The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-03-06

! she hadn't brought near enough fooo
for herself and George Griffin, too
because, poor girl, she didn't have il
TO bring. But George had no scrup-
les about whose food it was and
/ pitched in" Being the smallest per
son in the crowd he ate the most an
nouncing he was done by finally wip-
ing off his mouth with a smear OF
either coat sleeve across his face and
q prodigious gulp of gas from off his
stomach. : ~
1t was joyous happy meal in the
woods where nature gives zest co
youthful appetite and much harmless
counting was to come-which was
even better than the food.
Then as the Glen darkened out
side and an occasional mosquito
winged in the open doorway and din
ed off a plump wrist or ankle, and the
stars came out, and the Glen was
made weird by mysterious night
noises, the table with the wreckage
of edibles was moved back and the
boys lighted their pipes and found
places for themselves and their girls
around that fire that Slug had coaxed
and poked until it was a thing of joy
and romance and comfort.
Mibb sat on the floor with her head
against Slug's knees-and in a corner
beside the Rawlin's girl whom he de-
toc tod fo1 bo1 t,h 10
Dick looked as miserable and kept as
quiet anc inconspicuous as a puppy
that is ailing grievously.
Harriet was seated beside the Tru-
mann boy; Frank Whitcomb was
sprawled out in front of her, his big
feet silhouetted against the flames, his
head in the girls lap. Sam and Alice
were over on the left-and behind
the crowd, seemingly not Of it, were
Jack Purse and Mary Wood. Jack
had stolen his arm about Mary's
waist and Mary did not resent the
intimacy.
Why repeat the talk-the jests, the
repartee, the foolery and the clumsy
sallies at one another, that followed
on that evening? Every man and
every woman on Gods footstool who
has ever been young and loved, has
been present at such an outing and
knows the talk thereof.
Finally Frank Whitcomb produced
his violin from it's battered old black
case and tuned it and laid aside his
pipe and began to play-"Oft In the
Silly Night" "The Light of Other
Days." and "Auld Robin Gray
Sweet and sad and holy were the sobs
of that violin on that night up in Gold
Piece cabin in those sweetheart hours
which would never come agin. He
fplayed Crock Me to Sleep, "Poor
Jack" and 'Iove's Young Dream. u
Then when the cabin was deathly
quiet excepting for the mysterious
wood noises outside or the crackle
of the flames, or the tiny zeep of a
vagrant mosquito accompanied by a
sudden slap by one Of the girls on
arm or ankle, and when under the
spell of his music they were staring
wide-eyed into the fire and seeing pic
lures there, and the hour babe fair
to become morbid, he switched to a
lighter tune: Life on the Ocean
Wave" 3The Old Gray Mare" "What
Are the Wild Waves Saying?" But
when he suddenly died down into
"Stars of the Simmer Night and
kathleen Mavourneen," and finally
'Love's Young Dream" the tears be
| gan to come and not a man of that
/ party who has heard one of those
dear old songs in the years which
have followed but has been carried
back to that evening in brighter
fairer and happier days, and seer
those old familiar faces that were
gathered then about that fire, rist
again round him And then the tear!
| begin to come and not a man O.
aIo ..as1is. 10 ~ { )
once one of the blessings and curse
OF living, that we should be youn,
and then grow old. They were silen
a long time after Fred had fnishe,
playing. The boys pipes had gon
out It seemed as though all 0
y them, under the spell. of the hour an
the place and the, music, had caugh
, a glimpse of the future and had bee