Norwich bulletin., 1913-01-30
ORTON'S ORDERS.

1 1 It was, of course, a very foolish thing i to write a letter of acceptance to the | man one intended to refuse, and yet l AIine took a foolish delight in writing ] the dainty little note and thinking of I the expression that would come to Or toms face if he should read it. l Then she tucked it into the flap of l her lap desk and on her last remain i ing sheet composed the letter in which l she sought to make her refusal as easy as possible
 It fs no easy thing to make pen say mo" when the heart cries yes, . l and the rest of the party was ready 1 to start for the woods berore she had l completed it.
 l Of course she could not say that it was her stepmo ther's S order and that ! it was obedience to command and not 1 only hope that he would see how the matter stood and understand that she had not been flirting with him through
 his money had appeared upon the scene and had been pleased to bestoW his attentions upon her.
 Until then Mrs. Appleton had re- garded Jack Orton with favor. He had money; not much, but enough for two,
 with excellent prospects, but he could
 not hope to compete with Marquand,
 and Mrs. Appleton wondered why Aline
 should be so stubborn as to continue
 to care more for Orton.
 There had been one scene after an-
 other usually terminating in Mrs. Ap-
 pleton's mysteries, and at last the girls will had been broken down and the negative she could not utter was consigned to paper and intruSted to Billy who promised faithfully to take it to Orton's room and place it on his table.
 Billy was perfectly honest in his intentions, but just as he was scam pering through the hall the cook called that she had an apple turnover for him and, tucking the note in his pock- et he turned his attention to the turn over.
 It was perhaps an hour after that that Orton, coming back from the post office, found Billy on the front piazza playing train. He was the conductor and the other children were passen- gers. Billy had a punch used for pro- sressive euchre games and was collect ing tickets with an enjoyment dashed only by the fact that he had no en- gineer to whom he could signal. Billy was supremeIy contemptuous of girls and declined to allow either of his three fair passengers to act in that capacity.
 It was with evident joy that he hailed Ortons advent and installed him in the front chair with earnest injunctions to run the train carefully and to stop in case the emergency sig nal was given on the bell rope. Billy had ridden much on the branch line that summer, and he had followed Burton, the single conductor, about until he had learned all about his workings.
 Jack Orton entered upon the per formance Of his duties with a solem- nifty becoming in the engineer of the flyer, and if he discovered an unheard- of number of cows upon the track it was all a part of the game.
 They pulled into the next stop seven minutes ahead of the schedule, and Billy came running up to compliment his engineer.
 Take her a little slow when we pull out" he commanded. with an odd lit tie imitation of his models manner. I've got a train load of foolish wo- men and they get scared when you run so fast. Got your orders?''
 T thought laughed Orton, that the conductor got the orders.''
 Billy blushed apologetica1ly. Guess forgot" he explained tI'u run over to the telegraph office"
 The telegraph office was the near est open window. but the operator was shamefully supplied with stationery,