Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-08-03

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING OFF
neck if she would catch a glimpse Of the
foam rippled blue lake at each cross
street And riding home at night she
sometimes forgot that she was achingly
tired and hungry and was absorbed in
the dull gold and golden browns that
the setting sun hung down into the
murky Chicago river. to be caught up
again and painted in great relays between
the tall. street divided buildings.
And so one day. when the tall. sullen-
eyed young fellow who kept the depart
meht supplied from the stockroom
brought heap Of silver and gold pic
ture wire Jennie stopped In the work OF
weighing out tacks into the quarter
pound packages advertised at one-quar-
ter cent reduction and drew the glitter
ing cheap wire through her fingers while
she meditatively and imaginatively meas
ured it out for photographers and pale
tinted water colors and even fanciful
head in oils. In Jennie's hall bedroom
1ung three pictures. which was all the
wall or her finances would hold. They
were II by 16 and each had cost 10 cents.
Jennie had devoted three Saturday half
holidays to choosing them from the my
RAIDS at the 1O-cent store. and they al
most gave enough pleasure to Justify the
time and money spent. Still. they weren't
the kind upon which one squanders a
|
that she had occasion to buy box Of
that gilded wire and could have the won
derful, almost unrealizable, pleasure of
dividing it into the proper lengths and
fitting those lengths to the proper pic
lures.
Say" said the sullen-eyed carrier,
THAT wire doesn't belong to. your end !;
It goes across the aisle. Should think
you'd know that you don't get anything
but the nails and common stuff" He
was irritated Jennie handed 1t over
philosophically. even If with reluctance
She didn't resent his grumpy tone, her
eyes followed wistfully the shining length
that her slim, too white fingers tucked
back. If she ever got a gold frame and
a painted brown bowl filled with yellow
daffodils and two yards of that wire all
together she would feel her life had not
been lived altogether in vain.
Say, don't you want to let go of it?'
bantered the sullen-eyed young fellow
as her fingers slowly relaxed
Jennie flushed. Twas thinking of some
thing else, she explained in confusion. 1t
was the first time that she had ever spok-
| en- more than two or three words to him,
although she had known him casually for
| two years or more. Jennie was far from
courageous and his sullen eyes and ir-
ritably compressed mouth had not inn
| pressed her favorably. Now she thought
with some natural irritation of her own
! "
ness. He took the wire and went away.
Jennie watched him with new and Gu
| rfOuS interest. He had a straight, wtry
figure. There was nothing especially pre-
| possessing about him, but Jennie began
| to picture him as he would be IL some of
that sullenness were wiped of his thin
| face And the afternoon was dull for
| once. Jennie enlivened 1t by wondering
who and what he was and If his life were
as monotonous as her own, and II he
4 all lx
II nothing else. BY 5 o'clock she had
patched him out with q very sad and
lengthy story: and then she laughed a
little at her own foolishness.
But the next day. when he paused with
a box of assorted hinges. she felt almost
acquainted. because OF that long-drawn
out wondering. And for some reason
perhaps he. too. had wondered-he seem
| ed to feel acquainted. Still asleep" he
bantered. Don't get to thinking these
hinges are hand painted teacups, cause
they're not
Jennie looked at him with sharp brown
eyes. Back Of her tendency to fancy
Jennie had a dormant sense Of shrewd.
ness. And perhaps her own denied beauty
yeafnings caught the same note of de-
NAL that lay behind the bantering tone
and almost revealed itself In bitterness
II won't" she said. gayly, and withou,
any of her usual reserve. Jennie was not
conversational, nor in fact anything but
ton that either accounted for her lone.
someness or was its result-but an in
tuition that the boy addressing her was
no better enlivened by nature gave hel
self-possessioh. She felt sorry for him
And she fancied. according to her habit
that he wasn't SO sullen as on the day be
fore.
Two days elapsed before he came agar
| to take stock. I'm out Of steel rivets.
said Jennie. absently. She was parceline
| n r
who. thought that when a screen door wa.
bought such accessories ought to b.
thrown in. and who had loudly voiced hi.
opinion of stores that refused such &
trifling addition.
Say, you don't have to let customer,
talk to you that way" he said. indig
nantiy. II had notion to punch his
head
"Oh, good gracious!" gasped Jennie
why. you'd be discharged, and so woul6
IT,
The boy stared wrathfully after the