Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-06
"Who is he, !

ing little. "I thought the one of yesterday was very attentive to our wants"
 "Yes, he was, but there is differ ence even in pole-pullers. Did you notice the way this man took his cap off? Why, you might have been bow ing to some one on Keneseo street."
 By and by Jack Parmelee paused a moment to chat with the two girls.
 "How does your new pole-puller get on?" was the first question he asked.
 "Oh, beautifully" responded Miss Merton. ''Do you know his name?'
 "'Rossiter' is what he calls him. self"
 ''That sounds rather ambiguous. Do you think that isn't his name?"
 'No, I've no reason to think so.''
 How'd you get hold of him? He doesn't work about here. I under stood all the pole-pullers were men from near by.'' Parmelee then explained how he had happened to employ Rossiter. ''He came with the Becrafts over | yonder," he added, indicating them | with nod, mill people from Falls burgh. Very likely he's a mill hand, | but don't care what he is so longs he looks after you an the rest. We're mighty short O help. Well, I de- clare," he concluded, glancing into Miss Densmore's box, If you ain't maxim picker! Miriam's nowhere
 ''I don't talk as much as Miriam does," said Miss Densmore, demurely.
 'You can," cried that young lady, "only you won't
 l "I don't think it's at all likely at she can," said Jack Parmelee, with a grimance. {" 'Tain't possible! But here!" he exclaimed suddenly, "I can't waste any more valuable time on you two," and off he posted to a different part of the yard, where 8 stentorian voice was bawling "Hop- sack!" s
 Rossiter thoroughly enjoyed minis 1 tering to the wants of the two girls. Itihad been many a long day since he had been thrown into even the re- l motest contact with women of re- finement, and though he had little 1 speech with Miss Merton and her l cousin, he had plenty of opportunity i to observe them. Occasionally the | or piled him with question, feeling free to do so as Mir. Merton's daughter, but he held himself scrupu- l lously aloof unless his services were l required, and was careful to say l nothing unless he was first spoken to. 1 Miss Merton's sunny temperament and gay spirits pleased and amused I him, but he found Miss Densmore's l personality far the more attractive. I Furthermore, to him she was fairer to look upon. Her complexion was remarkable for it's clarity. Now and l again, when she was speaking, in her l cheeks a faint flush like the tint of l the briar-rose blossom would come and go. Her eyes, of the deepest blue, 1 met those of the person with whom I she was conversing with an open and l confiding glance. Constancy was l mirrored in them, and they seemed like twin wells of purity and truth. One little lock of hair, in which the sunbeams ambushed, had a way of es- caping from it's confinement, and, l crinkling across her brow, lent 8 soft witchery to her face. Her voice I rippled in sweet modulations, and T in it a beguiling contagion.
 "Gettin' acquainted?" asked Joe Becraft, as Rossiter tarried an in- ] stant by the box where the Becraft family were busily engaged.
 It was not the first remark of the sort that Joe had indulged in, and it jared on Rossiter, he hardly knew why. Becraft's previous familiari- ties had not touched him in this way. He was we'll aware that it was natur- I al for Becraft thus to express him. self, and that what he said was meant wholly in good part, but inwardly he l resented it; and while he endeavored not to show this in his reply, Joe was quick to see something was wrong, and thereafter was more careful how he referred to Miss Mer- ton and Miss Densmore.
 During the two days that followed Rossiter was quite as cautious as at first not to address any conversation to the two girls unless they invited it. The free-and-easy life of the hop fields, however, soon made itself felt in their intercourse, and when Miss Merton and her cousin discovered that their pole-puller was intellectu- ally their equal, whatever he might be from social point of view, they often chatted freely with him during the occasional intervals when he was not busy and chanced to be standing hear. They began, however, to have considerable curiosity concerning him, for despite his rough clothes it grew to be evident that he had some time been accustomed to different environment from that in which he was now placed.
 'I don't believe he's a mill-hand at aal," announced Miss Merton, dur ing one of the talks the two had con cerning him.
 s'You speak as though you had an intimate acquaintance with the work CTS in mills," Miss, Densmore re- turned with some amusement.
 Well, mill-hands don't pick you up when you misquote Shakespeare, J Al Il.