The Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Ark.) 190?-current, 1906-06-19
A LOVE STORY.
ENE MYSTERIOUS CHARM OF
ANNIE BoCKTE.

their arms under the fond impression
that they were brides as thsy had
been informed They indeterminateiy
settled down into human beings again
when Miss Barton stopped smiling and
turned toward the little chairs where
the rest of the class was supposed TO
be primly sitting.
Willie sypniewskil" she called.
Put your chair right back where 1t
wasl"
A stocky little boy, with solemn
brown eyes, who had not yet lived up
to family expectations by growing 10
At his next brothers trousers, which
caseaded forloinly about his square an
kles, got UP glumly and, picking up mis-
red chair, moved II couple of yards
away from where 1t mad been planted
tor five minutes until Miss Barton de-
tected it.
The spot from which he removed it
was as close to another little red chair
As was possible, and on that other
chair sat a very homely little girl.
She could not even attract by the pleas
ant frankness of childhood, because she
had sullen, broodihg face. Her pale
haxen hair stretched backward from a
knobby forehead her small eyes were
a washed-out blue and her complexion
dough. There were cheap earrings in
her large ears and holes in her stock
ing legs. BY what ocult means Annie
had fascinated Willie it was hard to
figure out, but If he could sit next her
and gaze at her devotedly he was
blissful
AS his rightful seat was six removed
nom Armies. in the interests OF dis
eipline, Miss Barton could not coun-
tenance the romance. Besides, it an
noyed her because she could not under
stand it. II ii had been beauty which
rresistibly lured Willie Sypniewski
she could have sympathized with him;
even brilliance would have made it
torgivable, but nobody could accuse
Annie Bockte OF anything better than
being glitteringly stupid.
AS for Annie herself, whether Willie
were sitting beside her or across the
room made no noticeable difference.
She rarely glanced at him, being deep
In pessimistic meditations of her own.
See here, Willie said Miss Bar
ton, this is the seventh, 2. 3, 4, 5,
s, 7-seventh time you have disobeyed
me this morning by trying to sit next
Annie Bockte. Don't you want TO
mind me?"
Torty-eight children were breath
lessly listening. The forty ninth she
about whom the trouble had arisen,
was as usual placidly Indifferent. Will
lie nodded his bead and wriggled his
feet
Then why don't you?" demanded
Miss Barton, helplessly
Willie sQuirmed ana swallowed hard.
He stared at the northeast corner OF
the ceiling and gulped. Dunno" he
muttered and twisted his feet around
the chair rungs.
III you move your chair again Miss
Barton pronounced in awful tones, Il
shall punish you! shall not allow
you to sit in the circle with the other
children for two whole days, You Will
have to sit over in that corner by your
self in the big chair! Now remember
Willie Sypniewsld stared at the floor
and his ears burned. That threatened
corner looked terribly apart and lone
some and il was even farther from
Annie than where ne sat He stole a
stealthy glance al the cause of all his
difhcuity. She was stolidly reciting a
rhyme in obedience 20 Miss Barton S
request. When she had finished she
sat down and looked straight ahead,
Willies heart beat in admiration OF
that magnificent repose. She was SO
mysterious, 50 aloOf,
Suddenly the children IN the other
half of the circle were resolved into a
snowstorm. Drifting snowhakes, they
wavered through the air TO and fro.
There was the Old two-yard space be-
tween his chair and Annie's. Long
Willie gased at her crudeIy carved pro-
ale, at her brass earrings, at her faded,
grimy blue dress He edged over am
inch and stopped, for he remembered
the threatened corner Where were
her eyelashes-didn't she have any eye
lashes? A feverish desire to solve the
question about those absent append
ages stirred his soul
In a twinkling it was done. While
the snowstorm ragged between him and
Miss Barton Willie Sypniewski picked
np his little red chair, hurried over and
sat down beside Annie Bookte with a
sigh of relieved content. Yes, she did
have eyelashes, but they were white.
"williel" called Miss Barton sharply
He came back to the world with a
sickening thud. She said no more, but
pointed at the big chair in the far cor
DER and Willie, the heavens crashing
about him, went, like many better men
before him, into Punishment for the
sake of his best beloved.
Supremacy Indifferent Annie Bookte
nat. She did not even turn to watch
mis- tagging steps as did the other IS.