Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-19

clasped her Throat snugiy. A boys
felt hat. with the brim pinned up In
front, covered her head.
"You seem none the worse for your
wetting. EIexekiah. You must have been
soaked"
$50 must you, Chimneys. but you look
as ut AZ feel. and never felt better.
Did they catch you crawling In last
night?''
II didn't see q soul. You know I'm an
old member Of the family now. Nobody
was ever as nice to me as your Aunt
Octavia.''
''How about Cecilia?'
Having found her silver notebook and
given 1t back to her before breakfast. l
may say that our relations are alto
gether cordial"
"Are you in love with her-yet?" asked
Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing q pebble
into the lake. The "yet" was SO timed
that 1t splashed with the pebble.
"No, not-yet," I replied.
ut Will come" said Hezekiah. q little
ruefully. casting q pebble farther upon
the crinkled water.
you mean, Hezekiah. that men al
ways fall in love with your sister,"
She nodded.
'Well. she's a good deal Of q girl"
Beautiful and no end cultivated. They
all 90 crazy about her."
You mean Hartley Virgins and his
fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms
Yes. aud lots OF others
And sometimes. Hezekiah. it has
seemed to you that she got all the ad-
miration, and that you didn't get your
share. So, when her suitors began q
locked against you. you plugged the CHM
ney with trunk tray. and played at be-
ing ghost and otherwise sought to terrify
your sisters lovers"
That's not nice, Chimneys. You mean
that I'm jealous
mo. / don't mean that you are jealous
now: I throw it into the remote and ir-
revocable past You were jealous. You
don't care 50 much now. And I hope
you will care less!'
that way shall call you Mr.. Ames and
60 home!
Il should like to know why not? If
you say I'm jealous Of Cecilia now. or
angry. For it's not true
mo. You see things very differently
now. You told me only last night that
Cecilia might have Hartley Virgins. AS
Stunning that she wants him! And you
you? You had good times on the other
side. And while Cecilia was in town as
sisting Providence In finding your aunt
a cook you went walking with him."
why do you suppose did,"
Because Wiggy's the best Of fellows:
L. solid, substantial citizen. who raises
wheat to make bread out Of"
And angel food and ginger cookies"
added Hezekiah. feeling absently in the
pockets OF her coat. mo. Chimneys.
you're q nice boy. and you don't yell like
a wild man when feather duster hits
you in the dark. but there are some
things you don't know yet"
II am here to grow wise at the feet OF
Hezekiah. daughter of kings. Open the
book Of wisdom and teach me the alpha
bet, but don't be sad II balk at the
grammar
II never knew all the alphabet myself"
said He8ekiah, dolefully; then she laughed
abruptly. II was bounced from two con-
vents and no end of Hudson river and
9TH avenue education shops
rres ssa, S Of snst sss bes
teacher ever had, and l thought I was
educated when 1 met you. But l had
only been to school, which is different.
Not until the first time our eyes met, not
"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted. in
the happiest possible imitation Of Miss
Octavia's manner, III you think that be-
cause I am q poor, lone girl, who knows
nothing Of the great, wide world. l am .
that you were never more mistaken IN
your life!''
you oughtn't to mimic your aunt 1t
isn't respectful, and besides, You have
rumpus about Cecilia's silver memo
randum book? Suppose we discuss that
and get through with it,
We were sitting on the fallen tree.
which lay partly in the lake. and Hese-
kiah leaned over and broke OF a num-
Der Of reeds from the thicket at the
waters edge. Out Of her pocket she drew
q small penknife and trimmed them uni
formly.
'You see,'' she began. biting her lip in
the earnestness Of her labor, "I'm going
to tell you something, and yet I'm not
going to tell you. So FAR as you and l
have gone you've been tolerably salts
factory. II didn't think you had some
cred with you at all. That's frank. isn't
"It certainly is. But I'm terribly fused
for fear l may not be equal to this new
ordeal"
''If you fail we shall never meet again:
that's all there is to that Now. listen
real hard. You know something about 1t
already, but not the main point. Aunt
Octavia got father to consent to let her
marry us off-Cecilia and me. Cecilia. be-
ing older, came first. / was to keep out
Of the way, and father and I were not to
come to Aunt Octavia's new house up
there or NEEDLE In any way. While We
were abroad I was treated as little
girl. and not as q grown-up at all. But,
you see, I'm really nineteen, and some OF
Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when
we were travelling. They were nice to me
on Cectha's account. You know.
"Of course. You're so hard to look at,
II must have been painful to them to be
nice to you-almost like taking poison!
DO on, Hezekfahp'
You needn't interrupt me like that:
Well as part Of the understanding. and
Cecilia agreed to it-she thought she had
to for papa's sake-she was to marry q
particular man. Do you understand me,
. particular man? Aunt Octavia gave
her the little notebook-she bought 1t at a
shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consent
ed to the pian-and she was to keep a
sort of diary, SO that she'd know when
the right man turned up. Now, we Will
drop the notebook for minute: only I'll
say that Cecilia was to keep the book all
to herself and not show it to any one,
not even to Aunt Octavia, you know. UNI
til the right man had asked Cecilia to
marry him. Now. who do you suppose,
Mr.. Ames, that man tsp
watched her hands as they deftly cut
and fashioned the dry reeds. The air
grew warm as the sun climbed to the
zenith and He8ekiah flung aside her coat.
The breeze caught the ends OF her tie
and snapped them behind her. She was
wholly absorbed in her task. and no boy
could have managed a pocket knife bet
ter. The first reed she made q trifie
longer than her hand; the succeeding
ones she trimmed to graduated lessening
lengths, till seven in all had been cut.
and them she notched them.