking
soberly home along the pavement, he
let himself in at his front door,
oblivious of the interest he was ex-
citing among watchful neighbors. Did
IS seem so very old to girl like
that? And had he. grown regular
fossil that those urchins should call
him 'queer?" Probably she would
never think of him again-or if she
did, it would be as crusty bachelor,
a kind of natural curiosity, to make
merry about.
Boy trespassers no further dis
turbed his solitude. Yet now and
again he found himself with head
on hand, staring out of the window
at the blossomed apple-tree, while
pen and paper lay before him, and
always it was a merry girl-face which
laughed into life against back
ground of pink and white bloom
a face which made him wish for
further pranks upon his domain, that
he might have pretext for climbing
the school-house steps once more.
He even caught himself thinking how
that face would brighten these rooms,
which, since his sisters death two
years before, had known feminine
presence. only when the char-woman
came to do cleaning; he fancied a
quick step on the stairs, and white
hand bringingA order out of chaos
in this den of his; he remembered
the closed piano in the unused parlor,
and wondered If she played. Idle
reveries, from which he reused to
apply himself the more diligently to
his work, unconscious toward what
his thoughts might be tending.
When his sister died, those who
knew him had prophesied that the
reserved young bachelor would take
unto himself wife, and many were
the eyes turned in his direction, for
the little city did not boast numerous
eligibles, who owned a pretty house
in the suburbs and whose income
would allow of playing the scholar
in leisurely way; but managing
mammas and manageable daughters
found their invitations to various So
cial functions SO entirely ignored,
that tie tide of attention drifted by,
leaving him stranded among his
books, with hint of .''queerness" sur
1Ou1AuluS Hill. <1S AC uSlu cAHtS1cuCcu
half Indifferent satisfaction in
studying and sleeping alone in his
bachelor abode, in taking his meals
at a downtown German restaurant,
and in meeting all bright feminine
smiles with a grave lift of his hat
for, student though he may be, that
man must wear the badge of stu
pidity who cannot see what nets are
being spread for his entrapping.
On Saturday afternoon, when
fluffy daddelion puffs were floating
about like fairy balloons and the last
apple blossoms were falling, robin,
which was building among grapevines
in the backyard, burst into such a
jocund song that Horace Murey flung
down his pen and listened. And as
he listened came to him the purl of
willow-fringed brook across meadow
land; wide country spaces seemed
stretching around him; he felt the
free air of the open upon his cheek as
he lay on a sunny sward with rod in
hand-and all at once his beloved
den became irksome. as prison cell.
So away he Trained with fishinu