The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-08-18
Their Hero
By RICHARD MARLEY

One OF the luloSyncrasleS OF youth L
an overappreciation Of what Is pleasing
to the eye. A boy OF sixteen is NOR
absorbed in the cut of his clothes thar
ever again In his life. The love of per
sonal adornment is supposed TO remain
with a woman so long AS she lives
Once out of her teens she Is won rath
err by devotion than good looks. Blu
girl from fifteen to twenty is as much
charmed by what Is usually denominat
ed handsome In a boy as the boy Is By
resplendent neckwear. Neither the boy
nor the girl attaches much Importance
to merit.
Tom Bergman, aged eighteen, the
son OF well to do widow, persuaded
his mother to permit him to give q
house party In her country home, which
she did not intend to occupy during the
summer. The bunch Tom trained with
was composed of boys and girls Of ages
varying from fourteen to eighteen,
though none Of the girls was quite
seventeen. Six boys and six girls were
invited to the house party, and all ac-
cepted at once, for none Of them had
ever been so honored before.
Mrs. Bergman had an intimate
friend, Mrs. Archibald, whose only
son, Reginald, was OF a proper age to
be invited to the house party. Mrs.
Bergman, desiring to show attention
to her friend, made 1t condition of
giving up her country house to her son
nd No. fri hot pnnipa1d Arnbi-
bald should receive an invitation to be
one of the party.
Tom consented and had been sufl1-
GENTLY trained in social dealings to no
tify the other boys that Reginald Archi-
bald, being a stranger, should receive
especial attention from them. As to
the girls, Tom knew that II they did
not happen to fancy young Archibald
they would not be likely to put them
selves out of the way to do him honor.
When Reginald appeared on the
scene he was found to be what a girl
Of sixteen would call handsome. His
complexion was pink and white. He
was rather tall for his age and deli
cateIy formed He possessed a well
turned neck and throat and wore a
byronic collar-not at all in fashion
which showed the features to advan-
tage. He at once gave the impression
that he honored the company In ap-
pearing among them and that he ex-
pected to be treated with especial con-
sideration.
As has been remarked, young ladies
of sixteen are like the fish that go for |
the glittering spoon that whirls In the |
sunshine at the end Of line. Reg1- |
maids pink and white complexion, his
soft brown eyes, his artistlcally tum- I
bled hair and, above all, that throat,
rising above the broad rolling collar,
captivated every girl in the party.
Moreover, his admirers were too young
to have received proper training in
themselves In such matters,
and Mr.. Archibald at once became their
hero.
Even had the girls refrained from
their admiration for the
with the pink and white
the other boys would
doubtless have discovered 1t. They
were not envious of him, but his re-
ceiving all the attention to the entire {
exclusion of all the rest Of them was
calculated to mar the pleasure {
Of the party. No one of them could I
make an engagement with any girl I'M !
II she had learned whether Reginald ,
Archibald would honor her with like :
invitation. If boy were chatting with j
girl she was forever casting glances
It the Adonis, evidently more interest
d In getting him away from the girl he
vas with than In her companion. 7
The longer this concentrated atten-
ion of the girls upon him lasted the
more Mr.. Archibald seemed to consider
t a matter of course. Instead Of point =
ng out to the girls the want Of wisdom
q their course he rather encouraged u
hem in following it. Instead Of en-
eavoring to be one of the party Of
oys he held aloof from them, seeming
0 consider the society of girls prefer II
BILE On the whole, the young fellows
7ere quite excusable In being up in
rms against both the girls and their
ero for spelling their fun. OF
lUPV put tublF menus together u COH- "
oct some scheme to show up the ador- I
BILE Adonis and reinstate themselves az
the good graces of the girls. They 90
ne and all agreed to act on the old
lying Absence makes the heart grow 7
,nder." The result speaks for itself.
One morning when the girls came
own to breakfast the butler an
ounced that some of the boys had
me fishing, some TO baseball match.
he only boy left at home was their
sro. They had him for breakfast.
ey spent the morning with him, the
ternoon, and when dinner time came
|. was still their only companion.
ong before the shadows OF evening
me they found that Mr.. Archibald
as a good deal like fish for breakfast.
h for luncheon and fish for dinner.
the usual hour for dancing the pho
graph was set going, and since there
rs only the hero to dance with and
2 girls soon tired of dancing with one
other they sat around and moped.
The boys came in at 10 o'clock TO
d all the girls retired to their rooms.
d Mr.. Archibald had taken the els
in for home. In the morning the
Is pouted. while the boys talked OF
enjoyable day they had spent as
CS J.