Connecticut western news., 1903-04-23
of down together before this

Next holidays" said Dick as the now thoroughly fouled revolver kicked wildly in his hand, well get another pistol. central fire, that will carry farther"
 "There won't be any next holidays for me-" said Maisie. "Pm going away
 Where to-"
 "I don't know. My lawyers have writ ten to Mrs. Jennett, and I've got to be educated somewhere-in France, per haps-I don't know where, but I shall be glad to go away"
 "I shan't like 1t bit. l suppose l shall be left. Look here, Maisie, Is 1t really true you're going? Then these holidays will be the last l shall see anything of you; and I go back to school next week. I wish'-
 The young blood turned his cheeks scarlet. Maisie was picking grass tufts and throwing them down the slope at a yellow sea poppy holding all by It. self to the illimitable levels of the mud flats and the milk white sea beyond.
 "I wish" she said after n pause, ''that I could see you again some time. You wish that too"
 "Yes, but 1t would have been better if-if-you had-shot straight over there-down by the breakwater."
 Maisie looked with large eyes for a moment. And this was the boy who only ten days before had decorated Amomma's horns with cut paper ham frills and turued him out a bearded derision among the public ways! Then she dropped her eyes. This was not the boy.
 Don't be stupid" she said reprov ingly, and with swift instinct attacked the side issue. How selfish you are! Just think what I should have felt if that horrid thing had killed you! Pm quite miserable enough already"
 "Why? Because you're going away from Mrs. Jennett?'
 "No."
 From me then?'
 No answer for a long time. Dick dared not look at her He felt, though he did not know, all that the past four years had been to him, and this the more acutely since he had no knowl- edge to put his feelings in words.
 T don't know" she said. 'T sup pose 1t is.'
 "Maisie. you must know. I'm not supposing."
 Let's go home," said Maisie weakly.
 But Dick was not minded to retreat.
 II can't say things" he pleaded, "and I'm awfully sorry for teasing you about Amomma the other day. It's all different now, Maisie, can't you see? And you might have told me that you were going instead of leaving me to find out"
 You didn't. I did tell. Oh, Dick, what's the use of worryingT
 "There isn't any. But we've been to gether years and years, and I didn't know how much I cared"
 q don't believe you ever did care"
 No, didn't, but I do. I care awful ly now, Maisie," he gulped. "Maisie darling, say you care, too, please"
 'I do. Indeed I do, but 1t won't be any use.'
 "Why?"
 Because I am going away"
 ''Yes, but if you promise before yor go. Only say-will you?' A second "darlingp> came to his lips more easily than the first. There were few endear ments In Dicks home or school life He had to find them by instinct. Dicl took the little hand, blackened with the escaped gas of the revolver.
 'I promise" she said solemnly, but if care there Is no need for promls- ing" ------------- = .-- -
 And do you earep For the first time in the past few minutes their eyes met and spoke for them who had DO skill in speech.
 "Oh, Dick, don't--please don'tI It was all right when we said good morn ing, but now it's all different" Amom- ma looked on from afar. He had seen his property quarrel frequently, but he had never seen kisses exchanged before. The yellow sea poppy was wiser and nodded its head approving ly. Considered as a kiss, that was a failure; but since it was the first, other than those demanded by duty, in all the world that either had ever given or taken, 1t opened to them new worlds, and every one of them glorious, so that they were lifted above the considera- ton of any worlds at all, especially those in which tea Is a necessity, and sat still, holding each others hands and saying not word.
 You can't forget now," said Dick at last. There was that on his cheek that stung more than ganpowder.
 T shouldn't have forgotten, any how" said Maisie, and they looked at each other and saw that each was changed from the companion of an hour ago to a wonder and a mystery they could not understand. The sun began to set, and night wind thsashed along the bents of the foreshore.
 We shall be awfully late for tea" said Maisie. Let's go home."
 Lets use the rest of the cartridges first" said Dick, and he helped Maisie down the slope of the fort to the sea, descent she was quite capable of ac- complaining at full speed. Equally gravely Maisie took the grimy hand. Dick bent forward clumsily. Maisie drew her hand away, and Dick blushed.
 Its very pretty" he said.
 "Pooh!' said Maisie, with a little laugh of gratified vanity. She stood close to Dick as he loaded the revolver for the last time and fired across the sea with a vague notion at the back of his head that he was protecting Maisie from all the evils of the world. A pud- dle far across the mud caught the last rays of the sun and turned into a wrathful red disk. The light held Dicks attention for a moment, and as he raised his revolver there fell upon him renewed sense of the miraculous, In that he was standing by Maisie, who had promised to care for him for an in- definite length of time till such date as A gust of the growing wind drove the girls long black hair across his face as she stood with her hand on his shoulder calling Amomma "a little honst :, md Ro hl,r tl,s,