The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-09
THE EVENING STORY
AT the Spelling school.
Ry Caroline Suenceri)

(By Caroline SuenceA1
Burt Seymour, SON of Farmer Sey-
mour, had given a "sugaring off, party
in the sapbush, and his invited guests
numbered a dozen of the young men and
girls of the neighborhood. Such par
ties are always given with the last run
on maple sap, and are simple affairs.
The guests all gather at the sugar bush,
where the sweet sap has already been
Doiled down to thick syrup, and seat
themselves on log while the syrup is
Dolled a little more and then served
around on clean maple chips. There is
snow yet left in the woods, and dab"
OF syrup dropped on the snow produces
maple wax There is general sticki-
ness, general state of hilarity, and
the girls go home with wet feet and
the young men with wax on their
chins.
In one sense this party referred to
was great success. In another it was
calamity. A sewing machine agent
had been stopping at Farmer Ealiday's
for the last two weeks while he beat
up the country. He happened to be
young man and taking fellow, but
there was no earthly reason for Burt
Seymour to be Jealous of him. Eunice
Halliday and Burt had been engaged
for three or four months. and while
she was naturally f1attered at the COM
pliments paid to her by the agent, whose
name was French, they didn't turn her
head by any means. She saw from the
first that Burt was inclined to be 5eal-
Gus, and she was therefore more cir
cumspect, but Burt's jealousy still
ranked. He took good care that the
stranger shouldn't be invited to the
sugar party, to which Eunice was duly
escorted by the host, but cheek is a
part of the stock in trade of agents or
all sorts, and no one was greatly sur
prised when Mr.. French showed up as
cool as SNOWFALL and took the biggest
chip in the collection.
20
girls that amount to anything have a
spice of deviltry in their nature. BE
they ever so sweet and nice, there are
times when they like to hector. When
Eunice saw, with all the others, that
the coming of the agent annoyed her
lover, and that Mr.. French was inclin-
ed to put himself out in another and
more agreeable way to make things
success, she came as near flirting with
him as she could and miss it. The hard
er Burt scoWled and the more he show
ed his vexation, the more reckless she
became. She didn't intend to go too
far, but just far enough to punish him.
He would be sullen and sulky going
home, but she would make up" with
him before they reached the gate. That
is, she thought it would be that way,
but she was mistaken. Burt referred
to the agent as a ''snide," a squirt,
and several other things, and although
she only defended mildly it was sum
cient to keep his temper hot. He an
nounced that he had been disappointed
in her; that there was no such thing
as loyalty known to her sex; that few
compliments from a 'masher" were
valued by her more than his enduring
she announced that she wouldn't sub
NIT to be brOw-Geaten, and he hour1sn-
ed his arm in reply and exclaimed:
Farewell, false girl! 1 have loved
you as no man ever loved before; but
you have let a fool part us. may be
sunstruck this summer or die of
broken heart or commit suicide, but
twill not matter to you. You Will
have simply broken one more human
the faith of another
man in woman's integrity.
OF course Eunice swent into the
house prepared to brave it out; and
of course it wasn't fifteen minutes De-
fore her mother suspected that some
thing had transpired and whisked her
into the family bedroom to say:
Nov, then, has that Hattie Jones
been saying mean things about you
again %
mo, NAL" replied the daughter as
she burst into sobs.
BY and by all the details were in
the mothers possession. The girl did
not deny that she had firted a bit, but
she had not really meant anything
serious. She was deeply in love with
Burt Seymour and as she thought of
his dying of sunstroke and going TO MS
grave believing she cared for any other
chimes he could sell in a week, it al
most broke her heart.
"Well, now, stop crying while talk
to you," said the mother. You
should not have made fool of him
self He's gone away to chew the rag,
as your Cousin Ben puts it. He thinks
he'll get letter from you In a day or
two asking his forgiveness. Then neil
take a week before coming around and
condescending to make up. First and
foremost you are not to write him
line. Second and hindmost, he's got
to come to you if there is any coming
about it, Your father was just an
other such idiot when he was running
after me, and made him crawl. That's
why I have always had the whip hand
of him."
but you know how set Burt is In
his ways pleaded Eunice.
But you can be just as set in
yours"
"But suppose he's found dead. with
my photo on his broken hearth"
Suppose our old dog should bark
his tail off You are going to do just
as I say, and that ends it. I'm your
mother, and I know something about
men; and If I don't help you to bring
two weeks I'll never darn another pair
of socks for your father"
One event Invariably follows the 9TH
er in the country. After the sugar party
ABOUT Two WeehS dAISA -SOiiieS TIE last
day of the district school, or the close
of the term. Word goes out for ten
miles around, and the two hundred
young and old who attend manage
somehow to get into the schoolhouse.
Then two persons choose sides and the
whole crowd lines up and the school
master pronounces the words. The
spelling school for the Seymour district
was announced for a date two weeks
subsequent to the sugar party and the
lovers quarrel. No Burt called at the
Halliday farmhouse to make up. The
days passed and poor Eunice went
about with tears in her eyes. Even her
father noticed that the daughter was
looking red-eyed and pale-faced and
asked the wife If a doctor had not bet