The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-01-11
CRUSHED STRAWBERRIES.

4: !: Z:
uron whose toes he has just stepped
unawares.
! Cur acquaintance, thus ileuspicicus
ly begun, would possibly have stopped
1t this point but for an incident, small
AMI Insignificant in itself maybe, bu1
! fraught with tremendous consequence.
/, to myself.
1t happened on q glorious daJ IN mic
June, In the height Of tie strawberry
season. had purchased q couple o1
pounds Of the luscious fruit from q
barrow man in High uolborn. to be
deposited. according to custom, In the
bosom Of my family.
Mother secretly regarded this habit
Of mine as slightly vulgar, and En-.
mie shared her views; but neither ever
| ventured upon open remonstrance.
On this day the fruit had looked
particularly tempting, and. though
was burdened with various other par.
| GELS Of considerable bulk. could not
| refrain from investing the customary
| sixpence.
With some difficulty I managed to
convey myself and parcels up the steps
Of my usual bus. and to sinS into the
| nearest vacant eeat-I ought to have
said the nearest apparently vacant
seat. For If I had not had SO many
| parcels and things to distract my at
tent.on I might have noticed that n
bag Of strawberries-the exact coun-
! toroart of the one was carrying-was
| reposing UPON the seat vas about to
occupy. I might have saved myself
The humiliation Of sitting down upon
pcrislable article which did not be-
long to me. But fate willed otherwise.
Ny mind was distraught. Ny thoughts
were bent upon the parcels in my en-
brace. In fact. I sat down. fairly and
scuarely, upon those strawberries, and,
realizing their presence, became Gov
cred with confusion. SO much 50 that
it was fully thirty seconds before l
dared to look at the owner Of the In
5ured fruit seated by my side.
1t certainly did not add to my COM
posure to discover that this was none
otner than my interesting fellow pas.
senger with the attractive voice.
I stammered a confused apology.
feeling had made myself thoroughly
ridiculous, but grateful for the fact
that the incident had apparently es-
cared the general notice.
Then, all in a fash, the funny side
Of ray misfortune became revealed to
mc. I would have given all my worldly
goods and chatt..els to stifle the demon
Of rnirtl that took possession OF me
at that moment. AS it was. the ef-
fort to hide my merriment nearly
killed NE. l glanced at my neighbor,
hoping l had not been observed-only
&c discover that he also was shaking
with silent laughter. The sight YVES
too muih for my self-control. MY
sense Of propriety suddenly deserted
ne, and l Joined quite unrestrainedly
in the series Of low chuckles to which
ire owner of the crushed strawberries
was giving vent. -,
1T was frightfully awkward OF me-"
I gasped at last, feeling had not suf-
fciently expressed my sense OF the
onormity OF my offense.
ION the contrary" he returned,
promptly, ut was entirely my fault.
| had no business to put that bag
down on a seat which I might have
known would be occupied"
But I ought to have looked where
/ was going to sit"
md l ought to have seen you COM
ing. But please don't distress yourself
:uy more about such tride."
"Then you must put an end to my
distress by taking my strawberries and
win, me the crushed ones. It's a
fair exchange"
81 can't allow that. I arr bound to
tell YOU that, in sitting on those straw
berries, you have really done me a
ecod turn that can never repay"
MY curiosity would have demanded
q, exclamation Of this mysterious ut
terance forthwith, but just then the
bus arrived at its destination.
From that day felt as II my new
,couaintance and I had been intimate
friends for years; and It seemed the
most natural thing in the world that.
Al our next meeting. we should resume
he conversation Of the previous day.
"What did you mean by saying I
Lad done you a good tu-n IN crushing
those strawbcrriesf' ! asked. Don't