The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-16
Where the Apple ReddenS.
[From "The Sketch."l

IFrom 1.-The Sketch."1
Her hair was wind-blown: her hat,
turned down and shading her bright
face, was of white calico and belonged
properly to a young brother. Her pink
cotton dress had paid repeated visits to
the wash-tub, and, to the critical eye,
was nearing the period when yet anoth-
er Tubing would be advisable. She
would have said she was horribly untidy
not fit to be seen; in fact, she said it.
He considered. and rightly, that h
was SO exceptionally blessed as to look
delicious in anything. and he very wise
ly put that also into words.
That's very prettily said" she laugh
ed. "No-don't go on. I am no SUCH
a hoyden but hat I know the correct
and only answer 1 only lke"Eshe
nodded her mouth, her distracting
mouth, to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
that might be true"
Mine all are. when addressed TO
| you," he fastened to declare.
Then they are more like bare state
ments of facts than compliments, aren't
they?" h smiled up at him, and not
specially to your credit
Greatly to yours" he insisted, "since
your charms leave no margin for en-
bellishment-"
ooh, that is sweetly saidv' she cried.
wi !, plCdoCs say Liz AlOAOs v yo0
cannot better that"
But 1 cannot stand num-" he object
ed.
You can sit in silence. though"
What do you mean?"
Last night, at dinner, at your lady
loves side 1 was watching you-be1ng
opposite and with no one but a brother
to speak to myself, / could not help 1t.
And you neither of you spoke--at any
rate, you didn't. So you see what you
can do if you try, :.
ct was she-who had been trying"
he said, in mournfulness.
Had she? Poor you-she looks a lit
tie like that" She pulled herself up
with a pretty affectation of alarm.
What am I saying? Oh, I beg your
pardon! She looks as nice as can be-
she can be. 1t was you who looked put
put"
81 had a reason to look it,"
Nc Doubt mean, she must have
had some reason for letting you look
it."
"She could not help being"
Poor thing|So weak? l mean,
bound to such a tyrant!'
Il give her her own way in every
thing"
She flashed round on him with her
most provoking smile.
How horribly tame of you!" she
said. mo wonder h has lost in
terest in = looks!"
After all" he said, Il didn't follow
you out here to ak of her."
We'll, then, suggest a topic-Im only
waiting"
While she still waited she looked up
at the laden apple tree under which
they stood. She seemed to be selecting
with the eye of a connoisseur. but 1T
may have been the blue and white
patches of cloud-fecked sky seen
through the branches which held her
attention. He gazed at her. He had
been so gazing every available moment
during the brief week he had known
her, and always with the same sense of
pleasure in the picture she made. 1t
was true she was only the half-edu-
Gated, untidy, pleasure-loving daughter
(the adjectives had been supplied for
him) of the i-mprovident, comfortable
farmhouse where he and his mother
and the girl he was engaged to were
staying as paying guests, but he saw
no reason in this why he should not adj
mire her for the qualities he did not
need to have supplied for him.
Il came out meaning to say a hundred
things to you," he said at last, "and I
can think of one"
II came out meaning to pick-well.
several, not hundreds quite, of apples"
said she, "and I can't reach one"
There is something 1 might do for
you" he said, Selling his opportunity,
or trying to seize it. For, try as he
would, neither could he reach an apple.
81 tell you what-that lowest branch
there; it has four beauties on it. If
you were to She looked up at him.
SIIlllcu, lOOhSQ uOWH again, ptllSlFcAy up
at the coveted branch, with a sidelong
glance like a flash at him, and then
down once more. But she did not con-
clude her sentence.
eff you would let me-if you'd only let
me lift you up" he said. suddenly in
spired, you could reach them yourself.
couldn't you?"
"Ah! That would do it, wouldn't it?
And I want them sol"
Then I may?"
Certainly not! I'd rather-go with
out the applesi"
II am much the stronger" he said.
How if I seized you against your
will?'
why, I couldn't help that, could I?'
she asked And the thing was done in
less time than it takes to tell.
But she had only picked one apple,
the nearest, when his l~ady-love's voice
came to them through tie trees, calling
him by name. And there was a sharp
note in her voice dixie the taste of an
unripe APPLE which told them what
she saw.
IF you put me down before Nv
picked the four I'll never forgive you,.