The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-02-13
The EVENING STORY
The Brown Mans valentine.
by CIarissa' Mackie.1

| He came into Ann Peterby's little
| snop one evening in the late fall and
asked Tor newspaper.
| He was a middle-aged man, tall and
with pleasant, brown face under a
brown felt hat. He wore a brown ov-
ercoat, and when Ann noticed that his
| eyes were warm brown, too, she in
Wardly named him the brown man"
In spite of her thirty Eight years and
the silvery frost on her bright hair,
Ann Peterby was as romantic as a
school girl.
| Perhaps il was the long years of dip
1 ping into the hundreds of paper covered
novels which filed the high shelves; or
perhaps it was because her own heart
was SO overlooking with love and kindli-
ness toward the whole world that Ann
believed in love and marriage, and all
the good old-fashioned truths which
have sustained humanity down through
the ages.
Fair and slightly warmer" read the
brown man from the newspaper he had
just bought.
1T has been cold" said Ann briskly
as she sold two chocolate mice to lit
tie boy; "but we ought to have some
crisp weather now-it's most Christ
mas
I'm hoping for warm weather-for
the sake of the new bridge" smiled the
stranger as he folded the paper and
thrust it in his pocket.
Then you're the new foreman" said
Ann, with a tinge of curiosity in her
voice; 81 heard you were boarding
down to Smiths
''Yes-FH stop in for the paper every
night, Miss Peterby. My name is
Brown"
He lifted his hat and was gone while
Ann gasped in surprise For PHYS
sake! His name is Brown, too!'
After that, 1.-The brown man. called
for his newspaper every evening at
O'Clock, and he and Ann became very
we'll acquainted. They discussed the
weather, and the rumors of war in
h nd h0
Ann was delighted to find that Mr..
Brown entertained the same conservative
views as her father, who had faded out
of the little stationery shop five years
before, and now rested with the other
Peterbys in the lovely cemetery on the
hill.
Christmas came and went, and the
brown man disappeared from AIMS
his absence that Emma Smith came
into the shop and thrust her thin nose
over the counter.
Never tell a soul If L show you
something's" she whispered mysterious
y.
"Of course I won't tell smiled Ann.
Emma drew picture postcard from
under her shawl, and held it out.
with Nellies love-" read Ann, sur
veying the gaily decorated card. who
is Nellie?"
81 don't know" whispered Emma; ST
expect it's his girl"
who's girl?" asked Ann.
Mr. Browns, of course. This came
yesterday. It's the third one he's had"
And flushed Indignantly. II wouldn't
have read it if 1 had known that. En-
ma Smith! How curious you are!"
Emma tossed her sandy hair back |
from her freckled forehead.
''Humph-I thought you might be in |
terested!" she snorted as she flashed |
out through the door.
AIMS rosy face blazed with color at
Emma Smiths insinuatfon. Ann had
4 ~ hoT nd Oh
had never been in love with any man.
She was in love with love itself, and
some day-perhaps-
AIMS dreams had always ended in
that perhaps"
When the brown man came back from
his brief vacation. he found a very
quiet, cold, little woman behind the
counter.
In response to his cheerful greeting,
Ann merely lifted her white chin a lit
tie higher above her snowy collar and
uttered a polite monosyllable.
James Brown was puzzled. He did
not know much about women. There
was his dear old mother, for instance,
the simplest and most candid soul alive,
and he had mentally compared Ann
Peterby to her.
He had come look upon the ten min
utes spent in the shop each night as
the pleasantest part of his weary day,
and now Ann-like other women, none
of whom he understood in the least
was cold and silent instead of warm
and CHEEKY and bubbling over with hap
piness.
AS the weeks passed he tried once
more to win AIMS liking. He told her
of his mother and of the older woman's
lonely life during his long absence. He
told her everything he could think OF
that might interest her about the great
city where he had lived, but to no
avail. Ann was still cold and indif-
A week before ST. Valentines Day
Ann was sorting over huge box of
gaily co1ored valentines and hanging
the most gorgeous ones upon long
lines above the counters.
In former years this had been ac-
companied by AIMS tender smiles and
sympathetic murmurings as she Sc
lected the chosen beauties, but now
there was a curious little look OF re-
preston on her sweet face.
The door tangled open and she look
ed up to see the brown mans brown
eyes bent gravely upon her.
ct want to see some valentines" he
said.
Ann pushed the box toward him.
1.-THE prices are all marked on them"
she said awkwardly.
For a half hour he bent over the
box and turned the missives over. Il
will take these three he said at last.
There was one lace-paper beauty,
one of dainty blue and gold. and a
third, the handsomest in the store, was
all pink satin and wreat1s of roses and
cupids and a simple message: 1 LOVE
YOU. WILL YOU BE MY VALEN-
TINE? a.
Ann gravely tied up the package
and punched the cash register with a
steady finger. Outside the distant ring
OF hammers on metal smote the air
where the bridge, workers crawled
like ants above the river.
The brown man departed and Ann
did not see him for several days.