The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-12-06
and that in all probability the whole

and that IN all probability the whole
neighborhood heard him.
Still the old gentleman shook his
head despairingly and said: "Come
into my house. My daughter will
make me understand. You talk too
rapidly and loudly"
Just as he said it a door opened
softly n d a girls voice trembling
with laughter, said: "What is it,
father? Does the gentleman want
something ?"
81 think he does, Bertha, but
cannot understand what"
After one glance at the girls face
Jack "sized himself up as an ass,'
as he would have expressed it, and
he knew she had overheard the whole
interview. He really had not the
falHgafp sMds deGhsed 81 friftiiifigt tiii with ms
Aunt Sophia or else he was lunatic
and that neither he nor his aunt ap-
proved of his conduct.
The girl let him founder and get
red in the face for about ten minutes,
enjoying the situation as only mis-
chievous girl can, but he managed to
convey his meaning.
Then she said: ''I understand
you perfectly and can perhaps ex-
plain it satisfactorily to both you and
your aunt. Father keeps weather
record, and he has as long as 1 can
remember. He takes observations
three times day-at in the after
noon, at 7 in the evening and early
in the morning, probably before your
aunt gets up." Here two irrepressi-
Bile dimples broke out and limited that
laughter was not far behind. Jack,
who had recovered his equanimity,
admired them immensely, but he was
not to be diverted from his purpose,
so he said judically:
"But why does he use handker-
chief?"
"For the very simple reason that
if there is a light wind stirring he
cannot tell its direction any other
way"
"Well, why does he stare so at my
aunt as she sits at her Window"
81 think it is not at her, butt
here she paused long enough to make
impressive what should follow-"at
the smokestack from the furnace.
The smoke that comes from it makes
a first rate weather vane."
This explanation was made SO de-
murely and with such evident enjoy
ment at the ludicrousness of the stu
alton that Jack was slightly provoked
at her and said rather sharply:
"Well, you must admit that it
looks queer to fellow not accustom-
ed to it,
GIVE no doubt it does,' she replied
with a smile, 'but we have always
lived here, and father has always
taken observations just in this way,
ties, so, of course, it awakens no COM
ment."
AS Jack had no reply ready, she
said:
"Please make my apologies to your
aunt for any annoyance she may have
felt," and as the comical side came
uppermost again she broke into
laugh and said "Poor old father !
The idea of him being accused of
flirting '' Jack joined in the laugh,
and the innocent cause Of all this
trouble and fun sat staring out of the
window as mild and placid as though
no such charge lay at his door. AS
yet he did not even know the reason
of the visit of the ertwhile angry but
now smiling young man.
Jack apologized humbly, but he
had no idea of letting the story get
out on him, so he tried in an elegant
manner, which turned out fiat fail
ure, to intimate to the girl that it
should be a secret between them
selves, as he said /:
"I hope you will not-I mean, ah,
er-but you WON'T"
"Won't tell it on you?' she said,
with unfeeling bluntness. Father
would be avenged rather more than
the case calls for if the students should
get hold of the story"
Jack asked her to call on his aunt,
which she promished to do, and he
took his departure to explain to Miss
Sophia that she had only made the
same blunder that many other woman
had done-jumped at conclusion too
readily.
Jack visited his aunt with great
regularity, but spent the major por-
ton of his time at the weather pro-
phet's across the way, so that the
neighbors concluded he was taking a
postgraduate course in meteorology
or something.