The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-02-04
She Met the Two Brown Eyes.

sion during the winter months when
time hung heavily on their hands.
The fact that he was the only one
of the class who was not taking the
course for credit and that, therefore,
his were the only pair of eyes left
free to study Lucy as she delivered
her lecture made his presence loom
large in the lecture room.
Sometimes 1t semed to Lucy-who
was but twenty-five and just in her
second year as college professor-it
seemed as if the room contained but
those two smiling, rather amused,
kindly, always attentive brown eyes.
Lucy herself had never lived many
months on the farm. She had chosen
to specialize in agricultural house
wifery because it combined her nat
ural interest in domesticity and things
rural-not because she had really
worked out the problem of the farm
er's wife or had even remote idea Of
the difficulties that faced the farm
woman in her domestic relations.
Lucy frequently felt handicapped be
cause of her lack of practical expert
ence, but never did she feel so much
so as when in the course of a lecture
she would give utterance to some
highly optimistic and theoretical ideas
as to the charms of farmhouse life and
she would see the eyes at the side Of
the room registering a degree more of
amusement.
The lecture that Lucy planned to
give the day before class dlsbanded
for the Christmas holidays was a prac-
teal talk on Christmas In the farm
house. When she worked this lecture
up the year before she felt that she
had achieved her masterpiece, and in
fact many of the students of that
year had told her that it had proved
UNNECESSARILY helpful.
In the lecture she gave practical
based on no actual experience, to be
sure-advice on how to bring Yuletide
cheer to the farmhouse, how to set up
the Christmas tree and how to deck
It with ornaments that could be all
produced on the farm-strung popcorn,
cranberries and rosy apples.
She took occasion to draw con-
trast between the Christmas season In
a city home and that In farmhouse,
with all the advantage scored in IA
vor Of the latter. In order to get
through the lecture at all she had to
keep her eyes steadily turned away
from the side of the room dominated
over by the pair of brown eyes. Then
came the end of the lecture and Lucy
knew that she had said something that
had brought an anticipatory thrill of
| Christmas spirit to her class.
She was almost overcome with hap
piness as she heard the many voices
| giving their Christmas best wishes.
( They had actually clapped to show
their appreciation. This Lucy knew.
to be a most unusual tribute at the
college.
And Lucy needed this encouragement
sorely, for after college had closed all
that was left to her was the little de-
serted boarding house In the college
town. Almost every one had left for
the holidays, but Lucy had no place
to leave for. Her only relatives, very
distant cousins, lived across the con-
tinent, and Lucy had grown used TO
solitary Christmases, the one day in
the year when people so seldom include
anyone but their own family in their
jollification.
So snowy Christmas came and
went and all the Yuletide cheer that
Lucy got was in the recollection Of
the spirit of Christmas that she had
put into that lecture and the applause
Of appreciation that came afterward.
Lucy went out for solitary stroll
over the snow the day after Christmas.
and 1t was there that she met the two
brown eyes for the first time out of
classroom. All she had learned about
the owner of them was that he was a
well-tO-do and prosperous farmer who
was taking the course merely for a d.
version.
AS far as actual knowledge of agri.
culture went there wasn't specialist
in the college to whom he could not
give practical pointers in the special
lists own subject, so Lucy had been
told.
Before Lucy knew 1t she had ac-
cepted the invitation offered to her
from her Interesting student to get into
his sleigh, and then she realized that
she actually consented to accompany
her companion to his farm FIVE miles
away.
sd like to have 1t fixed up the
way you told us farms ought to be
fixed up" he smiled, but it's pretty