At East She Smiled and Si)olte.

Otago Witness, Issue 2425, 5 September 1900, Page 71

At East She Smiled and Si)olte.

"Anything wrong?' asked the hotel clerk of

the New York drummer who had just got home from the West. "I was thinking," was the reply. "I rode from Toledo to Buffalo with the prettiest girl I ever saw." "But that didn't hvrt you. Who was she?" "Can't tell." "You didn't' introduce yourself and get her card in return?" "No." "No particular trouble, eh?" solicitously insisted the clerk. "Well, it was this way," replied the trayellei,. as he braced up for the explanation. "She sat opposite me, you know," and I tried for an hour to catch .her eye. She simply ignored me and gazed out 'of the window. Then I rose and Handed 'her a magazine, but she declined' with thanks. ' Ten minutes later I brought the latest novel out, but she said sha didn't care to read. Then I bought some fruit, but she would accept none. She also ignored me when I tried to draw her out on musio." "But you persisted?" . "Oh, yes. That is, I was about to make another attempt to enter into conversation ■ when the train came to a halt at a town, and the girl beckoned me over. I was there in an instant, and with the sweetest smile yoii ever saw she asked me if I would do her a slight favour." ''With all my heart," I hastened to say. " ' Well,' she said, smiling even more sweetly, " suppose you leave the train here and take the next one that follows, for you have made me dead tired, and I feel like taking, a nap.' " ''Good gracious!" whispered the clerk. "Yes, sir," said_the drummer, as he reached for a cigar, "and I want to go up to my .room and sit and think and try and figure it out. Perhaps it's time I left the road and settled down at home." — Buffalo ' Courier.