Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-06-10
The Argus Daily Short Story
Two Loves-By Karl Sommers.
Copyrighted. 1911. by Associated Literary Presa

tender brown eyes, and TO leave her
he must expose bis rear, and from
hole in the seat of his trousers pro-
truded q portion of his shirt tail.
How could a soldier expose such tg-
nominy? But while he stood deplor-
ing the necessity of doing SO a dark
ness came before his eyes, he tottered.
and the girl caught him before he fell.
1t was several weeks before the
young soldier. Abner Wicks, was well
enough to leave the farmhouse, and
when he was his departure was made
painful from the fact that he must
leave his heart with the little girl who
had nursed him. True, her mother
had done the greater part OF the nurs-
ing, but the daughter had done the
loving. Lucy Barton was Of an age
when love comes easily and from
many causes. In this case it arose
from pity. Abner was but a year old
err than she, and he loved her because
her eyes were brown and because she
pitied him. 1t was q love that might
be broken as easily as 1t had come or
might endure when both, with locks
white as snow, should totter arm in
arm together.
One morning Abner took up his
musket to go and rejoin his regiment.
His moving away was not so eInbar-
RAISING as it would have been few
weeks before, for Lucy's mother had
patched the seat of his trousers. New
ertheless there was nothing in his ap-
pearance to inspire such admiration as
is often given a soldierly man in be-
coming uniform.
Abner had waved his hat-not his
handkerchief. for he had no hRndker-
chief-from a crest a short distance
from the farmhouse and had passed
out of sight when a vision Of another
kind Appeared In the direction oppo-
site from that in which be was going.
A British general and his staff. all on
horseback. came caracOling toward
the farmhouse. Their coats were
scarlet, covered with gold lace, and
the sun gIittered on their brass but
tons and their side arms. Here surely
was something admirable for the eye
TO rest upon There was not a rip in
any mans uniform, not a rusty spot
on any saber, not a furnished bit of
lace.
They trotted on up to Farmer Bar
toms house, and the general. call
ing Mrs. Barton-the farmer was at
Valley Forge-asked if there was q
creek or a spring near by. She told
him there was brook farther on, but
If he wished water only for the party
he had with him she had a-plenty in
her well. to which he was welcome.
During the brief chat Lucy, who
stood by her mother and was looking
with admiring eyes at the group OF
equestrians whose chargers were i'm
patiently paving the ground. could
not help contrasting their appearance
with that Of those ragged Coninentals
who had passed the house few weeks
before. There was in the party a
blue eyed, faxen haired young Brit
Usher with real English roses in his
cheeks, who sat on his horse admiring
her simple country beauty, and she
thought how different he was from the !
boy who but a few minutes before
she had watched retreatng down the
road. the two prominent objects in I
his dress being the patches-oDe
square. the other round-in his seat
and especially noticeable from tHeir
color being different from that onfhis
trousers and from each other.
1t Is a blow to our ideas of human