The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-15
THE EVENING STORY
Counting Carrie.
(By Molly McMasters.)
Il. D.n1dS halnnpnd TO the o

fashioned type of girls. She was moi
up-to-date in habits, dress or thoughts
If some one were to put Carrie into a
novel-make her the heroine-she
would be the clinging-vine sort, the
old fashioned girl who blushed every
time a man looked her way.
/ Indeed, it may have been the read
ing of many novels that helped to
make Carrie the type she was; her
! ideas and ideals were cleaned pr1ncI-
pally from the lighter fiction of sew
! eral decades before her own time.
Carrie believed that to be fittingly
courted she must be showered with
roses, with boxes of candy and SON.
nets inclosed, with books of poems, as
were the heroines in the novels she
read.
| 1t might be said that Tom Gaynor
was counting Carrie Reynolds, al
though the young woman felt that
such could not possibly be the case.
Tom came to see her and he often
| brought her bags of candy from his
little confectionery shop, but he had
: never declared his love for her nor,
what was more important in the eyes
of the girl, had he ever sent her so
much as a single rose. And Carrie
had dreamed of the red roses she
would have when she was old enough
to have real beau.
/ One evening Tom Gaynor, standing
! in the doorway of his little shop, saw
Miss Carrie Reynolds laughing shyly
up at George Wood as they Strolled
along the avenue toward her home.
How attractive she was, he thought.
Perhaps he didn't appreciate her, per-
haps-yes, he had heard her speak
often of George Wood.
1t occurred to Tom then to send
Carrie the roses. He had always
known that she like them, but he had
fnJf "a q Y
pense. Tom was matter of fact, and he
fancicd, at times, that Carrie was too
sentimental. Maybe he was guilty of
trying to kill that sentiment by refuS-
ing to cater to it.
But when he saw the lovely smile
Carrie wore as she looked into the eyes
of George Wood, Tom Gaynor began
to think of the little things Carrie
evening he sought a florist.
ga few roses will please her." he
said to himself.
AS he stepped into the tiny flower
store near his own candy shop he saw
a pretty, go1den-haired girl standing
behind the bowls of blossoms on the
zinc counter. She smiled brilliantly
at Tom as he entered, and the blue
of her eyes and the red of her lips
struck a quick note in Tom Gaynor's
stolid makeup. Today, for the first
time, he had observed how lovely was
Carries smile, and now this pretty
manner, he thought.
"Have you any red roses?''' he ask
ed. He had intended to take pink
ones, but the red of the girls lips
seemed to put the color in his mind.
Carrie would not care so long they
were roses.
The girl stepped from behind the
counter and opened the glass door of
ties" she said. holding out a jar of
crimson, dewy blossoms. tSmelI
Them
Tom Gaynor did draw in the fragrance
OF the roses and then he watched the girl
count out six OF them. He knew by the
fond way in which she laid them side by
side that she loved each petal of them.
Perhaps Carrie was not the only senti-
mental girl in the world; perhaps 1t was
only that he had not known many girls.
He wondered if this one had any one 10
send her flowers.
"I'n take them with me-" he said when
they were wrapped and pinned.
The girl smiled again and Tom felt him
self wishing he might linger in the shop
and speak with her-look at her.
Out in the street he found himself think
ing again of the blue of the girls eyes
and of her smile He wondered If it
could be the frame of flowers and the
perfume of the shop that had made her
SO attractive
1t was not until he saw Carries pretty,
shy face buried in his roses and her eyes
lifted slowly to his own that he forgot
the. girl of the florists shop. Carrie
seemed to sparkle and smile in the pres
6nc6 OIL the roses, ana she said one OF
two intimate little things to him that
night that made her seem very dear. He
felt that he was truly counting the girl of
his heart as he left her door that night
He would send roses again If it made
Carrie SO happy.
On his biweekly trips to her house ne
took roses and on each occasion he saw
the girl behind the flowers He began to
talk to her, and each time she seemed as
pretty as on his first visit. II Tom had
not been so sure that he loved Carrie he
would have believed he was falling in
love with the golden-haired flower girl. But
Tom Gaynor was as Stanch and as faith
full as he was prosaic, and after a few
visits to the flower shop he realized tina
the girls charm was only a part of her
stock in trade, and little by little she
seemed to be making him see the beau
tiful side. of life
Living always among the fragrance Of
these flowers made me try to live beau
tifuI life,'' she told him one evening when
there was no one in the shop. II knew
YOU and I knee your errand when you |
first came here for six red roses, and 1
was glad to see you giving Carrie Rey- |
nolds flowers. / have known her long. |
long time and she Graves pretty things
I used to watch your mechanical counting /
of her and I resolved that if you ever |
came to my shop to make it SO attractfte
that you would return. IL only to come
again. I succeeded, and In selling you