t-brown hair, a vision enveloped in a light-brown
rain-cloak and with brown gloves, from which the handles of a big brown
travelling bag were let fall, as the vision disappeared under the cotton
umbrella, while the smitten Judd Bennett reeled gasping against the
station.

"Dearest," the girl cried to the old man, "you were looking for me
between the devil and deep sea--the parlor-car and the smoker. I've
given up cigars, and I've begun to study economy, so I didn't come on
either."

There was but this one passenger for Plattville; two enormous trunks
thundered out of the baggage car onto the truck, and it was the work of
no more than a minute for Judd to hale them to the top of the omnibus
(he well wished to wear them next his heart, but their dimensions
forbade the thought), and immediately he cracked his whip and drove
off furiously through the mud to deposit his freight at the Briscoes'.
Parker, Mr. Fisbee, and the new editor-in-chief set forth, directly
after, in one of the waiting cut-unders, the foreman in front with the
driver, and holding the big brown bag on his knees in much the same
manner he would have held an alien, yet respected, infant.

CHAPTER XIV. A RESCUE

The drizzle and mist blew in under the top of the cut-under as they
drove rapidly into town, and bright little drops sparkled on the fair
hair above the new editor's forehead and on the long lashes above the
new editor's cheeks.

She shook these transient gems off lightly, as she paused in the doorway
of the office at the top of the rickety stairway. Mr. Schofield had just
added the last touch to his decorations and managed to slide into
his coat as the party came up the stairs, and now, perspiring, proud,
embarrassed, he assumed an attitude at once deprecatory of his endeavors
and pointedly expectant of commendation for the results. (He was a
modest youth and a conscious; after his first sight of her, as she stood
in the doorway, it was several days before he could lift his distressed
eyes under her glance, or, indeed, dare to avail himself of more than
a hasty and fluttering stare at her when her back was turned.) As she
entered the room, he sidled along the wall and laughed sheepishly at
nothing.

Every chair in the room was ornamented with one of his blue rosettes,
tied carefully (and firmly) to the middle slat of each chair-back. There
had been several yards of ribbon left over, and there was a hard knot
of glossy satin on each of