The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1918-11-29
Cynthia White
Pest
~0
BY VINCENT @. PERRY

Rsasseseeseeeseseee eeeeaceesesseeess
Copyright, 1918, by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate)
With IA quick jerk Horace Sangstel
pulled his line from the water, and
then cried out with disgust. The fish
II there had been one, had got away
Three hours without catcfl-lt was
enough to annoy man with normal
nerves, and Horace was far from that
He drew in his line angrlly and nt'
tempted tO wind II up, but something
had gone wrong with his reel. That
was the last straw. lie snt down on
a rock and swOre.
The sound of the word startled him.
He had not sworn for years. His
nerves were certainly making wreck
OF him. The solitude OF the place was
aggravating him. too. They had told
him the simple camp life, with lots of
fishing, would make n new man or him.
Such b0sh! Why, there was hardly Il
thing about 1t that did not make him
feel worse.
This was the second day, and he
was going 80 make II his last. TO be-
gin with, he had had trouble pitching
his tent The storm IN the night had
kept him up keeping out the rain. Ev-
cry crack of the bushes or sound of
the birds in the trees caused him TO
start uneasily. 1t was nearly as nerve
racking aS an afternoon session with
the fOrrth-year class. The thought
of the foIrth-year girls irrltated him
the more They had been the cause
of his breakdown, he felt confident.
For months he had looked with dread
Oh the hour each afternoon that he
was forced 10 teach them mathematics.
They were just silly. thoughtless girls,
and would not have been 50 hard to
put up with had it not been for their
rngleadcr Cynthia White.
Without exaggeraton Cynthia was
the worst girl he had ever had under
his tuition. Her main object in life
seemed to be To torment ihe professor
OF mathematics. Something always
turned mp for her tc argue about or
laugh over. There was always some
thing for her to rldicule, and she new
er missed an opportunity to make him
feel mean perhaps because she was
so large and he was so small.
As he sat there thinking II over, Hor-
ace made up his mind Ee had been
foolish. 1t would have been easy to
have arranged for her dismissal from
the college. Why hadn't he done it?
There was something he liked about
Cynthia, in spite of everything. The
spirit of fun behind those twinkling
black eyes of hers appealed to him,
and the warmth of her laugh made him
long for something-something that
was not In his life.
Suddenly the laugh sounded close he
side him. He nearly tOppled into the
water from the shock it gave him. He
turned quickly to confront Cynthia, Il
little way off, her eyes bulginG over
with merriment. After rubbing his
eyes to make sure he was seeing
Alright, Horace smiled forth greet
ing. Even the pest Of his life was wei
come in that solitude,
"Oh, Mr.. Sangster, you look so fun
ny there" she laughed. 'If the girls
could only see you in your bare feet ~
Heavens !" Horace tried to hide
ls feet behind log He had forgot
ten that he had taken off his shoes and
socks to wade creek.
Don't be alarmed she smiled en-
cOuragingly, 81 am going to take off my
shoes. too. One can't fish well with
shoes on. How do you like my cos
tuner"
She was clad in khaki from head to
foot, and her hair was hanging in curls
over her shoulders. TTe had never re-
allied how beautiful she was before.
"Jove, You look peachy." he mur-
INJURED. admiringly. not realizing that
he had used the word ''peachy" for the
fiji st ii ne since he had got his degree.
That encouraged Cynthia to take n
seat beside him. Not that she needed
encoura cement, for she would have sat
there sooner or later. 1t did not take
Horace long to forget that he was
college professor and she was Il mere
student. Soon they were chatting
gayly.
Her home was near by and she had
spent every summer fishing in that
stream for years. She led him TO
place where he was 'sure to catch
something, no matter how poor an an
gler he was" When his luck remain
ed poor and he still made vain attempts
to land q trout, Cynthia did not fail to
laugh at him and assure him that he
was as funny as he could be.
/, Somehow it did not bother him to
be laughed at out there. The air seem
ed to have got into his blood and given
him sense of humor that responded
to her witty ridicule. He was not long
IN catching onto the right way to draw
in the line. and before the afternoon
was over he was catching as many
trout as Cynthia. When they parted
he had gained her promise to search
him out the next day.
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