The daily Alaskan., 1908-11-23
,oooooo0oOooooooooOooo0e JIMSIE gf THE
 TRESTLE.
By CEClLY ALLEN.
Copyrighted. ls08 by Associated
 Literary Press

was never so crowded as the t;26, ana Betty Larned had no trouble in getting the same seat every morning, Che next to the last in the third car
 She liked that particular seat because It gave her q long view of the marshy creek and the great bay beyond, pour ing its restless waters Into the sea.
 JImsle's post was on the great treste approaching the drawbrldge. At first he had simply watched the trains as they slowed up before passing over the draw.
 Being a young man of considerable imagination, he could picture the long line of commuters winding to the fer rles and then breaking on the shores of the big city beyond like stream long confined to narrow banks. What multitude of interests they repre- sented! And to how many of the great warehouses. skyscrapers and stores they must scatter
 He felt quite sure that the girl with the light brown hair and gentle gray eyes worked very far uptown, for she never missed the 7,Os, while most of the girl commuters preferred the T:23, which brought them into town just in lime to make offices and stores for the 8 o'clock openings.
 In thls Jimsie was wrong Betty worked quite close to the ferry, but she was an earnest, ambitious young person with q horror of being tardy 50 she took no chances on the 7:23 being late, Drawbrldges, she had heard, were tricky.
 This>rumOr was confirmed one morn Ing when the excursion steamer Lena Belle turned contrary in the draw, and the 7:OS stood on the narrow tres tie tn the crew of the. Lena Belle could bring her to time. And that was the morning Betty noticed Jimsle 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 Jimsle 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.
 Instinctvely his hand went up'tO his hat, then dropped. and flush blazed up under his healthy Nan The gray eyes opened very wide, then were hid den by long lashes
 No; Betty was quite sure sue had never seen this very good looking young nan before. Re 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 It was be- cause she had not liked the men that she had refused all succeeding invita- tions from the club.
 She raised her laShes Just a tiny bit and met a respectful but undenlably admlring 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 on the blue water that 1t 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 q jerk, the Lena Belle plunged forward Into the current, rail- way men shouted orders, there were a creaKlng and rattling of machinery and chains, and the 7:OS plunged on toward town.
 JlmsIe waved a friendly hand after the retreatlng Lena Belle. Good old boat! It had given him 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 writers for magazines tell you that you must be properly in- troduced to a man You must be chap eroned, and the more pretty you are the more rigid must be the chaperon- age.
 But the workaday world changes many of these things Jimsle began to plan on meeting the owner of the gray eyes somehow, somewhere, without the aid or consent of a chaperon. If you love girl you love her and you win her-that was Jlmsie's lexicon of good form.
 And Betty fell to dreaming of the good looking young chap who was watching for her every morning when the 7:Os approached the bridge. First their eyes carried the message then they smiled, and finally they nodded every morning.
 When the spring weather made 1t excusable to open Q window Betty