Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-07-20
and Bibbs, turning his face homeward,
was forced to go slowly.

IL
was forced to go slowly.
Coming toward him, as slowly,
through the crowd, tall girl caught
sight of his long, thin figure and stood
| still until he had almost passed her,
for in the thick crowd and the thicker
gloom he did not recognize her, though
his shoulder actually touched hers He
would have gone by, but she laughed
delightedly, and he stopped short,
| startled. Two boys, one chasing the
other, swept between them, and Bibbs
stood still, peering about him in deep
| perplexity. She leaned toward him.
II knew you" she said.
"GOod heavens!" cried Bibbs 81
thought it was your voice coming out
| of a starr
There's only smoke overhead" said
Mary, and laughed again. There
aren't any stars"
"Oh, yes, there were-when you
| laughed!'
She took his arm, and they went on.
1--WE come to walk home with you,
Bibbs. l wanted to-"
But were you here in the"
I'm the dark? Yes! Waiting? Yes!'
Bibbs was radiant he felt suffOcat-
ed with happiness. He began to scold
| her.
"But it's not safe, and Pm not worth
| it, You shouldn't have You ought
| to know better. What did"
II was in this part of town already"
she said. SAT least, l was only seven
or eight blocks away, and it was dark
when 1 came out, and I'd have had to
go home alone-and l preferred going
home with YOU"
Its pretty beautiful for me-" said
Bibbs, with a deep breath. you'll
never know what it was to hear your
| laugh in the darkneSS-and then to
to see you standing there. Oh, it was
like-it was like How can tell you
what it was like?" They had passed
| beyond the crowd now, and a crossing
! lamp shone upon them, which revealed
the fact that she was without her furs.
| Here was q puzzle. However, allow
ing it to stand, his solicitude for her
took another turn. 81 think you ought
| to have a car" he said, especially
when you want to be out after dark.
You need one in winter, anyhow. Have
you ever asked your father for one?'
"No," said Mary. Il don't think I'd
care for one particularly"
But my mother tried to insist on
sending one over here every after
noon for me. l wouldn't let her, be-
cause I like to walk, but a girl"
"a girl likes to walk, too," said
Mary. LET me tell you where I've
been this afternoon and how l hap
pened to be near enough to make you
take me home. I've been to see little
old man who makes pictures Of the
smoke. He has a sort of warehouse
for a studio. and he lives there with
his mother and his wife and their
seven children, and he's glOriously
happy. I'd seen one of his pictures at
an exhibition, and l wanted to see
more of them, so he showed them to
me. He has almost everything he ever
painted; I don't suppose he's sold
more than four or five pictures in his
life He gives drawing lessons to keep
alive"
"How do you mean he paints the
smoker" Bibbs asked.
"Literally. He paints from his stu
dio window and from the street-any-
where. He just paints what's around
| him-and IFS haalItiful -
''The smoker"
"Wonderful! He sees the sky through
it. somehow. He does the ugly roofs
Of cheap houses through haze Of
smoke, and he does smoky sunsets and
smoky sunrises, and he has other
things with the heavy, solid, slow col
umns of smoke going far out and grow
ing more ethereal and mixing with the
hazy light in the distance; and he has
others with the broken skyline Of
downtown, all misted with the smoke
and with puffs and jets of vapor that