The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-31
THE EVENING STORY
Barbara's Name.
(By Dorothy Douglas.)

(By Dorothy Douglas)
When Captain Scott retired from
the navy and took a banana planta-
| tion i'm Jamaica he had not reckoned
on the loneliness and inconsistencies
that was bound to Overtake Barbara,
| his ever smiling, beautiful daughter.
Even then Barbara continued to
smile, although the ache. at times,
for old friends, old surroundings
| thing desperate in the way of bring
ling about sement-something TO
break the monotony of plantation
| life.
There were times when the great
gray battleships lay anchored off in
the SUNNY harbor Then Barbara
made up for the weeks and some
| times months of loneliness. She
| laughed to her hearts content with
all the navy men who thronSed her
fathers house, from midshipmen up 10
the very commander himself Many
| a lieutenant had gone away with the
ship, but his heart had remained be-
hind in the possession of beautiful
Barbara Scott.
And when the last battleship was
but a speck of gray mingling swiftly
with the gray of the distance Bar
bara turned away from the harbor
and sighed-that was all. Her heart
| was still her own.
AS 6ays wore on Barbara began to
fear that she would turn into a ba-
mana. so many hundreds of punches
did she watch the men on her fathers
plantation load onto the boats.
She sighed. How I would love to
go where they are going-perhaps
back home. Some of my very best
friends might get one of those ba-
nanas."
Barbara was pensive for a long
moment while in spirit she was a
banana journeying across the water
and finally arriving in her own coun-
try.
Happy fruit" she commented. and
then smiled wistfully. Il can at
least send love with them. No, L will
not send love, L will put something
more material into a banana and just
see if anything comes of it. My ring.
No The family would wonder where
it was. And not a stickpin. for some
one might swallow it." Barbara's eyes
frightened. MY card-that will be
best of al1-someone surely will get
it unless it melts into the fruit
With hasty steps Barbara skipped
down to the wharf and with dexter
Gus fingers inserted a card within
the skin of banana. After that she
watched the shipload leave the har-
Dor.
Where to-" she questioned and
turned back to the house.
In he course of events it was
Lieutenant Cumming who bought the
banana that Barbara had handled. 1t
was an evening in early spring and a
crowd of navy men had come across
the river from the Brooklyn navy
yard and had landed on the east side
hungry and looking for a clean but
square meal.
Perhaps had the officers been less
hungry and the little fruit vendors
cart less attractive Barbara might
vi in Prov her
mis5ive. AS it was, a dozen bananas
were selected from the cart by the
hungry officers and Barbara's espe-
cial one was among the chosen.
1t was Lieutenant Cumming who,
upon peeling tae fruit, discovered the
banana-soaked card.
BY Joe!' he exclaimed, Il have
struck a snag. Hello-it's a card"
He drew forth the bit of pasteboard
and one and all of the officers came
to halt beneath the street light.
Barbara Scott, Jamaica, w. T.,
they read with considerable difficulty,
for card and banana were more or
less closely mingled.
Your future wife. concealed in a
banana" laughed Lieut.. Smythers.
Rather soft place, isn't it?"
Cumming laughed and put the card
in his pocket. You can all come to
the wedding" he told them, and did
not for a moment have any faith in
his own words.
Yet it was in the most natural
course of events that the battleship
Arkansas made her way down to
southern waters during the following
winter.
The small incident that had put
Barbara Scott's name into the keep
ing of Lieut.. Cumming had assumed
mammoth proportions as days wore
on. Try as he might to Danish the
name. it seemed to have imprinted
itself upon the deeper lobes of his
brain. Curiously enough, it was
Babs and Baby rather than the
more stately Barbara that kept the
young officers heart singing.
Lieut. Smythers also had remem-
bered the finding of the card, be-
cause he said to Cummings as the
Arkansas made her way steadily to-
ward the West Indies: DO you re-
member a Capt. Scott who retired
and came south a year or so ago?
We will look him up if we are in port
long enough" Smythers laughed.
There is a chance that he might be
at least related to your banana girl"
ANY one bearing the name of
Scott interests me- observed Lieut..
Cumming.
1t was scant three days after
the conversation on board the Ar
kansas that officers were introduced
to lovely some one whose name