The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1902-07-15

an eager interest in telegraphy and
asked him to give her instructions, he
caught himself wondering if she was
searching for some means of self sup
port. Ralph's Office was located in a
cozy corner of the hotels square en-
trance, and here on his practice trans
mitter she studied telegraphy on rainy
days with the same energy that she
put into athletics when the sun shone.
To be sure, gossips elevated their
shoulders and glanced knowingly to-
ward the handsome operator, who was
willing instructor, but Miss Cum
mings was gossip proof.
One afternoon she stood at the desk
as he was preparing to turn it over to
the night operator. Bawn was chat
ting by the Morse system with the
operator at Boston, and as he prepared
to shut off she caught the signal "Sev-
enty-three" and pricked up her ears.
what was that 'Seventy-three' for?"
she asked as they strolled down the
big hall together.
'Seventy-three,' he replied, us the
universal greeting. 1t means pretty
nearly everything from Have drink
to an elaborate expression of good will.
You won't find it in the books, but
every telegrapher knows the sign to be
one of greeting and regard" Then
the conversation turned to other
things, and the incident was tempo
rarily closed.
Bawn had arranged. to wait till the
hotel closed, but one afternoon in Sep
TENDER there was trouble in the Bawn-
Cummings federation over Mamie Eel
ton, and Miss Cummings expressed
certain opinions regarding the FELTON,
person with rather more directness
than was wholly necessary. This off
her mind. she turned her attention to
Bawn himself and declared it to be her
belief that man who would take a
young woman out rowing at 8 o'clock
and never return with her to the hotel
till after l was hardly sincere in his
protestations of affection for third
party.
Bawn offered as an explanation the
fact that he was stuck on a sand bar
and could not work off till after IL, but
this was rejected with fine scorn, and
as Edith moved away from the desk
she remarked that an engagement to
go rowing would be indefinitely post
poned Then, womanlike, she fled to
( her room and spent the rest of the aft
ernoon in tears.
That evening she went to the boat
.aad2ng Dlone and. selecting a light
BOAT, set out for a solitary row. She
padded about the lake for awhile,
thinking of the trips she and Ralph
had enjoyed, then with a sudden de-
termination started away from shore.
Bawn had told her that he had stuck
on a sand bar at Plum island. in the
center of the lake and around the point
from the hotel. Edith decided that she
would look at the Plum island sand
bar herself and make certain that there
was absolutely no foundation for
Bawns tale.
She found relief from her vexed feel
ings in the exercise, and, setting her
course for the island. she pulled lusti-
ly. She did not realize what progress
she was making till she found that the
boat had stopped-on the same banki
She reversed the oars, but the mo-
mentum had carried the boat well on
to the bank Of mud, and her effort was
without result She removed her shoes
and stockings to get out and push, but
a preliminary sounding with the oar
an afterthought provea to her that
Bawn's contention had been correct
and that the mud was too deep and
too soft for such a proceeding.
The twilight faded into dusk, and
with the darkness came a sense of ut
ter desolation. Once a faroff whistle
told of the approach Of the night train,
but for the rest there were only the
sound Of the crickets on the island and
the call of an owl somewhere ON the