Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1922-02-23


self understood it, evidently, for she
drew in her puckered skirts and with
out any words made a place for him
beside her as he driftingly approached
her, affecting to whistle and keeping
his eyes on the foliage overhead. He
still looked upward even in the act of
sitting down.
Squirrel or something" he said
| feebly, as if in explanation.
"Where?" Milla asked
up there on a branch" He ac-
cepted a plate from her (she had pro-
| vided herself with an extra one), but
| he did not look at it or at her. He
| continued to keep his eyes aloft, be-
| cause he imagined that all of the class
| were looking at him and Milla, and
he felt unable to meet such publicity.
| 1t was to him as if the whole United
| States had been scandalized to atten-
| ton by this act of his in going to sit
beside Milla; he gazed upward so long
| that his eye-balls became sensitive I'M
| der the strain. He began to blink ST
! can't make out whether it's a squirrel
! or just some leaves that kind o got
! fixed like One,' he said 81 can't make
| out yet which it is, but I guess when
| there's n breeze, if it's a squirrel he'll
| prob1y hop around some then, if he's
! alive or anything"
| It had begun to seem that his eyes
must remain fixed in that upward
stare forever; he wanted to bring them
! down. but could not face the glare of
the world. But finally the brightness
of the sky between the leaves settled
matters for him; he sneeZed, wept, and
for a little moment again faced his
I fellCWmen. No one was looking at
him; everybody except Milla had other
| things to do.
Having sneeZed invOluntarily. he
added spell of coughing for which
there was no necessity. 81 guess
must been wrong" he muttered thicllly.
"What about, Ramsey?"
about it's bein' a squirrel" With
infinite timidity he turned his head
and encountered a gaze so soft, so hal
lowed, that it disconnected him, and
he dropped "drumstick' of fried
chicken, we'll dotted with ants, from
his plate. Scarlet he picked it up, but
did not eat it. For the first time in
his life he felt that eating fried chick
en- held in the fingers was not to be
thought of. He replaced the drum
stick" upon his plate and allowed it
to remain there untouched, in spite of
a great hunger for it.
Having looked down, he now found
difficulty in looking up, but gaZed
steadily at his plate, and into this
limited circle of vision came Milla' S
delicate and rosy fingers, bearing a
gift. "There,' she said in a motherly
little voice. Its a tomato mayonnaise
sandwich and [ made it myself. l
i want you to eat it, Ramsey"
His own fingers approached tremu-
lousness as he accepted the thick sand
witch from her and conveyed it to his
mouth moment later his soul filled
with horror, for a squirt of mayOnnaise
dressing had caused a catastrophe the
scene of which occupied no incOnsder-
able area of his right cheek which
was the cheek toward Milla. He
CROPPED wretchedly for his handker-
chief but could not find it; he had lost
it. Sudden death would have been re-
lief; he was sure that after such gro
tesquerie Milla could never bear to
have anything more to do with MIN
he was ruined.
In his anguish he felt Il paper nap
kin pressed gently into his hand; a
soft voice said in his ear, wipe it off
with this, Ramsey. Nobody's MOTTO
ing"
SO this incredibly charitable creature
was still able to be his friend. even
after seeing him mayonnaised Hum
bly, marveling, he did as she told him,
but avoided all further risks He ate
nothing more.
He sighed his first sigh of inexpress-
ibieness, had a chill or so along the
spine, and at intervals his brow was
believed.
Within hia averted eyes there dwelt
not the Milla Rust who sat beside him,
but an iridescent, fragile creature who
had become angelic.
He spent the rest of the day daw-
ding helplessly about her; wherever
she went he was near as near as pos
sible, but of no deliberate volition Of
mis- own. Something seemed to tie him
to her, and Milla was nothing 10th.
He seldom looked at her directly, or
for longer than an instant, and more
rarely still did he speak to her except
as reply. What few remarks he
ventured upon his own initiative near
ly all concerned the landscape which
he commended repeatedly in a weak
voice, as "kind of pretty" though once
he said he guessed there might be bugs
in the bark Of a log on which they sat !;
and he became so immoderately per-
sonal as to declare that if the bugs
had to get on anybody he'd rather
they got on him than on Milla. She
said that was "just perfectly lovely"
of him, asked where he got his sweet
nature, and in other ways encouraged