The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-09-29
TIE EVENING STORY
EIerv,s Dilemma

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seat on a barrel in the general store.
They've made life easier" answered
Ellery Brown. It was an old discus
sion of theirs-a topic they fell back
on when all else failed. Jonas dWelt
on the numerous accidents that were
unknown in leisurely stage coach days;
hsiiery talked Of the wonder Of machln-
cry and electricity.
tPoohl" smiled Jonas. who's any
better off for the shocks kilograms
bring EN- And as for electric light
pretty girls face used to look twice
shining! Not that you'd care about
that he added slyly, and Ellery red
dened. Every one knew that he was
the shyest man in all Elmway village.
AS child he became speeches. with
CONFUSION w hen any one noticed Mimi
he stammered and suffered his way
through the gaWky age, and when he
arrived at young manhood, though
popular among his own sex, the sight
OF a girls race, particularly charm
ing one, would send him into an agony
Of circumstances, so much so that he
always he took the opposite side of
the road when he saw a feminine ac-
qua1ntance approaching. He Stunned
picnics and socials as II they were
pestilence. He would rather have died
than taken girl rowing or driving.
His neighbors laughed, and wondered
what would happen should Ellery fall
in love. Ellery himself never consider
ed the subject, and that may have
been the reason why love took him ur-
awares.
He was sitting in church one bright
Sunday In summer when his attention
was arrested by the sight of a stranger
in the Hardys' pew, a slip of a girl IN
blue muslin. with wide picture hat
trimmed with roses.
From where he sat he could see the
delicately tinted oval of her cheek and
the pale gold of her wavy hair. Then
she turned her head and their eyes
met. Hers were. dark gray, fringed
gan a ridiculous tattoo. the hands that
were holding his book trembled and
he colored to the roots of his hair.
Its Arabclla Hawkins whispered
some one behind him Every now and
then Ellery ventured a glance in her
( direction. The sun, slanting through
/ one of the small stained glass windows,
touched her with rainbow colors utter
4 ~ dazzling. Il wish 1 could walk home
with her, sighed Ellery; but do 1
dare %
IF you don't some one else will" his
common sense said, and When the last
/ hymn had been sung and the people
were moving slowly down the aisles
white heat. He spoke a word of greet
! ing to Mrs. Hardy, and then was pre-
sented to Arabella.
How It happened he scarcely knew.
strolling along toward the Hardys,
and she was telling him that she had
come from Centreville for a two
weeks visit She had a faculty of
putting him at his ease. To Ellery it
was an experience as delightful as it
was novel. and he resolved to repeat
1t by calling the next evening
And though, in the days that fol-
| lowed, his footsteps were not the only
ones that wendell their way to the
Hardy gate, he managed to monopolize
the greater share of Arabella's time.
His shyness was gradually wearing
away, but there was one question he
longed to ask and could not.
In vain he rehearsed it. Alone in his
room it was easy enough to say Ara
bella. Will you marry me .? Yet when
he was with her the words seemed to
cfeave to the roof of his mouth over
halt miserably when the crucial mo-
ment came.
Gould you-could you he STAN
mered on one of these occasions.
Gould I what Ellery?" queried
Arabella. (They had gone as far as
Christian names.)
Gould you-gO driving with me to-
morrow" It was not in the least what
he had meant to say, yet as he mopped
his brow it vaguely occurred to him
that perhaps in a buggy it would be
easier
But even there. with ArabelIa by his
side, words failed him.
win you-win you ne began.
'sWiH I what Ellery?" said Arabelia,
very sweetly and patiently.
''Wiu you-have an Ice cream soda al
the drug store on the way back?''
Certainly answered Arabella a
shade of disappointment in her voice.
She liked the broad-shOuldered hon
est-eyed young fellow more than she
admitted to any one save herself,
though she never had had SO bashful j
sutton.
And yet she knew Ellery was no cow
ard. Els toWnsfolk had told her of the
courageous things he had done; how he
had stopped a runaway horse at the risk
of his own life; and how, one bitter win
ter day, he had crawled to the edge of
an ice hole in the river to rescue me
eldest Hardy child who chung there,
half frozen.
rs for Enery, he felt that time was
passing and he was no nearer the goal
Its terrible" he incurred, ITO think
I've gone this far and can't go further"
Matters were getting desperate.
Better hurry up, ElIery.' his friends
urged him. there's 4 fellow in her own
town wants her just as much as you
doY'
Advice came thick and fast.
why don't you write it2" drawled one
Waggish acquaintance, and then she'll
be sure to get iC.''
Modern Invention has done a good
many things" chucl1lcd old Jonds Fert
its given us teiegraphs and motor
boats and automobiles, but there's one
thing it hasn't done. 1t hasn't made
it any easier to pop the question. That's
Just as hard today as it was a hundred
years ago.
ElIery groaned. Then his face bright
ened. Modern Inventions he mutter-
ed to himself. Modern inyentionsi BY
jimmy I've solved the problem. I'll
win her yets'
A few days later a small craft arrived
for him Looks as II it might be a
typewriter said the station agent. but
as Ellers was not given to literary pur-
suits this guess seemed ratner ln'proDa-
Late that night Enery tiptoed through
mysterious funnel-shaped .contrivance. on