OCR Text |
Show ;'!f Illustrations by- - rjCorvright.l-w Pou!)!eiay, Pug.? i Company. THE FIRST KISS. Synopsis. With Ma KruiuHtUlu'r, smith K.unsey Milhollttiut is v.itch-inn v.itch-inn the "lVcorution lay I'aiuoV" in tde home town. The oM Keiule-nian, Keiule-nian, a veteran of the Civil wiir, endeavors to Impress the younK-s:er younK-s:er with the stsiullcniK-e of the grout conflict, and niAuy years nll-ertvard nll-ertvard the boy was to re:nember his words with startling vi ldness. In tlie schoolroom, a few years afterward. Hamsey is not distinguished distin-guished for remarkable ability, though his pronounced dislikes tire arithmetic. "UeoJtutlons" and ter-inan. ter-inan. In sharp contrast to Ramsey's Ram-sey's backwardness is the precocity of Btte Dora Yocum. a young lady whom In his bitterness he denominates denomi-nates "'Teacher's Fet." In high school, where he and Dora are classmates. Ramsey continues to feel that the girl delights to manifest mani-fest her superiority, and the vtn-dictivenes vtn-dictivenes he generates becomes alarming, culminating in the resolution reso-lution that some day he will "show" her. At a class p;cnlc Ramsey Ram-sey Is captured b.tg and baggage by Milla Rust, the class beauty, and endures the agonies cf his first love. Ramsey's parents object to Milla and wish he'd taken up with Dora Yocum. J- 3 CHAPTER VI. Continued. MiHn hung weightily upon bis nrni, and they dawdled, drifting from one side of the pavement to the other as they slowly advanced. Albert and Sadie, Sa-die, ahead of them, called "good night" from a corner, before turning down the side street where Sadie lived ; and then, presently, Ramsey and Milla were at the hitter's gate. He went In with her, hairing at the front steps. "Well, g'night, Milla." he said. "Want to go out wnlking tomorrow night? Albert and Sadie are." "I can't tomorrow night," she told him with obvious regret. "Isn't it the worst luck ! I got au aunt cotnin' to visit from Chicago, and she's crazy about playing 'Five Hundred.' and mama and papa said I haf to stay In to make four to play It. She's liable to be here three or four days, and I guess I got to be around home pretty much all the time she's here. It's the worst luck !" He was doleful, but ventured to be literary. "Well, what can't be helped must be endured. 111 come around when she's gone." He moved as If to depart, hut she still retained his arm and did not prepare pre-pare to relinquish It. "Well ". he said. "Well what, Kamsey?" "Well g'night." She glanced up at the dark front of the house. "I guess the family's gone to bed," she said absently. "I s'pose so." "Well, good night, Ramsey." She said this, but still did not release his arm, and suddenly. In a fluster, he felt that the time he dreaded had come. Somehow, without knowing where, except ex-cept that It was somewhere upon what eemed to be a blurred face too full of obstructing features, he kissed her. She turned Instantly away In the darkness, her hands over her cheeks; and In a panic Ramsey wondered If he hadn't make a dreadful mistake. "S'cuse me!" he said, stumbling toward to-ward the gate. "Well, I guess 1 got to be gettln' along back home." He woke In the morning to a great self-loathlzg ; be had kissed a girl. Mingled with the loathing was a curious curi-ous pride In the very fact that caused the loathing, but the pride did not la.st long. He came downstairs morbid to breakfast, and continued this mood afterward. At noon Albert I'axton brought him a note which Milla had sked Sadie to ask Allert to give liltn. "Dearie: I am just wondering if you thought as much about something so sweet that happened last night as I did you know what. I think It was the sweetest thing. I send you one with this note und I hope you will think It is a sweet one. I would give you a reaJ one if you were here now and I hope you would think it was sweeter still than the one I put in this note. It Is the sweetest thing now you are mine and I am yours forever kiddo. If you come around about friday eve It will be all right, aunt Jess will be gone back home by then so come early and we will get Sade and Alb to go to i the band Concert. Don't forget what I said about my putting something sweet In this note, and I hope you will think It is a sweet one but not as sweet as the real sweet one I would like to At this point Ramsey Impulsively tor tke note Into small pieces. He turned cold as his Imagination projected pro-jected a sketch of his mother In the ct of reading this missive, and of her expression as she read the sen-I sen-I tence: "It Is the sweetest thing now you are lne and I am yours forever klddo." He wished that Milla hadn't written "klddo." She called him that, sometimes, but In her warm little voice the word seemed not at all wliat It did I i In Ink. He w ished, too, Hint she hadn't said she was his foret or. Suddenly he was seized with a horror hor-ror tf her. Midst ure hrito out heavily upon him; he felt a definite sickness, ami, wishing for death, went forth upon the .-li'eets to walk ami walk, lie cared not whither, so that his feet took him in liny direction away from Milla, since they were unable to take hlin away from himself of whom he had as great a horror. Her loving face was continually before him, and Its sweetness sweet-ness made his llesh creep. Milla hi'.', been too sweet. When he met or passed people, It seemed to him that peihaps they were able to recognize upon him somewhere the marks of his low quality. "Softy! Die sloppy fool!" he muttered, mut-tered, athlreslng himself. "Slushy ole mush! . . . Spooner!" And he added. "Votirs forever, klddo!" Convulsions seemed about to seize him. Turning a corner wl'.h his head down, he almost charged Into Dora Yocum. She was homeward bound from ft piano lesson, and carried a roiled leather case of sheet music something he couldn't Imagine Milla carrying and in her young girl's dress, which attempted to be nothing else, she looked as wholesome as cold spring water. Ramsey had always felt that she despised him and now. all at once, he thought that she was Justified. Leper that he hud become, lie was unworthy un-worthy to be even touching his cap to her! And as she nodded nnd went briskly on, he would have given nr.y-thing nr.y-thing to turn nnd walk a little way with her. lor It seemed to him that this might fumigate his morals. ISut he lacked the courage, and, besides, he ilk kfmltfmm Pausing In an Alley, He Read Her Note. considered himself unfit to be seen walking with her. He had a long afternoon of anguishes, an-guishes, these becoming most violent when he tried to face the problem of his 'future course toward Milla. He did not face it at all, in fact, but merely mere-ly writhed, and had evolved nothing when Friday evening was upon him ami Milla waiting for him to take her to the "band concert" with "Alb and Sade." Fie made shift to seek a short Interview with Albert, Just before dinner. din-ner. "I got a pretty rotten headache, and my stomach's upset; too." he said, drooping upon the Paxtons' fence. "I been gettin' worse every minute. You and Sailie go by Milla's, Albert, and tell her If I'm not there by ha'-pas'-seven, tell her not to wait for me any longer." "How do you mean 'wait'?" Albert Inquired. "You don't expect her to come pokin' along with Sadie and me. do you? She'll keep on slttin' there at home Just the same, because she wouldn't have anything else to do, if you don't come like she expects you to. She hasn't got any way to stop wait-In' wait-In' !" At this, Ramsey moaned, without affectation. af-fectation. "I don't expect I can, Albert," Al-bert," he said. "I'd like to If I could, hut the way It looks now, you tell her I wouldn't be much suprlsed maybe I was startin' In with typhoid fever or pretty near anything at all." .He moved away, concluding feebly : "I guess I better crawl on home, Albert, j while I'm still able to walk some. You tell her the way It looks now I'm liable to be right sick." And the next morning he woke to the ehaflngs of remorse, picturing a Milla somewhat restored In charm waiting hopefully at the gate, even after the half-past seven, and then, as time passed and the sound of the distant dis-tant horns came faintly through the darkness, going sadly to her room perhaps weeping there. It was a plo- tare to wring hltn with shame and pltj, but w as follow ed by mini her w hich elootrillcd hllll. lor out of school he 1 1 1 1 not hick 1 filiation. What If Albert had reported his Illness too vividly to Milla? Mllla vn so fund I What If, In her alarm, she should come here to the house to Inquire of his mother about hint? What II' she In! I Mis. MHholland they were "engaged"? The next moment Itumsey was projecting project-ing a coii eisal Ion between his mother anil Mllla In which the Inllcr staled that she and Ramsey were soon to be niiii'i'led, that she regarded him as already al-ready virtually her hiisliand, and tlo-nmiHlcd tlo-nmiHlcd lo nurse lilnl. In a panic he lied from the honfe before be-fore lu'ealil'asl. going out by way of u side doi.r, anil he crossed back yards and climbed back fences to reach Albert Al-bert 1'iiMoii the more swiftly. This creatine, a ladles' man almost professionally, profes-sionally, was found exercising wlih an electilc Iron mid a pair of llannel trousers trou-sers in a I asi-nieiii laundry, hy w ay of stirring his appetite lor the morning local. "See here. Albert," his friend said bi'eaihlcsslv. "I got a favor. I want ton to go oxer to MllJa's " "I'm goin' to tlnlsli pressln' these trousers," Albert interrupted. "Then I've got my breakfast to eat." "Well, ou could tlo tins tlrst." said l'amsey. hurriedly. "It wouldn't hurt you to do nie this little favor first. ou Just slip oer and see Milla for tile. If sbe's up ot, and 11' she isn't, jou belter wait around till she Is, because be-cause 1 want you to tell her I'm a whole lot belter this morning. TeJI her I'm pretty near praotlck'ly all right again. Albert, ami I'll prob'ly write her u note or something right soon or In u week or so, unvliow. You tell her" "Well, you act pretty funny!" Albert exclaimed, fumbling In the pockets of his coat. "Why can't you go on ocr and tell her yourscll? Rut Just as It happens there wouldn't be any use tour golu' over there, or me. either." "Why not';" "M'jfa ain't there." snld Albert, hi I It searching the pockets of bis coat. "When we went by her house last night to tell her about your headache and .stomach and all, why, her mother told us Milla'd gone up to Chicago ye.'-ter-tlay afternoon with her aunt, and said she left a note for you, and she said If you were sick I better take It and give It to you. I was goln' to bring It over to your house, after breakfast." He found It. "Here!" Ramsey thanked hltn feebly, and departed de-parted In a state of partial stupefaction, stupefac-tion, brought on by a glimpse of the Instabilities of life, lie had also, not relief, but a sense of vacancy and loss; for Milla, out of his reach, once more became mysteriously lovely. j l'auslng In un alley, he read her 1 note. "Dearie: Thought I ought lo call you up but over the 'phone Is Just nix for explanations as Mama and Aunt .less would hear everything and thomiht 1 might seem cold to you not suying anything sweet oh account of them listening anil you would wonder why I was so cold when telling you good-by for a wile mat be weeks. It Is Ibis way I'r.cle I'urv wired Aunt Jess he has Just taken In a big touring car on a debt and his aeatlon starts tomorrow to-morrow so If they were going to take a trip they better start right way so Aunt Jess invited me. Now dearie I have to park and write this In a hury so you will not be disappointed when you come I t for the R. C. to-night. Do not go get some other girl and take her for I would bale her and nothing In this world would make me false for one second to my klddo bov I do not know Just when home again as the folks think I better stay up there firt a visit at Aunt Jess and Uncle I'urvs home in Chicago after the trip Is over. But I think of you all the time and you must think of me every minute and believe your own dearie she will never no not for one second be false. So tell Sade and Alb good-by for me and do not be false to me any more than I would be to you and It will not be long till nothing more will Interrupt our sweet friendship." As a measure of domestic prudence, Ramsey tore the note Into Irreparable liagments, but lie did this slowly, and without experiencing any of the revulsion created by MiUa's former missive. He was melancholy, aggrieved that she should treat him so. "Yes, 'r; that quiet Ii'ta Milla's a regular old married woman by this time, Ramsey." (TO BE CONTINUED.) |