The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-13
CHAPTER xxX1v

CHAPTER XXXIV
 The dinner had ended and they sat with coffee before them. Hillyer took the cigaret from his lips and rested it on a tray.
 "It's a long story" he repeated, land 1t starts before you were born, Toby. More than 20 years ago. It's about boy who grew up in a little New England town. A place where nothing very important ever happened = unless you count the most important thing of all, men and women living useful, hard working lives raising families and teaching their children to be con- scientious and honest and unselfish. Have you ever been in New Eng land, Toby?"
 "No. I never have"
 "Then there's no use of my men, tioning the name of this town or telling you where 1t is. That isn't important any way. But this boy was born there, and he grew up about like most boys. Not much better or worse. He went to grade school and had the measles and chicken pox. and belonged to @ gang that used to have battles with another gang. He went swimming in the summer and ice-Skating in the winter.
 when he was older his parents sent him to prep school and then to college. He wasn't particularly in- terested in his studies, but he was out for football and managed to make the team and stay eligible. Football was about the only thing he really was interested in. He'd never paid much attention to girls at home and he didn't in college, either.
 ~The summer he was 19 the boys father decided he should go to work. So, instead of going of for the usual trip to the seashore with his parents, he stayed at home and got a job driving the delivery wagon for @ laundry.
 Tt was the most wonderful sum- HneR in his life"
 Eillyer stopped. For an instant Toby thought that he had forgot ten her. Suddenly he smiled apolo- getically, I'm afraid I'm being rather long-winded about this, but I hope you'll forgive me. told you I didn't know exactly how to tell this story"
 "oo on," Toby urged. I'm in- terested."
 She was. There was no need to ask questions. It was quite obvious iy, the story of Hillyer's own boy hood that he was telling.
 Well" he went on, "as I said, that summer, driving the laundry wagon was the most wonderful time in this boys life. Not the job on the laundry wagon. That had nothing to do with it."
 He paused again; then, looking at Toby, he continued. Tt was a girl. She was a little thing, no bigger than you are, Toby. She had hair about the color of yours, too. Beautiful hair. She wore 1t in a braid around her head, and sometimes she wore a ribbon at the back.
 "She didn't live in this town I'm telling you about. She came there to visit another girl. forgot to tell you her name, didn't I? It was Mary. One day when the boy was making the rounds with the laundry, he knocked at the door of a house to deliver package-and there was Maryl
 T don't know whether or not she was beautiful. The boy thought she was the most beautiful creature in the world. He fell in love with her, then and there. Love at first sight--just as the heroes and hero ines in stories fall in love, just as lots of people will tell you can't happen in real life. Maybe it doesn't happen often, but for those youngsters 1t did.
 Mary wasn't at all like the other girls the boy had known. She was quiet, almost shy, with a sweet ness few mortals attain. He wor- shiped her, and she accepted this worship and returned 1t. You see, they were both so young. Pitifully