News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1913-03-19
CHAPTER XIX.
A Broker Prince

1--WE can't leave the general alone.
objected Bartlett.
81 don't see how l would be abb
to help the general any returne
Billy in injured accents.
81 thought you could push him il
the car" explained Bartlett with gen
tie sarcasm.
"You all wait here" said the Water
melon. 81 will go and get you some
thing to eat and see about having tn,
car towed, also about rooms for tn,
night"
| why not all co." pleaded Henrietta
"Why wait here starving"
Il can go faster alone answered
the Watermelon.
Certainly, certainly" seconded the
general. 1--WE would have to help yor
girls over every wooden fence and I'm
der every barb wire one We came to
You would probably even then gel
stuck on one or under the other"
"That house may be empty" said
the Watermelon. "Then we would be
all over there and have to come back. >
''We've been in empty houses be-
fore" said Henrietta Grossly.
But what good would that do, to be
over there without food" asked the
Watermelon.
what good to be here without gas
olene?" retorted Henrietta.
81 can not leave the car" reiterated
the general.
Father" exclaimed the eXasperated
Henrietta, "some night will find that
you have taken the car to bed with
you" ..
Suppose we leave the car here"
began the general argumentatively.
1--WE can't" sighed Henrietta. "Such
supposition would be impossible
with you the owner of the car"
The Watermelon laughed cav, cut
out the conversation" said he. Il
will be right back"
$50 will l." said Billy.
Now the Watermelon objected. He
did not feel equal to tete-a-tete with
the adorable Billy, adorable still,
though a bit cross.
"Cut out the conversation" MINI
licked Billy, and scrambled with more
speed than grace under the broken
bars of the worm-eaten fence.
The Watermelon leaped the fence
after her. Henrietta slipped under the
fence after the Watermelon. Bartlett
hesitated one moment, glanced guilt
lily at the deserted general and then
followed Henrietta.
Billy and the Watermelon were
young and light of foot and soon out
distanced the stout Bartlett, who did
his gallant best to keep up with the
nimble Henrietta, but found that the
years of good living told against him.
Henrietta waited politely for him at
the stone wall which Billy had just
scaled and the Watermelon jumped.
Henrietta sat down on the wall and
Bartlett leaned beside her, gazing over
the field to the distant woods. He felt
thoroughly comfortable and contented.
No matter what happened now, Bat
chelor could not reach the city by Sat
urday The cotton ring was saved.
Henrietta drew a quick sigh of
pleasure and fell silent, with dream
ing eyes wandering into the mysteri-
ous shades of the distant woodland,
her hunger for the time forgotten
Bartlett broke in upon her reveries.
"See that hill?" and he waved toward
the slope ahead of them.
Henrietta nodded, still wrapped in
her dream. "The hill of life," said
she, with glory at its top"
"a railroad" said Bartlett, prosa-
lcally, matter-of-fact, "a railroad has
been cut through the hill See, there
go the children, suddenly out of sight"
Henrietta came back to earth.
"How do you know? Maybe there is
lust steep incline the other side
and that is why they disappeared so
quickly"
mo, there is a cut up there. Don't
you notice how abrupt it looks, and
there are no trees or bushes. They
haven't had time to grow since the cut.
was made. And those big Jumps, see,
covered with grass, they are the earth
UP out of the cut"
Henrietta nodded and frowned.
'There is no more romance" and she
threw out her hands witt a graceful
gesture of hopeless disappointment.
ut went when the first steam-engine
came"
Bartlett looked at her, amused, with
a mans tolerance. what do you
want romance for? A railroad pays
better"
Pays, pays, pays" cried Henrietta.
II want something that doesn't pay
that isn't associated with returns. You
men have nothing but a handbook for
a heart. It's so lovely here, so quiet.
Don't you feel it? With the shadows
creeping across the pasture? 1 vas
young and beautiful"
"And a princess"
mo, a goose maid. My hair was
brown and thick and hung over each
shoulder in two long braids. 1 was
with sleeves rolled to the
elbows of my shapely arms"
You would have got malaria" said