The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-02-03

dead h-,,.- LICK was muttering
gIoo1nily.
They're all alike to me-" 1 replied
loudly. s'dr. Ormsby is very beauti-
full. I shall hope not to disfgure him
permanently" But as 1 spoke my
tongue was a wabbly dry clapper In
my mouth.
was bending over now, watching
the three men pick up the cards, and
without the reeds. but the sight of her,
sitting on the fallen tree beside the
lake, beating time with her foot, her
head thrown back, her eyes half closed
in a mockery of rapture at the shril1,
wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes
she evoked, thrilled me with new and
wonderful longing s. heart, spirit
like hers would never grow old. She
was next of kin to all the elusive, fugi-
tive company Of the elf world. And on
such pipe as she had strung together
beside that pond to this day Sicilian
shepherd boys whistle themselves into
tune with Theocritus!
Take it, she said. ~"I can't tell
you more than have, and yet it is all
there, Chimneys. Read the. riddle of
the reeds If you cam
took the pipe and turned it over
thoughts were rather of the hands
that had fashioned it, the fingers that
had danced nimbly upon the stops.
There are seven reeds-seven,'' she
affirmed.
She amused herself by skipping peb-
bles over the surface of the water
| while I pondered, and I deliberated
long, for one did not like to blunder
before Hezekiah. Then / jumped up
and called to her
Zone, two, three, four, five, six
seven! Not until the seventh man Of
| fers himself shall Cecilia have hus-
band. Is that the answer"
For a moment Hezekiah watched the
widening rippIes made by the casting
OF her last pebble. Then she came
| back and resumed her seat
"You have done well, Chimney Man,
| and now I'll not make you guess any
| more, though I found it all out for my
self. When Aunt Octavia gave that
| memorandum book to Cecilia I knew it
| must have something to do with the
seventh man. You know I love all
Aunt Octavia's nonsense because it's
| the kind of foolishness I like myself,
| and the idea of a pretty little note
| book to write down proposals in was
| precisely the sort of thing that would
! have occurred to my aunt. And it was
! in the bargain, too, that she herself
should not in any way interfere or try
| to influence the course of events 1t
should be, the seventh sutton, willy
niIIy And suspect she's been little
scared too"
| ''She has indeed! She was almost
ready to throw the whole scheme over
| last night. Your naughtness had got
| ON her nerves"
1You missed the target that time.
Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness,
and think she has really been afraid
| Sir Pumpkin Virgins would catch me-
Now, I didn't roam my aunt's house
just for fun. 1 was doing my best to
keep Cecilia from getting into some
| scrape about that seventh sutton plan.
| 1 found out by chance how to get into
Hopef1eld and about the hidden stair
| way and the old rooms tucked away
| there Papa really discovered that.
| A carpenter in Katonah who worked
on the house helped to build papa's
bungalow, and he told us how that
ruin came to be there. That dys-
! pepsia cure man, who also immortal
lied himself by invening the ribless
| umbrella, was very supersddous. He
believed that if he built an entirely
| new mouse ne WOulu ule- 30 ne Adu
his architect build around and retain
! those two rooms and that stairway of
| a house that had been on the ground
almost since the Revolution. Mr.. Pep
perton, the architect, humored him.
| but hid the remains of the relic as far
out of sight as possible"
''Trust Pep for that! And he did ii
neatly!'
Go Be Continued.)