The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1914-12-10
GETTING ACQUAINTED
By ALLEN BROCK.


their cottage on Black lake, wrapped
his feet securely around the porch
rails and started an after-dinner cigar.
| Isn't it funny" he remarked, re-
| flectively, after meditative puff or
two, what difference a summer cot
tage makes?"
The little group on the veranda
looked at him lazily, awaiting further
exposition of his theme.
You know" continued Bob, I've
always been little afraid of the Far
ringtons, especially of Nell"
That's because you're badly
nicked," said Sam, with brotherly can
dor "A fellows always afraid of a
| girl when he's really niCked."
mo such thing" said Bob I've
never been one of the diffident, self
effacing kind that thinks he's a worm
in the dust whenever he compares
himself with a girl he happens to
like"
mo, III say that for him" admitted
Sam. Excessive modesty has never
been one of his Affections"
'When you get through roasting"
said Bob, pleasantly, I'll go ahead
and tell you some more about my
visit"
Yes, let's hear about the Earring
TONS" said Jessie.
We'll, what / meant by being afraid
of them was that ! never felt quite as
though | could go to their house with
out making a kind of set piece of it
gloves and stick and visiting cards
| and Is Miss Harrington in?' with my
| politest accent 1t wasn't that they
| were stiff or ceremonious or anything
of that sort. II they had been the
| kind of people that sentence you to
| one chair when you come to call !
| should never have gone near their
| house. They were always cordial and
| informal enough, but somehow even
their informality always had such a
| polite little finish to 1t that | used
to feel as though | never could be
quite SO nice as they We're, no matter
| how hard / tried. Mrs. Harrington
with just the correct little social
| formula and Nell and exchanged
| amenities according to the precepts
she had learned at Miss Winters
| finishing school. Mr. Harrington was
friendly in a dignitied way that seemed
to call upon me to address him as
| sir He would offer me cigars that
| never felt quite free TO smoke until
| Bert took me down TO the billiard
room, though Nell and her mother al
ways insisted that they liked cigar
! smoke. Somehow | used to feel that
they would all be corking people to
know when | really got to know them
well enough not to be so polite, but
| Bert was the only one with whom
| was on real comfortable sCrapping
| terms.
when they invited me to 80 up to
their cottage last week of course they
told me the usual story about their
informal primitive way of living
| back to nature and all that sort of
thing-but I've been bluffed like that
|
| pleasant reality"
Was it a reality" asked Jessie.
Il went up with Bert Saturday
night" narrated Bob. when we got
to the place Sunday morning the first
person ! saw was Mr., Harrington. He
was ON the dock in a bathing suit in,
| dustriously trying to untangle fish
line. Hello, Logs, he said. Hello.
| Heaton! Give me a hand with this
| blankety, blanh line, will you? Say,
have either OF you fellows got any
| markings? The only thing don't like
about life in Lonsomehurst is that
it's so contour ded hard to get a smoke
when you want one
| Then he took me into the boat.
house and showed me coniidsntally
| eight black bass that he had bought
from a boy that morning and that he
was going to catch after breakfast
| BY that time Nell came to the door OF
| the cottage
"'Hello, kids she called out Pm
SO glad you're here' Breakfast is
| ieauy, aHU III starved.
Collars and stiff clothes were rig
idly barred, and it didn't take me long
to get into sweater, where | stayed.
After breakfast Mrs. Harrington
| asked mo in a matteroffaCt way to
turn the ice cream freezer and as
| Nell helped | didn't mind, Once,
| when wo were tasting the cream, we
bumped our heads together and after
that we felt lot better acquainted
"Ther, we went in swimming and
dried in the sun on the dock, aud Nell
and | stumped each other to hop over
| the cracks on one foot. After that
she showed me how she could ride on
| the fly ing Dutchman, Contrlyance
that some children had rugged in the
back yard II Is long board that
spins around on pivot and you have
to straddle it, jockey fashion, to stick
on. When | asked Nell whether she
had learned that accomplishment at
Miss Winters, the suggestion over.
came her and she rolled off"
II suppose when she gets back to
town you'll go around there to call
with gloves and stick and visiting
cards?" asked Sam.
Bob grnned Not on your life, .
said he. after this | go around to
the back fence and thistle"
All Right, but
hlp ,ft