hies whom business, or the
lack of it, called to that locality, availed themselves of the shelter
of the waiting-room, but the gentlemen of the "Herald" were too agitated
to be confined, save by the limits of the horizon. They had reached the
station half an hour before train time, and consumed the interval in
pacing the platform under the cotton umbrella, addressing each other
only in monosyllables. Those in the waiting-room gossiped eagerly, and
for the thousandth time, about the late events, and the tremendous news
concerning Fisbee. Judd Bennett looked out through the rainy doorway at
the latter with reverence and a fine pride of townsmanship, declaring
it to be his belief that Fisbee and Parker were waiting for her at
the present moment. It was a lady, and a bird of a lady, too, else why
should Cale Parker be wearing a coat, and be otherwise dooded and fixed
up beyond any wedding? Judd and his friends were somewhat excited over
Parker.

Fisbee was clad in his best shabby black, which lent an air of state to
the occasion, but Mr. Parker--Caleb Parker, whose heart, during his five
years of residence in Plattville, had been steel-proof against all the
feminine blandishments of the town, whose long, lank face had shown
beneath as long, and lanker, locks of proverbially uncombed hair, he who
had for weeks conspicuously affected a single, string-patched suspender,
who never, even upon the Sabbath day, wore a collar or blacked his
shoes--what aesthetic leaven had entered his soul that he donned not a
coat alone but also a waistcoat with checks?--and, more than _that_, a
gleaming celluloid collar?--and, more than that, a brilliant blue tie?
What had this iron youth to do with a rising excitement at train time
and brilliant blue ties?

Also, it might have been inquired if this parade of fashion had no
connection with the simultaneous action of Mr. Ross Schofield; for
Ross was at this hour engaged in decorating the battered chairs in the
"Herald" editorial room with blue satin ribbon, the purchase of which at
the Dry Goods Emporium had been directed by a sudden inspiration of his
superior of the composing force. It was Ross's intention to garnish
each chair with an elaborately tied bow, but, as he was no sailor and
understood only the intricacies of a hard-knot, he confined himself
to that species of ornamentation, leaving, however, very long ends of
ribbon hanging down after the manner of the pendants of rosettes.

It sc