Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-03-05

narrowly averted when someone need
ed barrel and didn't know what to
do with the property tinware it con-
tanned, and George told them to lift
up the trap door in the stage and
dump it into regions below, and some
one did and Colonel Jethro Wilson
was down there underneath the trap
door "seeing what he could see" and
got the whole five-and-ten-cent store
poured merrily on his head.
The Henderson girl sang her songs
between the acts! Yes, Mibb sang
that night and wd have never for
gotten her singing because of the
sang which she sang. IT was "Sil-
yer Threads Among the Gold"
"Silver Threads Among the Gold!"
How she sang ii. The audience had
hooted and laughed at the rest of the
little local talent play. But they
did not boot and laugh at Mibb's part
in that entertainment. The girls
full rich contralto put sweetness
and haunting melancholy into the
lines and the melody which filled the
eyes of old Uncle Joe Fodder with
tears. For Uncle Joe had heard it
in Il younger and happier day-like
many a gray-head in that audince.
But the Henderson girl never knew
of her power and her gift-or if she
knew, she did not care. 1t was very
quiet in that hall when Mibb finished
the ballad.
In the last act, too, after Jack had
rescued his heroine for the last time
from the tolls of the villain, the cur
tain did not respond (for verify old
Peter Ferguson had fallen asleep in
the scenery loft under the soothing
influence of the strong liquor by
which he was ensnared. The per-
picked audience were still further
perplexed by ~lght Of George Griffin
appearing suddenly in the middle of
the stage where the final love scene
was in process and shouting damn
your immortal soul, send down that
curtain!" and firing his property ham
mer insanely up into the wings. This
brought down the curtain in one IT,
tanic flop, as though all the strings
had been cut and it had fallen from
the skies. But everyone declared that
Georgia Griffin always thought him
self smart anyhow and what could
you expect if he took it into his head
to show off, and Uncle Joe Fodder
remarked that all the cast appeared
to lack was memory, concentration
and self-confidence; outside of that
they We're I'LL right and the play was
riot.
Then as per the advertising, the
boys cleared the auditorium of seats
and Grace Rawlins and Uncle Joe
Fodder took their places; she before
the piano; he besides her with his
famous old violin and we held the
dance.
Mr.. Man, have you forgotten the
might in the long, long ago when
you danced for the first time with
the girl you loved? Have you for
gotten the soft delirious rythmn of
the Nmusic, the choking of your
throat and the tightnine of your col
lar when you approached her and
asked Aer to be your partner? Have
you forgotten the heat about your
cars, the hurt in your chest, the
"gone" feeling in your limbs, as you
placed your arm about her and felt
her arm in turn about your neck and
the sweat of her palm against yours
and the tidkle of her hair in your
mouth and the pressure of her soft
body yielding to your guiding-have
you forgotten the feeling of dancing
for the first Aime with the girl you
once loved, Mt. Man? Because if
you have, you have forgotten very
much indeed THAT helps make your
after years mellow with memories
and that supplies much of the bitter
sweet to the philosophy that is the
great he heritage of this added thing
called life.
Mary Wood danced with Jack
Purse that night. She danced more
than once with him. \And by the
strange ethical tclepathX which ex-
lists between youth, it was accepted
that the new Jack Purse was the
Mary Woods "fellow" and the new
Mary Wood was Jack Pursets "girl."
And the elders smiled, for they were
a pretty pair-Jack and they Wood
girl. And the boys shrugged their
and the girls pretended
not to mind Round and round In a |
dreamy waltz Jack swung her, her
body bending into his own, her eyes
nalf-closed, her heart beating rythmA-
5ically to the young printers who
1eld her close.
She laughed a bit sadly as they sat
Town along the side Of the hall be-
ween dances and she famed herself
With her handkerchief.
"I'm sorry it's over," she said. cts
,een lot of fun; I'll always have it
o think of this little local-talent
'lay. Somehow my good times in
Paris seem to have begun since you
anne here, Jack" /
Jack sat silently. A strange pain
ched in him for the feel of her
Uses was still hot upon his lips and :
he press of her soft yielding body
n the waltzes was still in his senses. I
"Look at Jack!" laughed Sam Hold. {
Clean off his ballast in love! If