The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-19

Thres Quarters and Six Eishths. TN 7ATURDAY morning dawned as Ro hot and dry and windless as fss.1SI had been the other days of l1Ns9 the week which had preceded 1t. Caleb Hunter, rising from an un- easy night, blamed his sfeeplessness upon the weather. It was fully an hour before his usual not too early hour of rising when he slowly descended the wide stairway, and yet he was bSt lit tie surprised to find the boy already there before him seated upon the top step of the veranda when he strolled outside.
 Chin in palm, elbow upon knee, Steve was gazing nxedly in the direction of Dexter Alison's stucco and timber summer lodge" and, although Oaleb could not have known 1t, there had been no need for his silence, for the boys rapt preoccupation was sound proof. Caleb heard voices coming from behind the shrubbery, and just e he, . little perplexed turned to fUllow the di- rection of that fascinated gaze Alhson himself squeezed thfe dgh a narrow aperture in the box hedge end hailsd him jovially from the far edge of the lawn. And Caleb Hunters brows drew together in . bit of fpowns when q slender fgHe in kilted black velvet and bright buckled lew ahees, hatless and with thick, gleaming hair bsbbed short in style strange to Morrison in those. days flashed through behind him, for Caleb heard the short gasp which came from the boys nys even before the little girl had paused in her darting advance on optce hke . lowering but ferfy to,wave q slim hand at him. Caleb heard the boys breath suck in between tight teeth; heard 1t culver unsteadily as she appeared on swift feet-and Caleb understood what had been holding 50 closely his attention. He understood absolutely and yet, strange as the mood wes, at that mo- ment he couldn't help but fed, too, somehow a little sorry for the boy-he could not help but think Hk eyes went from Steve's forward thrust head, from the hair, shaggy and un- kempt for all it's fneness and thickness and wavy softness, across to that dainty vision which, poised in her ab- surdly short skirt like . point of flame. was already gazing back at the boy upon the steps in open and undisguised amaze.
 All of that characteristic which had been most pronounced in Dexter Ali son the latter had passed down to this slender girl who was his daughter, Barbara. No matter how vivid Ali sons raiment had been, Caleb remem- bered that even when Dexter was a stripling at school it had always seem ed more a part of the man himself than just protection for his body. Caleb had never given it q serious thought up to that moment, but now if came back to him with added cumrla- tive force. He recollected that he had often wondered at the child's uncon- scious adaptation of mood to the clothes she happened to be wearing. He recalled how he had seen her de mure and distant in misty, pastel tint. cd party frocks or quaintly, infantile- ly dignifed in soberer Sunday morn ing garb.
 | Caleb caught his first illuminating l glimpse of the woman she was to be- of the dainty grace and more thar usual beauty which were thcre in ths promise of the years, and he, who was fond of insisting to his sister Sarat | that there was many a boy back 1T those hills who, with his chance, naight some day achieve greatness, suddenly realized how long and weary the road would be for just such . one as thu fascinated little figure on the stept before he could begin to approach tha level which, to society that Oalel understood, was typ1fed by this ex quisite elfln figure, Dexter Allison'I | daughter. z e@ss
 He was no sncb, Caleb Hunter, ant yet the little girls bearing at that mo ment doubly accented for him tn l gulf which lay between her and tn hills boy, by name Steve. For, thougl she did pause to stare at his whit drill trousers and unbelievable nal sized boots with frankly childish as tonishment, the next instant she hal recovered herself and without anothe glance preceded her father across tn
 grass Quite as though Steve had no
 been there at all, she passed him t
 hesitate demurely at Caleb's side.
 Good morning, Uncle Cal" sh
 greeted him.
 And then quite suddenly Caleb didn'
 feel so very sorry, after all, for his Ht
 tie visitor. He stopped pityfng hin
 Steve's eyes had not waEered ono fro n the little girls face, from tn
 time she appeared in the hedge gap ur
 til she mounted the steps, utterly ot
 livious to his nearness. But when sh
 brushed against his elbow the bo ! rose and stood, hat in hand. gravel
 quiet, gravely possessed and slenti
 sure of himself.
 (To Be Cantinued.1
 New York is again vindicating Il claim te be the metropolis by tlavin : the worst epidemic of infant paTalys