Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1912 — HEREXTRA SESSION [ARTICLE]

HEREXTRA SESSION

'Teacher Cynthia Breaks in the New Pupil.

By A. MARIA CRAWFORD.

Bob Lawrence was disturbed. He struck savagely with his cane at the 'tender flowers along the country road. He had been promised a degree of ihappiness here and he had failed, as usual, to find it. “Say, mister,? said a small voice, T wish you wouldn’t knock the heads off these flowers. I want about a 'bushel of daisies to decorate our schoolroom tomorrow. Miss Cynthia’s invited the board to hear us speak.” “Cynthia?” questioned Bob, wonderIngly. “Cynthia who?” “She’s just Miss Cynthia, that’s all,” answered jimmy Green. “She’s about z the best looker we ever had in this county. Pa said so, and pa knows.” “Does she teach school?” "You bet she does and we’re learning, too, ’cause we love her so we just Btudy our heads off to see her smile,” said Jimmy boyishly. “You must be Mrs. Collier’s brother, visiting over at Three Oaks. My pa is the gardener there.” a “You’ve guessed right What’s your name?" “Jimmy Green. Green and gardens go together, pa says?’ "Well, they ought to, at any rate. (Now* Jimmy, where do you go to ■oteool?” “I don’t like to tell you ’cause pa said to me, ‘I hope Mrs. Collier’s (brother don’t see Miss Cynthia, Jimmy, for she’s too prettjr not to catch any man who sees her and you’re learning so well at school, I don’t, want you to haye to change teachers? Pa’s right about that. Why, her face is just the color of the apple blossoms over in your sister’s orchard.” Jimmy pondered for a second. “Seems like I ought to answer you civil, you being a stranger here. The schoolhouse is about a quarter of a mile straight down this road. She’s there all right, Miss Cynthia Is. She’s keeping Petie Mur|phy and Tom Vance in to learn their speeches for tomdrrow?” Cynthia! W’hat a train of memories and pleasant dreams the word conjured up for Bob Lawrence, who thanked Jimmy for his information and kept on down the road toward the schoolhouse. This time the wayside flowers were free from his bruising cane. He was thinking—thinking intently of the only girl who had ever stirred any emotion in his heart. She, too, was called Cynthia, and her cheeks werei like the apple blossoms in his sister’s orchard. He had met her almost a year before, a few hours out from Liverpool. She had been touring the continent with a very wealthy aunt. The girl’s beauty had attracted him at once, and later her superb health had been added to her list of other charms. She was the only woman on’board, so the steward had told him, who did not miss a meal.

The last night out there had been a moon. Lawrence recalled how eagerly he had waited lor her on deck while she went for a wrap after dinner. They had stood together watching the moonlight on the phosphorescent waves and listening to the soft strains of a Hungarian waltz. His love for her, none the less Intense because of Its short duration, had stirred him mightily, and he had spoken of that love and asked her to marry him. “No,” she had answered, forcing back his arms, “it is not.possible. We belong to different worlds.” “What difference would that make, if It were true?” he had demanded. “What do you mean by different worlds?" “You have money,” she had told him. “I belong to the broken down aristocracy of the south. I work for my living. Aunt Lydia took me for this trip because I was her brother's child and she was sorry for my poverty." He remembered with bitterness how he had begged, stormed and argued, but all to no purpose, for Cynthia had remained deaf to bls entreaties, protesting that his people would be disappointed.When they landed, although he had tried to find out where she lived and follow her, she evaded him. His pride stirred then, and he had turned to his work determined to forget the girl, but In that, too, he had failed. The following spring his sister wrote to him. “Your letters sound as if you were blue, so leave your affaire —they are too enormous for a young man, anyway—and come to visit ine for ten days. The fishing is fine near here, and you can count on mending your depressed spirits.” A voice, young and vehement, broke into his meditation. “Yes’m, I’ll do my best Both of up will, won’t we, TomF Lawrence looked about him. There was the schoolhouse, and out the door rushed the two scholars who had been kept Im to learn their speeches. He watched them out of sight, wondering what excuse he offer to the country teacher if he dared go to the door just to look at her because her name was Cyuthla. He heard a sound that made him listen intently. The pretty school teacher was crying. Lawrence walked quietly to the door. Over by a win-’ dow, her profile turned to him, stood the girl of Jimmy Green’s .dreams, and, incidentally, of his 6wn. “Cynthia’” he called. “Why, It’s you,* said Cynthia, making a futile attempt to efface all signs of tears. "Will you—will you come taF ' , “ .

“I will,” said Lawrence promptly, "Why did you run away from me in New York?” *T—I had to go. I mean , that I had < to come home. I told you enough to make you want to give me up, anyway.% ’That is impossible. I can never ■top wanting you.” “Do you really care for me like that?” she questioned, grave gray eyes on his face. “I love you so that nothing else matters, and yotr—-you put me aside for a mere whim, a fancy,” said Lawrence, the sight of her beauty setting his pulses on fire again. “How can you treat me so?” He dropped into one of the scarred little seats and leaned over on the desk marked with many a jackknife and pencil. “How did you find me—here?” "Jimmy Green showed me the way.” answered Lawrence. Cynthia moved nearer and stood looking down on the bowed black head. “Why were you crying when I came?” asked Lawrence, noticing the motloiL “Because ” Cynthia waited for her heart to quit Its stormy beating, but it would not, and went bravely on—"because I was thinking about you, and I was afraid that I would never see you again." “Cynthia, do you mean that?” Lawrence was up facing her. “Do you mean that and all that it implies? Do you love me?" “Yes,” said Cynthia brokenly, T think that I have always loved you.” “When will you marry me ? Tonight?” •Tomorrow after school,” laughed Cynthia happily. "I have lately come into some money; quite a lot. I am not a pauper ahy more.” “You never were a pauper so long as you yere you.”

“I’m so sorry. Bob. I have to go to a dinner tonight at Mrs. Collier's. Her brother-is coming—I forgot to ask his name—and she is most anxious to have me meet him. She is my best friend, and I can’t disappoint her. Hl ring her up and ask if I can’t take you.” “I’ll have to be there, and Tm going to take you. Now you see flow heartily my family approves of you after all,” laughed Lawrence, holding her close in his arms. T am the expected brother.” * “Why, Bob! Is it possible? Only last week I told her all about you; that is, everything except your name." “Which will soon be yours, too,” promised Lawrence emphatically. “Say, Miss Cynthia,” came a voice from the open door where Jimmy Green stood grinning at them, “ain’t you holding ah extry session today?" “I—l don’t know,” said the embarrassed school teacher. “She has a new pupil, one. that she will have to teach ail her life, and she has just been breaking him in,” answered Lawrence, smiling to see the apple blossom pink of Cynthia’s cheelts turn to crimson. (Copyright, 1912, by Associated Literary - Press.)