The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-08-05
A Bow Of Corn
Colored Ribbon

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a girl with an umbrella ID her hand
and a reticule on her arm was yalnly
endeayoring 70 tie her shoe on a crowd
ed sidewalk
''NVill you permit meg''
A young man spoke the words in a
well modulated voice and with def
erential tone. Then, without waiting
for reply, he dropped on one knee on
the sloppy stone, regardless of the mud
or the crease III his trousers, and en-
deayored to tie the shoesting Alas, ii
was broken III the middle!
If an united shoestring in the street
is a misfortune. a broken shoestring is
a tragedy. The girl, seeing the state
Of the case. would have been appalled,
but for that reliance on the sterner sex
natural to women She waited for him
to get over the difficulty without in
the least concerning herself about it.
The gallant fellow looked at the bro
ken string. thought rapidly, then pIung-
ed his hands into each Of his dozen
pockets. From one Of them be drew
corn colored ribbon that had bound To-
gether packages Of cigars; then, get
ting rid of the broken shoestring. he
laced the shoe with the ribbon.
There" be said, rising and standing
with lifted hat; ''that will serve till you
reach home"
The girl gave him smile and
Thank your and went on her way.
Grafton Hatch watched her retreat
ing figure till it had passed out of
sight. He was not conscious of the
impression she had made on him; it
simply occurred to him that he would
like to meet her again. and when It had
occurred to him once 1t occurred to
him again and again. Indeed he kept
on thinking SO till at last 1t became
a mania with him.
Months passed before be was re-
warded by another sight Of the charm
er. It was springtime. and he was
riding In an open electric car. A car
coming from the opposite direction
sped past him. and he had such
vision as one may gain from a flash Of
lightning on a dark night It was the
girl whose shoe he had laced. and in
a buttonhole OF her corsage was the
bow Of corn colored ribbon he had
used for a shoestring.
The fire smoldering Ii Grafton
Hateh's bosom at seeing this evidence
Of the impression he had made burst
into flame. But the pleasure he took
in the discovery was married BY the
thought that living as he did III a great
city the chances were that he might
never meet the girl again. or. If he
did. possibly under circumstances pro 4
hibitory to his having word with
her The distressing complication well
nigh threw him into fever. He sig
nailed the conductor to stop the car,
with a view to following the one just
passed, but on looking back saw that
It was already far Ia the distance and
realized the impossibility Of catching
1t.
Hatch spent great deal of time try
ing to conjure up method Of COM
munieating with the girl who wore his
colors, but could think Of none ex-
cept d personal advertisement, and
from this he shrank Nevertheless, ats
er a long period of distress lie tried s
but whether his adj never mC, the
girls eyes OF she did not care 70 reply
he did not hear from her
During the following sumter Hatch
visited the seashore There were
number Of resorts scattered along the
coast, and the place where Hatch was
stopping was separated from tae one
adjoining 1t on the north by an inlet
It was moi very broad nor very deep |
but there was no bridge across it and |
unless boat WAS handy there was no
way to cross It except BY swimming
One afternoon Hatch went with d party