The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-10
fl E Words 15c Farmer Classified Ads Phone 1908

course you are joking. have heard Garrett Devereau talk in just such a strain too often to be amused by it.. And if you mean
 eff I meant it was crying the baby" :" stated the man coldly, and Miss Sarah knew that he was rehuking himself. "I could care for such a girl-yes. But I doubt if would marry woman who had even the smallest doubt. There are too many sharp places to be smoothed over without chancing that tragedy of discontent. It's merely habit that's to blame again, that's all." He cast about for a parallel. "One does not miss sugar so very much from a meal until he knows he can't have it. And then-well, Miss Sarah, l have many times talked. peevishly, for a man, because there was none to be had"
 "We are talking of women. What about salt?" she inquired quickly.
 4That is very indispensable, too, but
 "Of the two which do you always take care shall not be missing from your pack whenever you turn into the woodsw
 q see where you are heading, but
 q do not like. .dissemblance, Stephen, ? she warned. You know without the salt of love the sugar of life can grow sickeningly cloying."
 He did not win his argument, but defeat gave him far more happiness than could have come from victory. Leaving her that night, he closed his hand over her delicate fingers in a clasp which left her smiling in wonder after he had gone. She watched horse and rider disappear into the whiteness of the new winter till both were lost to her sight.
 "Bless the boyF' she murmured then 'eBless the boyw And to Caleb, her brother, whsn he came stamping in: 'T surely must take hand with these children. They have been left to their own devices long enough"
 Caleb had recovered his good natured view of the whole affair; he was given to grinning those days at her futter. ings. On more than one occasion he told her none too fatteringly that she made him think of an ofacious hen with a brood which a high rate of mortality and prowling night raidera had left bereft of all save two of her hatch. But this particular witticism did not bother her in the least, per- haps because she realized how pat the comparison was. Instead of silencine him she showed him the letter which she constructed some days later--con' structed most painstakingly the second week in December. She deigAed tc read it aloud to him before she dis patched 1t on it's journey.
 Barbara, dear child" she wrote ''this is the appeal of lonesome spin ster lady who finds that winter, stiI only lusty infant here, is the season for younger, warmer pulses. I am very tired of Caleb's continued company that is, with nothing to leaven it. Tht keenest of episrammarians, my dear becomes very commonplace, you know to ears too long tuned to one voice. S, I am writing you in digtifed despera tion to come to me this holiday season Caleb, is not always as epigrammatit as could wish. I am going to bs positive that you will come unless yot have already made other plans. And on second thought, if you have al ready done so am going to fall bacl
 upon the rSiyileged tyranny of on, who once cafried you in her arms You must come to me this Christmas!' 7 There was another whole paragraph of rambling, repeated arguments ant then full page devoted to the beau ties of the hills and season. '"The days are diamond brilliant she wrote, land the nights as dryl, cold and crisp as Caleb's few last cher ished bottles of champagne. We hay foot of snow, two feet in the ell o the house where the mint bed lies, an, that has afforded Caleb much peace o mind too. The roots will live nicel
 under their warm blanket, you see all of which must read friyolously | you, coming from staid Miss Sarah can only plead that already must b less lonely for anticipation of your al rival Are you well? You will fin new roses for your cheeks in this ell mate. And you may telegraph you acceptance this once if you are too bus to write, although you know deplor
 the lack of those punctillios which ono made of all custom and etiquette most charming thing"
 It was signed Yours, my dear, Ss rah Hunter"
 There was quaint twist to the lette
 "S;' sharp angles in the chirograph | which a newer decade of femininit
 might have found sadly lacking in largeness of loops now indispensabl