The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-03-17
HOW THE SERGEANT
FELL IN LOVE
BY F. H. MELOON
Copyright. 1908. by Daily Story Pub. COZ

hOLlCE SERGEANT JAMES BRY-
AN, with the humorous twinkle of
the ancient O'Briens in his eye, sat fac
ing me in a restaurant stall.
Il was younger once than | am now"
remarked the sergeant, suddenly.
This was a truth | could not deny,
though anyone who saw the sergeant at
% would have placed his age a score Of
years behind what it really was With
half laugh the sergeant, who never
hesitated at telling a story on himself,
proceeded
The days when first got accustomed
to life on the force were full Of fun and
frolic. Some hardship, of course, but
for the most part | was about as light
hearted a chap as could be picked out
in any county in New Hampshire. | was
the same sort of fool that many a young
man had been before me and has been
since, and when l looked up to the sec
ond story window Of a house on Essex
street and saw Blanche Stirling smiling
down at me my heart went faster than
ever and l walked giddily for quarter
of a mile thereafter | should have
stopped stock still right on the spot, but
as soon as | caught a glimpse of her
black-brown hair combed up in great
wave over her forehead and saw her pref
ty lips part in one of the most taking
smiles of pearl I've ever seen the vision
vanished behind a curtain and saw it no
more for three or four days
In the meantime | wore my back col
lar stud in front. mixed up my cuff but
TONS went without my suppers and all
that sort of thing trying to get off to
catch another glimpse Of Blanche. Ihad
learned her name within an hour of the
time | first saw her looking down at
me and learned, too, that she lived alone
with her mother in the upper part of the
tenement. AS pretty as picture didn't
express anything in speaking Of her IN
less you added that it was a picture by
one of the old masters, sir"
But, sir, if you could see her to-day as
she was then, you would understand. AS
it is | can hardly tell you any more of
how she looked TO me, and not 10 me
alone, sir. but to others as well, Hko
gazed upon her in the old days.
In the next week passed her on the
street two or thr5e times and she did
not so much as deign to glance at me.
/ began TO think | must have been mis-
taken in believing | was the object of
her smile the week before But one
night as she was walking home unescort-
ed, Blanche Stirling was accosted by
half-drunken fellow. In an instant, as it
were, | had him by the collar and he was
thrown into the street with no gentle
hand. | can be tolerable rough at times,
sir" And Sergeant Bryan smiled as he
bent his right arm in the manner pecu-
liar to youngsters who show of tueir
muscle"
Then came another of those entranc-
Ing smiles, and | tell you, sir, actu-
ally felt faint all over. Just the way
Elijah must have felt when they lifted
him up to heaven in a golden chariot.
Branchs thanked me very prettily and
invited me to call at the house the fol-
lowing day, il | were off duty, in order
TO allow her mother the opportunity OF
thanking me more fully. You may be-
lieve that | accepted the invitation with
an eagerness that she saw was too real to
be assumed.
The man who wouldn't have yielded to
that invitation under the same circum-
stances would have had to have harder
hear: than the folks in Seabury, of whom
It's current rumor that they stone the
funerals that pass their doors so that
in that place no undertaken can be hired
to use an ordinary sort of hearse, sir.
The next day the Widow Stirling re-
ceiveu Hc pleasantly and might say al
most overwhelmed me with her ELUSIVE.
thanks for what l had done for her
daughter, which was mere nothing, sir,
and all in the way of my duty as an Off
Ger. not to add as man, sir.
The days passed on and met Blanche
frequently going with her to theaters
and dances and such like and all the
while getting deeper and deeper in love
calf love, mind you, for I'd never loved
beforehand l felt just like rat in a
feather mattress that can't tell where
be's at till he's come out of it, sir