have his all-tobatto
smote. Light it, light it!"

George drew as deep a breath as his diaphragm, strangely oppressed since
dinner, would permit, and then bravely lit a Little Sweetheart. There
must have been some valiant blood in him, for, as he exhaled the smoke,
he covered a slight choking by exclaiming, loudly: "THAT'S good! That's
the ole stuff! That's what I was lookin' for!"

Miss Pratt was entranced. "Oh, 'plendid!" she cried, watching him with
fascinated eyes. "Now take dray, big, 'normous puffs! Take dray, big,
'NORMOUS puffs!"

George took great, big, enormous puffs.

She declared that she loved to watch men smoke, and William's heart, as
he sat on the distant fence, was wrung and wrung again by the vision of
her playful ecstasies. But when he saw her holding what was left of the
first Little Sweetheart for George to light a second at its expiring
spark, he could not bear it. He dropped from the fence and moped away to
be out of sight once more. This was his darkest hour.

Studiously avoiding the vicinity of the smokehouse, he sought the little
orchard where he had beheld her sitting with George; and there he sat
himself in sorrowful reverie upon the selfsame fallen tree. How long
he remained there is uncertain, but he was roused by the sound of music
which came from the lawn before the farmhouse. Bitterly he smiled,
remembering that Wallace Banks had engaged Italians with harp, violin,
and flute, promising great things for dancing on a fresh-clipped lawn--a
turf floor being no impediment to seventeen's dancing. Music! To see her
whirling and smiling sunnily in the fat grasp of that dancing bear! He
would stay in this lonely orchard; SHE would not miss him.

But though he hated the throbbing music and the sound of the laughing
voices that came to him, he could not keep away--and when he reached the
lawn where the dancers were, he found Miss Pratt moving rhythmically in
the thin grasp of Wallace Banks. Johnnie Watson approached, and spoke in
a low tone, tinged with spiteful triumph.

"Well, anyway, ole fat George didn't get the first dance with her! She's
the guest of honor, and Wallace had a right to it because he did all the
work. He came up to 'em and ole fat George couldn't say a thing. Wallace
just took her right away from him. George didn't say anything at all,
but I s'pose after this dance he'll be rushin' around again and nobody
else 'll have a chance to get near her the rest of the afternoon. My