Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-07

"Oh! you will get married." said
Miss Nunsby. land then it will all be
over--except a cup of afternoon ten
once fortnight II you live in the
neighborhood.'
You shall see-you snail see!" an
swered Vida. 81 would not for a hun
! dred husbands that anything should
come between u.s."
her friend gratefully enough But N
her heart she said, at is not the hun
dred husbands but the one that l
have cause to fear"
The entrance of the authoritative
Mrs. Walter Irongray into the choir of
the Kirk OF the Hill did not produce
all the effect that good lady intended.
Her precious. but too docile, son was
still worried Regularly the precenaor
gave In his resignation to the sessions
once month at their statutory meet
ing
Still, after all, something was af-
fected by he'd staid presence. The
young men behind did not pass voice
lozenges wrapped in declarations of
affection to the girls seated in front
of them-which custom was not only
unseemly in itself, but more so be-
cause frequently the bull's-eye dropped
out and rolled like marbles, off the
platform on to the heads of the elders
sitting beneath.
These venerable and duly ordained
men really ought not to have been as
sured that Sugar was Sweet, and So
were They" The information was
as erroneous as it was uncalled for,
q nf q
communion day nearly led to the
abolition of the choir altogether.
But. again after Mrs. Walter Iron.
gray entered the choir. her son was
certainly not annoyed every minute
during his sermon by some chorister
turning round with a haIf-concealed
yawn to look at the clock. This was
an implied reproach that the minister
could illbear. Nor did they whisper
so much, neither giggle nor nudge
nor yet let fall Bibles with clasps.
: do not mean that these things actually
ceased. They can only cease when the
earthly praise of the lower sanctuary
merges into the higher and heavenly.
Still, there was difference, and a
, difference, too, on the right side.
Jacob Romer had pew all to him.
,, self in the Kirk of the Hill. 1t was a
, square box-seat and was distinguished
from all others by showing no dogs
heads, or ships. or railway engines,
+ or caricatures of the officiating min.
lister scratched with nail on the
paint This was because no boys ever
, profaned that solemn enclosure. Even
at evening service. when the Kirk was
). indifferently lighted, and the gallery
>,N&, ~, III 4 TO-, \ i
, The very Muirheads, the show bad
! boys" of Kirktown, would nave shud.
. dered to think of defiling it.
t From it Jacob Romer watched over
D the minister's theology. the service
, and the congregation. And it was
t from thence that he first remarked
D Vida Bryans presence in Duck Fin
mans seat, and recalled the girl who
! had been already pointed out to MIN
e by his brother on the way to Pit No
/. 2.
g Thomas always was fool" he
growled But nevertheless in his gen
eral survey Of the congregation his
S eyes sometimes returned questionly
u to the quarter where Vida sat alone
y little to the left. farther down the
church. in a plain. uncushioned pew
n For directly behind her, only the in
terval of one seat separating them
S sat Mr.. Romer's best undergrad nd en-
II gineer, Mr.. Ludovic Morris.
The autocrat Of the Incubus Pits
was wont to eye the young man murk
D lily for some time. Then his thin lip.
= twitched into the ghost of a smile
;. thin and faded, indeed, but still (:
;. smile. And he added still thinking
e of his brother, And it strikes me tina
Vic Morris is another"
70 Continued in next issue.)