The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-30
THE BRIDGEPORT TIMES

Martin did not answer, but turning
 briSk1y toward the, doctor, he devoted
 himself to the business in hand.
 They were all deep in the first
 united tug, each person placed care
 fully by the doctor, and guys for the
 rope driven at intervals decided by
 Martin, when there was an interrup
 ton for Cherry's arrival on the scene
 With characteristic coquetry she did
 not approach, as the others had. by
 means of the front porch and the gar den path, but crept from the study window into a veritable tunnel of green bloom. and came crawling down
 it as sweet and fragrant as lovely and as fresh, as the roses themselves. Her bright head was hidden by a blue
 sunbonnet, assumed. she explained la ter, because the thorns tangle her
 hair; but as. laughing and smothered with roses, she crept into view, the sunbonnet slipped back. and the love- l ly, flushed little face. with Eendrils Of | head, and mischief gleaming in the blue, blue eyes was framed only in | loosened pale gold hair.
 1 Years afterward Alix remembered her so. as Martin Lloyd helped her to | spring free of the branches, and she stood laughing at their surprise and | still clinging to his hand. ''The day we raised the rose tree'' had a place of its own in Alix's memory, as time | of carefree fun and content, a time of perfume and Sunshine-perhaps the 1 last time of its hind that any one of | them was to know.
 | Cherry looked at Martin daringly as she joined the Iaborers; her whole be- | ing was thrilling to the excitement of | his glance; she was hardly conscious | of what she was doing or saying Mar l tin came close to her, in the general l confusion.
 | Flows my little sweetheart this | mOrning?"
 Cherry looked up, her throat con- | tracted, she looked down again, un- able to speak. She had been waiting g | for his first word; now that it had l come it seemed so far richer and sueeter than her widest dream. How can I see you minute 1 Martin murmured, snapping his big knife shut.
 1 1T have to walk down for the mail t-a Stammered Cherry, conscious only of Martin an herself.
 Both Peter and her father were l watching her with an uneasineSs and
 suspicion that had sprung into being 1 full-blown. Both men were asking 1 themselves what they knew of this | strange young man who was sudden | ly a part of their intimate little world l Peter, in his secret heart, had a vague, dissatisfied feeling that Lloyd was a man who held women, as a | class rather in disrespect, and had ! probably had his experiences with them, but there was mo way of ex- I pressing, much less governing his l conduct toward Martin by so purely l speculative a prejudice Somewha, l appalled,, in the sunny garden, strug- | gling with the banksia, Peter decide d l that this was not much to know of a | person who might have the audacity | to fall in love with an exquisite and | innocent Cherry. After all. she would | not be little girl forever; some man | would want to take that little corn 1 colored head and that delicious little | pink-clad person away with him some | day, to be his wife
 | And suddenly Peter was torn by a | stab of pure pain, and he stood puz- l zled and sick, in the garden bed, won | dering what was happening to him | Listen - want a rink? ?'' A1ix asked | coming out with a tin dipper that spilled a glittering sheet of water