Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-05-01


ed as embarrassment, for ali women
do that.
Meanwhile the courtship was pro-
crossing finely. When Mr.. Tippler
went into the back yard he would
seize the limb of tree and pull him
self up by his a1ms TO show his
strength to the girl next door. who, he
felt sure. was peeping through the
blinds at him. Then he would Toll on
a wooden bench. taking care to assume
a graceful position. All the while he
was waiting for an opportunity to
show his contempt for the girl for
whose benefit be was posing.
Finally came his chance for revenge.
One day when he was showing off,
in the back yard. while his back was
TO the houses, he heard something
lightly strike the ground behind him.
Turning. he saw little posy. Looking
up at the next door windows, he saw
no one.
But he knew.
And where was revenge? He was
supremacy happy. Why? Not because
he might throw back this little token.
Instead of doing so he put it in his
buttonhole and looked up at half q
dozen windows. from one of which he
was sure the posy had been tossed.
His face wore smile which he in
tended for an appreciate and tender
one. But intended smiles are always
ike those people put on to be photo
graphed. stereotyped. Nevertheless it
was seen and appreciated by Grace
Buddington, who had thrown the posy.
It's the old story OF the alternate
claw and velvet touch. From time
immemorial women have poured wa
ter-somedmes hot water.on mep's
heads and then have wiped out the
insult by a posy.
This love affair had passed the ex-
circulating first stage. Having been
begun all wrong, its earlier features
were distressing TO the young man.
But as all things are enjoyable from
antithesis, he found delight in the
very urhappiness that had marked it's
beginning. The girl, who at that be-
ginning had found pleasure in pour
ing water upon the adornments which
the young man-like certain birds who
disport themselves IN rare plumage to
attract the female-had put on to
please her, pursued the even tenor Of
her way. She was simply doing her
share in the love making on feminine
neutrality-suspicious. that are as far
hidden from men as undiscovered nat
ural laws. Was her first communion
ton with him a stroke OF genius +?
Did she reason that it was an eff
cient way of SHARING him? Not by
thc~e steps which men call reason.
| Che ohnSa how 1uou
Having first made the young man
suffer and then given him a sop, the
young lady proceeded to the next step.
Common usage would have suggested
an open acquaintance. But Miss Bud
dington. as has been observed, was
not prone to use common methods.
Was 1t because she acted on the prin-
ciple that stolen fruit is the sweetest
or did she consider secrecy and du-
plicity better suited TO her purpose?
Only a woman can answer this Ques-
ton, and perhaps no woman could an
swer except for herself.
Miss Buddington now thought 1t
time that her admirer should do some
thing in the way of courtship. so she
waited. The young man had learned
the whereabouts of her room and had
learned that it was third story back.
his own being in a like position In his
own home. A window in each room
adjOined. He contrived to get a note
to his lady love by tying a string to
the end of his cane and the note on
the end of the string, whipping the
missive into her open window. This
led to an endless string between the
two windows. over which passed bits
of nothings. gradually warming up
| until they became words of love.
One morning Mrs. Buddington. who
was nourishing some plants in her
back yard, turning from them, hap
pened to look up at the rear of her
domicile. Her curiosity was excited
by an endless string run on two pull
legs, the one fixed to a window sill
of the adjoining house. the other to
| the sill of me OF her daughters win
dows. The lady kept her own counsel,
| but the same afternoon. seeing the
( young man next door come in. she
hurried GU to the back yard and con-
cealed herself under a tree, where she
could keep watch Of the endless string.
1t was not long before 1t began to
move. and with it a folded bit of white
paper. A hand detached the paper
and in few minutes another paper
was crawling along the string I'm the
opposite direction.
Grace" said Mrs. Buddington the
next morning at breakfast, get ready
to go to your Aunt Mary's. You will
leave on the o'clock train"
"Why, mother! What's that for?'
"Never mind what for And you'll
not come back here next autumn. You
will go to boarding school"
But boarding school failed to solve
the problem. What there was in a
pitcher of cold water poured over Mr..
Tppler and bis spick and span outfit
to cement him to Miss Buddington as
mortar viii unite two bricks is a mys
terry. At any rate bis love once thus
planted grew furiously. and before the
first term Of school ended he had elop-