The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-03-04
"The Greater Glory" wlI.m 6sge7 P.1s7
Move By the Editor The Evening eaednn about folks Vermont town like
adh Follow


uncertain. 1t made a difference.
"Well," concluded Herb philosophi
cally as he moved away, there's
many a slip between the cup and the
lip, Mary Wood. Lots of things may
happen while you're waitin' for Purse
to pay up four thousand out of six.
+, teen week. l amt goin' to- lose
hope entirely But if you should
marry him, want you to know that
l that l loved you, Mary Wood
| amt seen such an awful lot O. you
But you got hold o. me in a way nc
other woman or girl ever has. II
you do marry him, / want you should
know l don't harbor no bad feelin's
and hope you'll both be happy"
"Thank you, Herb" she said. Next
to Jack, | think more of you than
any other man in the world"
"Well," decided Herb, that's
somethin'w
"Is that. ALL" he said simply.
He, realized then how very great and
terrific was his failure He was los
ing Mary Wood, the girl that he
loved, to the Purse boy who was not
lumberous and clumsy and did not
have cowlick and hands like hams,
regardless Of Sam Holds declaration.
The misery of his heart was appall-
ing, unconsolable. He arose blindly.
"Aren't you coming back to the
hall and stay until the end of the
dance?"
"It don't. matter" num-
bled Herb "No! it don't much
matter-with me-" He moved away.
Goodnight, Mary, she said without
looking at her.
And he left her standing there,
wanting to run after him and console
him and mother him and tell him how
his disappointment hurt, her, also.
But he was gone amid the shrubbery
and she went slowly back to the hall,
the small-town gaiety and the music.
And so fled her chance to marry
wealthy man.
She went back to the hall and to
Jack who was wildly looking for her
and who demanded the cause of the
tears in her eyes-back to the boy
whom she loved.
And after the dance they walked
I homeward together.
Some how love in quaint old New
England town is a deeper, sweeter
gentler thing than anywhere else on
Gods green earth. 1t lacks the SEN
suality of the dreamy southland. It
has not the virility of the west. But
to make up for both there is an in
defnable sturdiness in setting of
soft hills and valleys and little towns
that hallows it and nurtures it, some
thing which we have come to call
the New Englandism of New Eng
land
And amid the New Englandism of
New England Jack Purse and Mary
Wood fell deeper and deeper in love,
reckoned mostly from the night of
the local talent play where he had
tasted of her lips and gone mad with
/ the feel of her body, when he danced
Will Hcl dllCL Wdlu diiu IilSIi WdlhSI
under the moonlight with her home
| ward-with Nib Henderson's laugh
floating backward on the singing
spring highland with sob in his
heart at his financial helplessness
keeping him from asking her to be
/ his wife.
"Good night" she said softly at the
gate, as she held out her hand.
Good night, Mary" he replied
thickly in turn. But he did not go.
The moon made mystic shadows OF
the street under the sleeping NAPLES
/ of the long white fence ffanked with
the flower-beds, of the lawn and The
ghostly white Mather's house. The
telephones of the crickets sounded
from beneath the fences and the hol
low board walks. The songs of in
sect lovers piping out of tune, came
to them. Down the street now ant
| then showed fash of muslin dress
white in the moonlight-and ths
little shrek of a woman's laughter
foated to them carefree boy
and girls going home from dance
And under the moonlight the girl wa
twice daintier and prettier than tn.
| boy had ever seen her before, fol
that is the way ofmoonlight and o
summer nights andpf women N day