Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-03-12
CHAPTER TX
(Continucd from Last Wcpk) a

girls face. She dld her work Will
sudden energy which could haVt
but one explanation Frequently sht
sang Il fragment of an old love son.
as she busted herself with the task.
OF the day.
She had developed into the swift
est and most accurate cOmpoSitor We
ever had but after Jack came and
took his place between the imposing
stones as makeup man, she fairly
broke her own record. There wa.
suddenly no more tear, over the type
cases. There were no more COMES
sions to Daddy Joe sYhcrc were 90
more references to marrying 20"
money. The girl WAS III love with the
new man and the new man was in
love with our little compo,'itor and
the whole thing had happened so
thoroughly that we could hardly a.
simulate the strength of that dynamic
attachment For that is the way thH;
things happen in life.
In the story books the band plays
when the hero enters. There are
chapters of preparation and introduce
ton. There are bushels of moonlit
nights and clinging kisses and doubts
and fears and quarrclH and rcconcil-
iations and finally we have Il match
and marriage where both principals
are popularity supposed to live happily
ever after. But in the simple and
awful little dramas of plain people
in very real and matcrialistic world,
the thing happens a; VIC have set 1t
down.
We all knew that Jack Purse vas
not only poorer than any paupcr at
the town farm but that he had d
crazy idea that it was up to him TO
pay in full those creditors who had
lost money by his fathers bank
ruptcy. That meant four thousand
dollars of debt on slender wages ~ I,
newspaperman unless he went into
business for himself. But these
things place no stumbling-block mi
the pathway of love, at least not tn"
kind we have up here in New Eng
lard.
If in those weeks which followed
Mary gave a though to the Truman
boy, of wealth and aspiration and the
great opportunities which marriage
was to open to her, no one knew il .
but herself. This gooGlookirg, open
faced, tender-heaitcd, fine principlcd
but wretchedly poor ycun% re -
paperman came suddenly into her life
and nothing else mattered Daddy
Joe's prediction was fulfilled.
This, again, is the way of the
world. All of US have dreamed
dreams and built castles in the ether
and imagined great ard glorious cN-
periences for tho future. All Of u
at one time must confess to ourselves
that we thought we were to marry
the superman or the SuperwGman. All
of us, up to a certain age, believed
without exactly knowing why, that
fame and fortune and great vistas OF
opportunity were to be opened to us
by time alone and that the years were
nothing but things to be lived and
time but something to pass quickly
and bear us nearer and nearer with
each evening to the NcvcrNeVcr
Land of our youthful anticipation.
But the days have come and the
days have passed Each one, some
how, has been not very unlike the
one which went before. Tic super
man or the superwoman did not
come; the person with whom we fin
ally shared our joys ard sorrows and
failures and successes did not aprral
for the first time in any halo OF
glorified mist.
If we are women we married the
youlg fellow who worked beside u
in the shop or the office Or whom
we met while visiting Aunt Janet or
Cousin Elizabeth, whose necktic per
sisted in working around under one
cal and who was in perpetual cmhar-
lassment because somewhere down
his legs were knees. But somehow
we couldn't resist his attentions or
ignore his ambition, and VIC drittcd
on and on toward the moment when
he Great Question was asked and
vas answered The wedding day lay
n the past and he became the rather
If our children. And he rolls his ci ..
rars around in his mouth, and likes ;
% 20 around the house with his shoes ;
,ff, and makes us hate ourselves fer ;
,ur dependency and humiliation in ,
iaving to work like ycgeman to pry
wo dollars loose to pay the ice mar. !
IF we are men there came Il day ,
VII. we encountered a girl in the ,
,iacc where we went to apply TO"
oh. or in the crowded excursion tran
" at the Oddfellows' dance. AND
here came a night when we sat un
Ter the summer stars beside her an(
he witchery of faint pcrfumcry,
ttand of truant hair against a rough
haven check, the leap of Il hot pulse
against yhc touch of soft hand, tolt
Is that this girl--somehow, was diff
'crent than all other women and with
,ut her life would be a hollow life.
ess thi ng. And we married her with
,ut knowing exactly why excepting
hat the heart called and the blood
answered and to find her at home
when twilight came and our work
was done seemed very good and sat
sfvinr and r'uch to he desired.
AS it has been with marriage so
It has been with other things of life
L In., IL.