The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1918-10-18
Kitty Sat Right Beside Him.

superior in the Office, at salary that
quite warranted the extra expenditure
In offerings at miladv's shrine. SO it
kept Charlie busy trying to put his
best foot foremost to keep up with his
more substantial rival. The new
spring suit was a happy inspiration.
1t was almost unseasonably early, but
Charlie had learned the truth of sew
eral aXiOms in his counting, among
others that the early bird catches the
worm. There should be corollary to
this, however, for foolish young low
ers, that he also sometimes catches
cold. For of course with the sun and
wind so balmy it would be quite awful
to eclipse the radiance Of his new
wardrobe with an overcOat. Besides
Charlie mad had to use the scissors on
the stopping place of his overcoat
sleeves several times Of late
In church. Charlie gazing reverent-
ly, not at the Reverend Mr. Smith
in the pulpit, but at the back Of
Louise's blond head, did not see the
admiration in Kitty Parks eyes. Kitty
sat right beside him in the pew.
Kitty Park had always sat beside
him in church. and lived next door to
him at home. SO of course to Charlie
she was just Kitty Park. She was
taken for granted quite as much as the
sycamore tree on the lawn, or the
chimney on the roof. She was some
thing that had always been and always
would be-a fixture.
Kitty was very pretty. Up to the
time of the Jones' advent to town she
had been the acknowledged town beau
ty. But being domestic and somewhat
shy, she had affected none of the en-
bellishments that usually attract the
gullfble male, as had Louise Jones
So the palm had passed from Kitty to
Louise without the former knowing
that she had ever owned it.
The fact that Roscoe Wright was
not at church was both balm and net
ties to Charles soul. Nettles because
his new outfit had lost half Of its in
tended triumph, balm because he saw
an unobstructed opportunity Of walk
ing home with Louise.
The bright cOlOrs in the art glass
window toward the sun turned sud-
denly sOmber and darkened steadily as
a shadow crossed the path of old Sol's
Then tiny whistle of wind became
barely audible, increasing slowly and
steadily. however until the benediction
tested the powers Of Mr.. Smiths al
ways powerful voice. An icy breath
pervaded the church. The janitor had
long before slipped in and closed the
red and blue transOms.
Charlie, with chill creeping slowly
up and down his spine, tried to look
stoically Indifferent to the change of
temperature. A man Of the world, he
argued, always took things as they
came. If the weather changed, that
was up to the weather. He was all
right
But Kitty Park noticed with alarm
that the line around his lips was draw
ing tight and his whole face had Il
blue look. She had heard him cough
in the night, his window facing hers.
and she had a conviction he was try
ing to suppress a cough now.
At last church was out And of
course anybody with the sense of
newly Matched egg would have gone
straight home, taken a hot bath and
rub down and hot lemonade, put on
a warm house robe and stayed in all
day. But then that person didn't
think he was in love with pretty girl
who lived on the other side of town
nor had he squandered a months sal