The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-04-24
The Girl Who Romped
By PAUL P. HARRIS.

Tst'TsTSsst's3s,4'st'sx'ct'sS's4''ss
NASTING for bass, hungry, great
J mouthed fellows who lay in cool
waters down by the lily-pads, would
have answered very well as pas
time. The fishing at Sister lakes
was particularly good, and many
years had intervened between Spen-
GERS boyhood and the hurry away"
vacation of the present; they had
been, for the most part, spent in a
city law office, not particularly airy
nor thronged with affluent clients
bent on separating themselves from
musty bills and ancient eagles; but
there was just one thing that Spen-
Ger enjoyed even more than he en-
joyed fishing, and that was lying in
the cool shade, gazing through the
dense foliage skyward, thinking of
Bob and Bill, who used in the old au-
tumn days when the leaves were
scar, to climb out on those very
boughs and shower the beach nuts
down.
Then, OF course, the thoughts
would gradually revert, in spite of all
that he could do, to the girl with
the changeable hazel eyes that PROM
ised only to retract; to the venture
some romp who laughed, not to hear
herself, not to be heard, but be-
cause there was something within
that just wouldn't stand suppress
ing; to the girl whose glance wrought
the mischief of making of a pre-
possessing lad stammering lout and
there left him to marvel as to the
why's and to resolve that as soon as
the melons in the valley patch had
ripened they should be gathered and
sold, and that snug sum should be
appropriated for ''fxins'' designed
purposely to spellbind hazel eyes and
give her of the irrepressible mirth
to understand we'll that a man need
not necessarily be fool just be-
cause he sometimes couldn't think of
his own name-that indeed he might
be quite a fellow.
Spencer rolled slowly over and
dashing the locks from his forehead,
looked far across the water where
Bob, he who in a recent year had
courted death on San Juan hill, who
mad knelt in storm of shot and shell
and drawn the lids over the luster-
less eyes of Bill, who used to sit
astrlde the limbs above and shower
the bursting beechnuts down-Bill
was brother of the girl who romped
sat In the rays of the hot Septem-
Der sun casting lazily for bass. 1t
was at his instance that Spencer had
torn himself from the haunts of the
restless and sought quiet near his
old home in cottage all Bob's own
boo had a fashion of divining the de-
sires OF his friends even before they
themselves had sensed them.
Three years ago, just after the
historic battle of the hill, he had
written long letter of coincidence
ana something else. but somehow,
aiter he had stopped to recall the
.,me when he had been subject to
.nose queer spells of quaking, the
ietter was never mailed. When Bob.
sunburned and worn, returned from
.he neld, it was hastily rewritten un-
aer another dating and entrusted to
ms care, but there came no answer
one evening. early in his stay at
.he lakes, Spencer strolled away
rom the cottage, and though it was
wen on in the night when he re-
turned. Bob asked no questions nor
M spencer vouchsafe explanation.
ue might have told how he had gone
on past the old mill and tumble
Z 1oWn schoolhouse and passed and re-
passed the little white cottage with
.ae green blinds and broad veranda
.uat nestled in the glen. He might
w told how, summoning to his
service all the resolution that he
possessed. he had crept along the
'eiset greensward beside the gravel
rath TO the shadow of the lilac bush
Aa' grew beside the kitchen win
1o". lie might have t. Id how he
s'ood there trembling as might some
.ery guilty fellow about to perpe-
-, a'e the most dastardly crime of
,'s me; how he felt weak-kneed and
~ -" the perspiration gathered on his
~" ana formed little rivulets which
svursed down his face and neck: but
'nese sensations were better kept
A. = Ainseif They reminded him of a
when unexpectedly confronted
4 els eyes of irrepressible Inirth,
= nag been rendered speechless, and