Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-10-13

being late. Drawbridges, she had
heard, We're tricky.
This rumor was confirmed one morn |
ing when the excursion steamer Lena |
Belle turned contrary in the draw. |
and the 7:0S stood on the narrow tres
tie till the crew of the Lena Belle |
could bring her TO time. And that was
the morning Betty noticed Jimsie for |
the first time.
Jimsie might have run along with the
rest of the railroad boys to watch the
crew of the Lena Belle, but he had
something more pleasant to watch-the
girlish face at the first window from
the end of the third car on the stalled
train.
The third car stood right in front of
his little shanty, and directly Jimsie
had reported the delay of the train to
headquarters by telephone he dashed
back to the track, gazed up and met
the soft gray eyes sQuarely.
Instinctively his hand~went up to his
hat. then dropped, and a flush blazed
up under his healthy tan. The gray
eyes opened very wide, then were hid
den by long lashes.
No; Betty was quite sure she had
never seen this very good looking young
man before. He did not live at Green
port, and he had never worked in the
store
Maybe she had met him at the single
dance she had attended at the Big
Four Social club. But, no: he was not
the sort of man who went to those
balls, Betty was quite sure. 1t was be-
cause she had not liked the men that
she had refused sill succeeding invita-
tons from the club
She raised her lasheS just tiny bit
and met a respectful but undeniably
admiring glance from Jimsie's brown
eyes. She tried to look across the aisle
at the impatient passengers, then down
the bay, but the sun danced so madly
Oh the blue water that It hurt her eyes.
And as she had to look somewhere she
looked down again into the brown eyes
of the young track foreman.
Then, with jerk, the Lena Belle
plunged forward into the current, rail
way men shouted orders. there We're Il
creaking and rafting of machinery and
chains. and the 7:0S plunged on toward
town.
Jimsie waved friendly hand after
the retreating Lena Belle. Good old
boat! 1t had given him Il good chance
to study the little girl at close range
and he had not been disappointed.
What was more. he knew that she
| had taken his measure and would
know him the next time they met.
Now, the books on etiquette and the
| learned women writer's for magazine:
| tell you that you must be properly in
| troduced to a man. You must be chap
| eroned, and the more pretty you arr
| age.
But the workaday world changes
many of these things. Jimsie began Il
| plan or meeting the owner of the gra.
| eyes somehow. somewhere. without TIL
| aid or consent of chaperon. If yo'
| love a girl you love her and you Wi
| her-that was Jimsie's lexicon of goo
| form
And Betty fell to dreaming of tn
| goOd looking young cnap VINO WI
watching for her every morning whcl
the 7:0S approached the bridge. Firs
their eyes carried the message. the
they smiled, and finally they nodde'
every morning.
When the spring weather made
! eXcusable to open window Bett
took to gathering Il few early bios
SONS every morning and droppin
them over the sill as the train passe
the track foreman's shanty.
/ Jimsie was resourceful, but he coul
find no one who knew where the gil
lived, and >he did not dare desert hi
post to come near the window an
speak even if the train stopped lon
enough for this feat.
il Well, there was only one thing-he'
take day Off soon and post himsel
at the ferry entrance when the 20
pulled in. She could do no more tina
turn him down, he argued, and some
how each days glance into the sof
gray eyes assured him this fate woul,
not be his.