The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1923-12-07
CHAPTER II

The liner Atlantic lay at her pier
with steam up and gangway down
ready for her trip TO southampton.
The hour of departure was near and
there was a good deal of mixed activ-
lty going on. Sailors fiddled about with
ropes. Junior officers fitted TO and
fro. White-jacketed stewards wrestled
with trunks. Probably the captain,
though not visible, was also employed
on some useful work of a nautical
nature and not wasting his time. Men.
women, boxes, rugs, dogs, flowers and
baskets Of fruit were flowing on board
in q steady stream. The c%avernous
customs shed was c~ongested with
friends and relatives, and Sam Mar
lowe, heading for the ga%ngplank. was
only able TO make progress by EN-
ploying all the muscle and energy
which Nature had bestowed upon him,
and which during the twenty-five years
Of his life he had developed by ath-
letic exercise. However, after some
minutes Of silent endeavor, now driv-
ing his shoulder into the midriff OF
some o~bstructing male, now courte-
ously lifting some stout female off his
feet, he had succeeded in struggling to
within a few yards of his goal, when
suddenly a sharp pain shot through
his right arm and he spun round with
a cry.
IL seemed to Sam that he had been
bitten, and this puzzled him, for New
York crowds. though they may shove
and jostle, rarely bite.
He found himself face to face with
an extraordinarily pretty girl.
She was a red-haired girl with the
beautiful ivory skin which goes with
red hair. Her eyes, though they were
under the shadow Of her hat, and he
could not be certain, he diagnosed as
green, or maybe blue. or possibly gray.
Not that 1t mattered, for he had a
catholic taste in feminine eyes. SO
long as they were large and bright,
as were the specimens under his i'm
mediate notice, he was not the man
10 QulDOiC obOut u POiht VA NOAoks AACA
nose was small. and on the very tip
of II there was a tiny freckle. Her
mouth was nice and wide. her chin
soft and round.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Samuel
Marlowe was a susceptible young man,
and for many a long month his heart
had been lying empty, all swept and
garnished, with Welcome" on the mat,
This girl seemed TO rush In and fll II.
She was not the prettiest girl he mad
ever seen. She was the third p~rettiest,
He had an orderly mind, one capable
Of classifying and docketlng girls. He
swallowed convulsively. His we'll
developed chest swelled beneath Its
covering Of blue flannel and invisible
stripe. At last, he told himself, he
was in love. really In love, and at first
sight. too, which made II all the more
impressive. He doubted whether In
the whole course Of history anything
like this had " happened before
to anybody. Oh, to clasp this girl to
him and
But she had bitten him in the arm
That IA hardly the right spirit. That
he felt, constituted an obstacle.
"Oh, I'm sorry" she cried.
Well, Of course. II she regretted hel
rash act. . After all, an impul
sive girl might bite q man In the arm
In the excitement Of the moment ant
still have q sweet, womanly nature.
~The crowd seems to make Pinky
Boobies so nervous"
Sam might have remained mystiied
brit ut this juncture there proceedc,
from a bundle of rugs In the neigh
horhood Of the girls lower ribs
sharp yapping sound.
II hope he didn't hurt you much
You're the third person he's bitten "a
day" She kissed tie animal In