The Washington herald., 1915-01-31

HISS, 70 ask the way to the gram
mar scnool, and the means of get
ting his pormanteau and the two
tin boxes which lay up the plat
form thither. -
OF all the odd and fantastic
yarns to tell a fellow!
His luggage could be taken on a
truck for sixpence, he found, and
he could precede it on foot. He
fancied an ironical note in the
voices. He was painfully aware of
his contour.
The curious. earnestness of the
man in the train and the glamour
of the story he told had, for a
time, diverted the current of Mr..
Hinchcliff's thoughts. 1t drove ike
a mist before his immediate con-
Germs. Fires that went to and frol
But the preoccupation of his new
position, and the impression he was
to produce upon Holmwood gener-
ally, and the school people in par
ticular, returned upon him with re-
invigorating power before he left
the station and cleared his mental
atmosphere.
But it was extraordinary what
an inconvenient thing the addition
of soft and rather brightly golden
fruit, not three inches in diameter,
may prove to sensitive youth on
his best appearance. In the pocket
of his black jacket it bulged dread
fully, spoiled the lines altogether.
He passed a little old lady in
black, and he felt her eve drop
upon the excrescence at once. He
was wearing one glove and carry
ing the other, together with his
stick, so that to bear the fruit open
ly was impossible.
In one place, where the road into
the town seemed secluded, he took
his incumbrance out of his pocket
and tried it in his hat. 1t was lust
two large, the hat wabbled ludi-
crously, and just as he was taking
it out again butchers bov came
driving round the corner.
"Confound itT' said Mr.. Hinch-
cliff.
He would have eaten the thing
and attained omniscience there and
then, but it would seem so silly to
go into the town sucking a juicy
fruit-and it certainly felt juicy.
If one of the boys should come
by, it might do him a serious in
jury with his discipline to be seen.
And the juice might make his face
sticky and get upon his cuffs-or it
might be an acid juice as potent as
lemon, and take all the color out of
his clothes. s.
Then round a bend in the lane
came two pleasant, sunlit, girlish
figures. They were walking slowly
toward tie town and chattering-
at any moment they might look
round and see hot-faced Young
man behind them carrying a kind
of phosphorescent yellow tomatol
They would be sure to laugh.
"Hangp said Mr.. Hinchcliff,
and with swift jerk sent the in
cumbrance flying over the stone
wall of an orchard that there abut-
ted on the road.
As it vanished, he felt a faint
twinge of loss that lasted scarcely
a moment. He adjusted the stick
and glove in his hand, and walked
on, erect and self-conscious, to pass
the girls.
But in the darkness of the night
Mr.. Hinchcliff had a dream, and
saw the valley, and the flaming
swords, and the contorted trees,
and knew that it really was the
Apple of the Tree of knowledge
hat he had thrown regardlessly
AWAY.
And he awoke very unhappy.
In the morning his regret had
passed, but afterward it returned
md troubled him; never, however,
when he was happy or busily occu-
bed.
AT last, one moonlight night,
lbout eleven, when all HOLLYWOOD
vas quiet, his regrets returned with
'edoubled force, and Herewith an
impulse to adventure.
He slipped out of the house and
,ver the playground wall. went
through the silent town to Station
-,ane, and climbed into the orchard
where he had thrown the fruit.
But nothing was to be found of
there among the dewy grass and
he faint intangible globes of dan
Ielion down.