Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-20

CHu iobe Hlul, | hHnWtttu, iuuBhihb. But if I do, or-or there's anything else, shan't forget" That's true promise, then, and l have to thank you for the third time Now, I'm not going 10 trouble you any longer. Goodby"
 Without stopping to think who he was, or who was, held out my hand, and his good looking brown face grew red. He took the hand, pressed 1t hard once, dropped 1t abruptly. turned on his heel and walked away without looking back.
 was so interested in g~ng over the conversation fin my mind that I forgot to feel like Beau Brummel with one paw up in his glass case, and though I dare say ten minutes had passed, 1t hardly seemed two, when wonderful little black image in the shape of boy came sidllng up to me, all rolling white eyes and red grin, like a nice New foundland puppy. He had some news papers tucked under his arm, but in his hand was small basket Of peaches almost too beautiful to be real. But then, weren't they-and wasn't he part of my dream?
 He grlnned so much more that I was afraid his round black face would break into two separate halves, and looking at me with his woolly head on one side, he thrust out the basket.
 Fur you, missy" said he. with a funny little accent, for all the world like Sally Woodburn's.
 "They can't be for me- There must be a mistake" said I, wishing there wasn't, for the peaches did look de- licious, and there were two rosebuds lying on top of the basket, one pink, the other white T don't know any one who could have sent them"
 ''The gent knows you, you bet, missy" replied the image. He guy me quarter and axed if know'd my alphabet 'nuf to find letter 'B' an tote desc yere to the prettiest young lady I'd ever seed Most wite ladies dey looks all jes' alike to me, but you's different, missy, an reckon de tings must be fur you"
 l had horrible vision of this com pliment proceeding from the Flash light or the Evening Bat. "What was the gentleman like?" l asked.
 Like mos any gent, missy, cept that he was powerful tall, an reckon if he keeps right on like he's doin' now he'll get mos as brown as me some day"
 Then I knew that l was safe in talk ing the present, so I did and gave the comical black image two or three lit- tie round white metal things I'd got from the purser when changed some English money. I didn't know. how much they were, and they looked ridic- ulously small, but he seemed pleased. l When he had run off turned my at- tention to the peaches. They were so big that there was room only for four in. the basket, and they seemed dreadfully pathetic considering from whom they had come. +
 That poor fellow must be almost pennilesss sor he wouldn't have been in the steerage, yet he had bought peaches for me and given ''quarter'-what. wer that was-to his quaint black doll ,f messenger. I could have cried Nevertheless l ate two of the peaches and reluctantly presented the other .wo, which I couldn't possibly eat, to | gloomy "B" child sitting on a shawl ,trap.
 As if for a reward of virtue, Just as | had disposed of my leavings and stuck the roses into my belt, the last ,f the luggage arrived. There were TWO custom house men near to choose 1 from, and, as I've heard, in choosing between two evils it's better to choose the less, I smiled beseechingly at the smaller man, who had just crammed pile of lace blouses into the box of q lady with nervous Rrostration.
 Whether he was sated with cruelty, ,r whether he was naturally of an an- gelic disposition, shall probably never know now, but the fact remains that, Instead of turning out the fiend I'd been led to expect, he was one of the most considerate men I've ever met. He wouldn't even let me unlock my own boxes, but took the keys and opened them for me himself. Didn't an ex- .cutioner braid the hair of some queen whose head he was going to chop of ? [ must look the incident up when l have time) Anyway, I thought of 1t when the custom house man was being l 50 polite, but the analogy didn't go my farther, for my head never came off at all, and two of the boxes re- mained unopened.
 You're English, aren't your he asked, and when 1 said yes, and that was only on short visit, he treated my belongings as if they were sacred. If he disturbed anything, he laid it back nicely. keeping up running con- versation as he went on. l told him that English women might bring home all the pretty clothes they liked from other countries, and that l con, sidered 1t most ungallant in such a ehivalrous nation as America to deny ladies few Paris dresses.
 Do you happen to know, miss what's the income tax in your coun Itry?" he asked, tenderly putting back
 some yellow hairpins which had fallen out of a box of mine.
 Dear me, no," I exclaimed. But think it's sometimes more than shill 1 t.z= I.. 4ha x.a,nd liza hoard mJ