Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1912-09-03
WIIIfIiTlWrTTTTT1W
When Jack
Came Back
"If you love me, darling,
Tell me with your eyes"

1 WIN AAA0 ANAAoAA VI VI CAA oNAA6 w
Miss Jennie Godfrey cut the roses
from her favorite bush and arranged
them in the wide-topped wicker has,
ket that hung upon her arm.
"What makes you sing that song
so much, Aunt Jen?" inquired the
pretty brown-eyed girl who was as
sisting her aunt to make ready the
hamper of lovely blossoms that
every week during the summer Miss
Godfrey sent to a certain hospital in
the city, there to bring cheer and
brightness into the lives Of suffering
humanity.
Miss Godfrey made no reply to her
niece's question, but went on cutting
a full-blown rose here and an ex-
quisite bud there, laying them, with
the tender care only a lover of flow
ers can show, into the basket, while
she hummed the song under her
breath, only pronouncing the words
of the last two lines.
81 say, Aunt JeD, why do you love
that silly old song? I've heard you
sing it ever since 1 can remember
anything, and it's an awfully mushy,
lovey-dovey old thing. 1 should
think you would learn a new one.
"You don't like the love songs l
sing, and yet you keep on with your
old tell me with your eyes, till I'm
tired of hearing it.
"Won't you tell me why you sing
it? You promised you would when
l was old enough to understand, and
| Pm that now. I'm sixteen"
Miss Godfrey looked at her pretty
niece and saw in Bess a picture of
herself 20 years ago. The same sup
pie, girlish figure, light, golden
brown hair, large, wistful brown
eyes and winsome smile had been
hers the summer she was sixteen;
and now-well, she could not deny
that she had grown stout, and all the
front of her hair showed silver inter-
mingled with the gold.
Yes, it was time to tell the long
promised story to Bess and stop her
questions.
"Come, sit beside me here on the
grass, child, while we arrange the
flowers in bouquets, and hear the
story Of a foolish girl.
"The summer 1 was your age,
Jack CARING was twenty. He had
been graduated from college and felt
quite sure that he knew all that was
necessary for a man of the world to
know-and a little more.
ellis father always gave him a
liberal allowance, and a college man
with plenty of money is apt to feel
that way just after he has received
his degree. Jack was no exception
to the rule.
eve loved each other madly, in
sanely. was just as crazy about him
as you are about-never mind; l
won't tease-and 1 was the happiest
! girl in the world when Jack asked
me to marry him.
"Of course 1 said 'yes,' and all
went on as merrily as could be until
l overheard Jacks father tell my ia
Their that he thought it a great mis-
take for very young men to marry );
that a man should demonstrate his
ability to earn enough money to sup
port a girl in the manner she was &C.
customed to before he even proposed.
at was rather lengthy CONVERSE
tion, but both men agreed in the
main, and l, poor little fool, got to
thinking the matter over and came
to the conclusion that they were
right.
ave had not announced our en-.
gagement, so l told Jack that l
would not marry him, or be engaged
even, until he had proved his worth
and had done some big thing-saved
a life or earned a pile of money.
81 thought it very heroic and very
grown-up to establish that ultima
tum, but Jack did not agree with
me.
'His pride was hurt when he
found / had no faith in him as he
was, but must see for myself the
result of his labors before / would