Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1910 — The Awakening of Charley. [ARTICLE]

The Awakening of Charley.

By Josephine Wentworth.

When Charley sauntered into the yard and dropped down beside Jane on the old bench under the elm, he had in his mind just what he was going to say—he had been rehearsing it all day—but when he was beside the little girl he had loved since chllahood, looking into her big. lbnocent blue eyes. It a suddenly became speechless so far sb proposing went, - Jane was'ln her usual mood; quiet and confiding, telling him the happenings of the day. But Charley had. something else on his mind, something that he v w anted to say, and most of her news fell on aeaf ears. Jane noticed his abstraction and, thinking that he was not interested, became silent. For a long time neither spoke, then: “Did you know that Ned Burley’s cousin Violet, from Chiago, was coming to spend the summer with them?” she asked. “No.” “Ned says she is a dream.’’ “Stuck up, I’ll bet.’’ “He says she will have all the fellows in town in love with her before she has been here two days ” “I know one she’ll not have,” Charley declared. That night, after he had gone, she stood before her mirror, critically studying the reflection therein. Jane was not what one would term pretty. Her features were regular, but herface was covered with a mass of tiny freckles. Ned’s boast tb*r all the boys would be at her heels had not been in vain, and much to Jane’s discomfiture, Charley was one of the foremost. <Co him Violet was a revelation, her red lips, bewitching dimples and dancing eyes played havoc with his heart. He wondered what on earth he could ever have seen in that freckle-faced, red-haired Jane. Charley continued to call on Jane same as ever, but there was a difference in his attitude toward her. He looked upon her now as simply a friend of childhood and she accepted the changed condition of affairs with a fortitude that was pathetic had not Charley’s eyes been blinded by the flashing charms of the frivolous Violet. So passed the summer, and when fall came Violet began talking of returning to the city, and Charleyawoke to the fact that for him life would become an empty void after she had gone. Then he asked her to marry him. She threw him a saucy look, lowered her eyes demurely and said she would consider it. Charley had never made a study of human anture, catecially people at Violet’s stamp, and so foolishly went about in a dream of ecstasy. When the day for her departure arrived he had not rechived his answer, and she promised to write to him as soon as she had spoken to her mother on the subject. During the following week Jane saw nothing of him, as his time was all taken up in dreaming of the future, and la going to and from his house to the post ,office. v 8 Fianlly he was rewarded by receiving a dainty missive postmarked Chicago. He did not open it till he was safe from observation, then he tore it open with a wildly beating heart. A moment later he yas staring at the sheet in amazement—it was not his letter at all, but was written to a girl in New Yo k. Violet had written two letters and had put them in the wrong envelopes. He glanced over the pages until he came to the last paragraph, then his face paled and an angry frown settled on-his brow. He read it over twice. “And Minnie,’* it read, “you oughtto have seen what proposed to me. I use to amuse myself in picking hayseed out of his hair, and he bad such lovely hair, too. And just thibk, it was the only ‘pop’ I got all summer; not much like the exuerlence we had at the seashore a year ago Well, I’ve written him a nice little letter of regret in which' I told him that ‘my ma won’t let me , It may wake him up ’’ It did wake him up. It showed him a type with which he was wholly unfamiliar, anc taught him a lesson that he would remember the rest of his life. And hile he was thinking of what he id just rea£ there came intruding into his mind a pair of big Innocent >lue eyes, anl he ''lmagined that he saw a look of sadness in their dei .ha. Then he tore thq letter into fn {meats and ground it Into the earth with his heel. When he sauntered into the yard Jane was Bitting on the old bench under the elm. When be dropped down beside her he had no idea what he was going to say. or how he was going to explain hla conduct' of the past few weeks; in fact he had expected that she might ignore him, as he deserved. But she didn't. And just how it happened he hardly knew, t-ut be suddehly realised that she wds in his arms, and he no* calling her his little wife and smothering her with kisses.