Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1912 — HOSKINS’ GIRL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOSKINS’ GIRL

By LENORE ADAMS

‘Lon" Hoskins had landed at Ocatawa Beach before its discovery and development. He had set tip his tent on the pleasant point of land between the boat dock.and the pier, and thenceforth it was known as Hoskins’ Point. Also, had he set ap a peanut stand and a roaster that hissed merrily In the ears of the dock hustlers and peach shippers. Hoskins' girl sold the peanuts. Jo was 15 then; slender and tanned as a boy, with a steady appraising glance, and a smile like the first rift of sunlight after a midsummer thunderstorm. , -■ One day Senator Farlow’s steam launch anchored at the dock. It was filled with pretty, stylishly gowned girls, and college pals ‘of young Courtney Farlow. And they bought peanuts of Jo—Jo, with her long-lashed hazel eyes, signals of danger, even then; her short curly hair, crisp and golden. Courtney lingered at the peanut roaster* long that afternoon, until the rest of the party hailed him from the launch. It was already casting off its lines, and the boy made a careless running leap, and fell short into the deep treacherous waters of Black lake. , Jo saw the danger first. The great fruit steamer was loading that day, and lay at her moorings a few feet beyond the little gay launch. Courtney was borne by the current to the waters between the steamer and the .piling. Any moment a chance swell might crush him to death. They tell the story yet at Ocatawa, how Hoskins’ girl kept her head, and threw a life buoy to the lad and pulled him out of danger. And just for a minute she had his head on her lap, jqst for a moment as Courtney opened his eyes and looked up at her. “What’s your name?” he asked hoarsely, with a boy’s awkward gratitude. “Say, I’ll never forget this —or —you.” ■ They call me just Hoskins’ girl,” she told him. V" The senator offered ker the next day of SSOO, and Jo only flushed, a.nd went on roasting-her peanuts. Better start a volunteer life saving station here,, sir,” she had replied mer-

rlly. “We’ll need It soon. Ocatawa’s booming." The senator believed her. Next year he built the life saving station, and the ne.w summer hotel. And Hoskins sold more peanuts. Courtney went oack to college, but often between his eyes and the real world, there would steal a vision,'the face of the girl as she had leaned over the, edge of the dock and thrown the buoy to him, the look in her hazel eyes later when she hel l Ills .head for one brief minute'on her lap, and smoothed back the wet, dark hair from his fprehead. Courtney had a good memory. He wished he.knew her name. ' ' ' Five years later “Lon” Hoskins owned the controlling interest in the Ocatawa Beach stock. There were Hoskins’ peanut roasters all over the resort. The handsome pottage along the shore was Hoskins’ home. And yet, there was in intangible aggravating line that Hoskins never crossed. Not that he cared for himself. It was only for Jo he thought. Sometimes he would look at her when she cam,e home for holidays, note her growing beauty, and thoroughbred ways, and whistle softly to himself, hoping fervently that the peahut trademark would not handicap her in the race with other women when she took her (Plunge into the big. swim. “Jo, girl, do, you ever wish your dad was somebody besides ‘the peanut man?’ ” he askedlher one day jocu larly, yet with the undercurrent of earnestness that Jo well knew. “Better peanuts than watered stock. Dad,” she would say. “They’re good* peanuts.” The fifth year Jo came back ready for the big swim. She was 20 and even the casual visitors at the beach .vowed that Hoskins’ girl had the others relegated to the background. Almost childish she looked in herblack satin bathing suit, with its wide Irish lace collar and jaunty little cap.

Courtney was standing up In the pier Casino the first time he saw her. He did not recognize her then. From the long pier he watched her swim far out beyond the Hafts and life line. She was making for " the end of the pier to dive off. Near him somebody spoke up.

“It’s Hoskins’ girl, Jo. She’s come back a stunner, and the best swimmer along the shore.” In a flash of recolection Courtney remembered the scene at the old fruit docks years before Surely, he remembered Jo Hoskins. Just the memory of her had kept his feet in the narrow path many’a time. A cry of horror rose from the crowd along the beach. There came that tense terrible moment of stupefied inaction that follows tragedy. Out on the last piling; of the pier, Jo haji stood for a minute, outlined vividly against the bright sky, and had dived almost recklessly. And she had not appeared

Courtney’s hat and coat fell behind him as he raced headlong the length of the Casino. Over the railing ~he went like a seal, straight after the girh She had struck an old sunken pile. Down there in the blinding depths, his reaching fingers caught in her thick curls, loosened when her cap fell off. With one arm around'theslender waist he fought his way back to life and fresh air. “I’ll carry her myself, thanks,” he told the wmlting crowd that surged to help him, and he bore her drenched form in his arms up the board walk to Hoskins’ peanut Two weeks later while the senator told Hoskins stories over bass fishing by torchlight out on the lake, Courtney sat on the veranda of the cottage on the point, and tried to win Jo. “But, Court, dear, don’t you understand,” she said at last, “after all, dad’s only a goocj peanut seller. He has been successful because people liked his peanuts. And 1 am only Hoskins’ girl. Court. That’s what folks would say If you married me. Not that 1 care —I love dad, dearly. I don’t think he ever did a mean trick in his life or failed to help anybody out of trouble. But folks would say.”

“Let them,” retorted Courtney, passionately. “I want you; Jo, just you. What do I care about peanuts in the family? Father made his money out of lumber. Don't they both grow out of the ground? It's all tommyrot, Jo. As' long as a man keeps his hands and heart clean, he's all to the good, and men put the broad white mark on his tombstone. Didn’t you save my life five years ago? You darling! Oh, let me take, your hand, Jo. And didn’t I save yours two weeks ago? Isn’t that Fate? A fair exchange is no robbery. You’ve got all of my heart, Jo. Fair play, sweetheart. Give me yours.” Jo laughed softly, and bent forward over the boyish close-cropped head. She was in the hammock, and he sat on the top step of the broad stairs leading down to the beach. ‘ Truly, Court? Won’t you be sorry if—if—l do?” Court reached both arms up quickly, without answering. The new moon had just risen above the crest of the sand dunes. It was a very discreet, maidenly young moon. It told no tales, and turned its rounded b'ack on Hoskins’ veranda and Hoskins’ girl.

She Looked Almost Childish.