Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-02-26

got into the habit Of seeking Jane to
dance because she did all the talking.
Then he began to take her rowing in
the afternoons. James heart began TO
warm to Robert. 1t was better to have
a man say nothing than to let him spoil
things with commonplace remarks.
She made him row her to shady hooks,
where she would take little volume OF
Lord Tennyson and read 1t to him. She
would gaze at him silently and mysteri-
ously Robert began to be listless and
pale. The silence and poetry and ad-
grafton Of Jane were enervating him.
But whenever he made an attempt to
take anyone else out rowing James
eyes would give him to understand that
he had stabbed her to the heart; so
poor, huge, sweet-tempered Robert
was finally bound hand and foot. lie
followed Jane all day long, let himself
be read to, quarreled with, admired,
and often showed sparks OF real emo
ton. Still Jane was conscious Of
sense of disappointment. TWAS heavy
work-this dragging of Robert through
the proper PAGES.
At last her homemade hero was
obliged to leave. Jane frightened up.
Here was an opportunity for touch
ing farewell. That afternoon she and
Robert rowed to a beautiful little is
land where, on a moss grown bank
above the lake, they watched the set
ting sun "for the last time" as Jane
said.
Robert, let's carve P. L. on this log"
she cried, enthusiastically.
"P. LIP" said Robert, in solemn as
constituent.
eyes, for Paradise Lostl"
whats the joker" he asked.
Jane felt it would be useless to ex-
plain.
The next morning as Robert depart
ed on the little steamer Jane watched
until she could no longer see shining
on her hero's coat the silver heart she
made him swear to keep for her sake
always. Then she gave little sigh of
relief. Robert, indeed, was heavy
work.
Jane now felt that she was either
one Of those to whom real love never
comes, or that since romance was dead
she would rot continue to be its sole
upholder. She began to join the other
girls in singing coon songs in the even
ings, and to play tennis with a shaggy,
red-haired college boy. She often
made attempts to go to the Lost Para
disc and mourn in pensive solitude,
but this redhaired boy was always
getting up a party to fish or dig for
worms, and dragged her with them.
The red-haired boy was ugly, head
strong and had no ear for Tennyson,
but he had a smile like those for which
come dams on the stage have been
known to receive large salaries.
One day the hotel guests hired the
little steamer and toured the lakes for
a picnic. The red-haired boy sat by
Jane on the back deck and made puns.
At luncheon he beat boy over the
head with a chicken bone because he
didn't pass the cakes to Jane. When
it began to rain, as it always does at
picnics. he seized Jane by the hand
and made her run along the road un-
til she begged for mercy. Reaching
the steamer, he pushed her into his
oyercoat, wrapped her feet in potato
sack and composed himself beside her
to play the banjo all the way home.
II wasn't at all romantic, but very
pleasant in it's way. Jane wished she
had not wasted so much time looking
for heroic hero.
"How long do you stay here?" she
asked.
"Till tomorrow" he answered,
"Only tomorrow" she cried.
The red-haired boy stopped singing
and smiled at her He wasn't such a
very ugly boy. "Sure; on the $3.50
boat. Wave your hand aS we go past"
he said.
In the early morning following Jane
was walked by loot from the steam
er. Jumping out of bed she seized a
towel and tapped it from the window.
As the boat rounded the corner she
could see the sunlight shining on the
red-haired boy. He waved his straw
hat-and he was gone.
Jane crept back to bed and wrung
her hands in pleasurable anguish. "To
think loved him all along" she said.
land never even knew it."-Columbia |
Literary Monthly.