LYTERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5281, 11 June 1895, Page 1

LYTERATURE.

THE HAPLESSNESS OF

HEZEKIAH.

| by. w. j. lamptoiO. (Detroit Fr«« Pr««».) I don't know anyone for whomjl am sorrier than I am for Hezekiah Heston. Hezekiah is a good fellow and always was, but he never seemed to have the luck a real good man should have, and very often does not.

But I have been particularly sorry for him since that Kitty Clone affair. Kitty waß by all odds the prettiest girl in town, and Hezekiab, like most of the other courting men in that vicinity, fell in love with her. Bhe was tawny haired, with Bnapping black eyes and a tongue that was as sharp aa a two-edged razor, but she was as bright as a dollar in a basket of chips, and she had only to smile to have a retinue of men at her beck and nod at once. I stood closer to Hezekiah than any man in town, and practically knew his inmost thoughts. In fact, I was the only one he confided in after the Kitty Clone affair. Kitty, before tha*, being a little nearer to him, he thought, than I was. He confided the whole Bad story to me, and I cannot refrain from telling it now.

For Borne Bubfcle purpose, not at the time apparent, Kitty had indicated very plainly her preference for Hezekiah, and a happier man no one ever saw m our town. But preference, merely, was not what Hezekiah sought, and he let her see that quite early. :';■■,; ...... It began to happen one moonlight mgftt on her father's poroh, where, the honoyBuokles clambered over the roof and the sweet wild rose vine entwined the corner. Through the trellised vines, the silver Bhof tß of the moon Bhot that soft night in June and fell in sifted strands over Kitty and Hezekiah sitting in the mellow shadows. If the nightingale had baen indigenous to that section, I am sure it would have added ita liquid notes to the music in Hezekiah's heart,' but there was bo nightingale, ' and Hezekiah did not miss it. Kitty was enough for him, and Kitty eat close beßide him, and every word ■he spoka was a bird song to him. "Did yon know, Miss Kitty," he said tentatively, for Hezokiah was not a brash lover, and he had not mentioned the sacred subject of love to her, although he had thought of a thousand ways by which he might, and had thrown them all aside when the time came, " Did you know that I have something to say to you P " " Well," she twinkled, " I should hope you had, Mr Hestou. I'm sure I don't want to do all the talking." .. , , • -• "Iconld listen to, you if you did, I am sure," he replied with a halting helplessness of manner that men have sometimes in. the moonlight. " That sounds so much like sweethearts' talk," she twittered -as she shook the gold of her pretty hair out into the line of the silver light with itß soent of honeysuckles and roees; ' , "Perhaps it ie," he ventured doubtfully. "But I am sure you don't want to talk Buoh nonsensa to me," she protested. " Why notP*' he asked 80 promptly that he frightened himself. .

fiat not Kitty; oh, no. " Because," she answered, "we have Tni6wnneSoli~othßr"Ht>-long that it would sound silly for you to Bay each things to me."

" Must a man select a stranger if he wants io confide t° » woman all that is in bis heart ? " he inquired with a gravity that made her laugh.

"Ob, I suppose not. Still it doesn't seem quite natural for you to make love to me." .

" If I did, what would w«i say P" "I really don't knojsfMr Heston," she said, tucking her hatrd down and blushing, Pit was not visible in the ch. he went on with more he had made the start, aently come into a little ling like JO,OOOdoI, and s - x luuujjuu 10 *iad come in to yon," she / interrupted with a pleasant little bird note of a chuckle. Hezekiah waa just stupid and alow enough to be delighted with Bach flashes o! feminine wit, and KiUy'B brightness in this respect waa alwayß a charm to him. He liked it now, but with a Bhade of reflex action, for the flash of it had dazzled him when he was on the path to telling her what was in his heart. - " Isn't it jußt the same ? " he aßked with a laugh, half of admiration and half of nervousness. " Oh, of courße, but wbafc were you about to eay? Excuse me for interrupting yon/' <'Po you want me to say it? " he asked, 80 eagerly that ahe laughed at him again. •«tt >«■ do I know ? It may be something dret-wul." It is something about the sweetest thing in the world," he said bravely to her. *' Frank Moore said I was that," she answered, with a demuronesa that waa distracting. "Is it about rue ?" Hezekiah got up and walked to the ed^e of the porob. He iooked fiercely up at the moon as if he thought there ought to be blood on it, bat there wasn't, and the sweet odours of the night were wafted to him on the silently Btirring breeze, and be was soothed. " Whatever is the matter ?" she asked, in the querulous tone of young women under Bimilar circumstances, and he turned to her again. " Kitty," he said, dropping the polite title of young-ladyhood, " it is you, and it is me, too. Both of us/' he added, regardless of syntax. " Who ever said you were the sweetest thing in the world, I'd like to know ?" Bhe laughed, and Hezakiah thought he could see the keen edge of her tongue flash in the moonlight. "You never did,", he replied, in the surliest manner. # . " Oo," she crooned to hica softly, in the language of the cradle, "has de ittle tootsy wootsy pinched his b'essed ittle fnm?" Hezekiah went to the edge of the porch again and was about to ehake his fist at the moon, when he saw someone open the gate from the street and come up the wh lk toward ttte ho.us.ei It wAs the hated Frank Moore, and Hezekiah had only a minute to make hiß peace with the earcastic goddeeß. "Kitty," he exclaimed deßperately, as he came back to her, " there comes Moore. Ifa only nine o'clock, and he will stay here all evening. I can't Bay all I want to cay, but I can say this much — I love you, Kitty, and I want you to be my wife. Will you?" In his excitement he had taken her band and she had risen to his Bide. "Come to-morrow night," she said in the softest wlmpar, and the gentle pressure of her hand spoke a sweeter language to him than evpn the musio of her lips. "Ah, Frank " greeted Hezekiah, as his late rival etmj np, "I'm glad to see you, real glad "—and he was speaking the solemn truth, for there is no telling how much time he would have wasted if Moore hadn't come jnst as he did — " I was about going, and ic looks like a pity to leave Mibs Kitty all alone amidst this bower of honeysuoklef, moonshine, roßos and June. Come and take my place. ' I'm sure she will welcome you with open arms, or words to that «ffeoc. .. TOl^ MU TX^,.. tt * r^^ n A -Miss

Kitty, "you are really brilliant this evening. Whotaughtyouhow? It must be an acquired habit. I'm sure it isn't natural." . ._ Moore laughed at this pleasant persiflage of Kitty's. Everybody laughed at Kitty^a wit, except the vtctim3of it, but on this occasion, even the viotim laughed, for he could yet feel the ecstacy of Kitty's hand clasping his, and could yet hear the music of her words, *• Come to-morrow night." Of course Mr Moore apologised for disturbing their Ute-A-tita, and aaid he had merely dropped in for a minute; but men are given' to that kind of palliating prevarication, and he sat down in the most comfortable place he could find before Hezekiah had left the poroh. Hezekiah did not tarry long after this, but Mr Moore remained for two hours chattering with Miss Kitty, and then they j separated, leaving the moon, the honeyBuoklea and the roßea out in the June night all alone. The stars twinkled in the silver blue sky, the fragrance of the flowers filled the air, and far down the quiet street, Hezekiah sat by his open window dreaming the night away, and there was a smile on his faca as if an angel had come in the glory of the moonlight and touched him with the breath of June. And the next night it rained. Bnt there was sunshine, and moonlight and honeysuckles and roses and June in Hezokiah's heart, and he was promptly in -piquant Kitty's pretty parlour early on the night of the morrow which had promised so much to him. AlaB ! how easily things go wrong and so forth. They quarrelled, and Hezekiah went out into the night, gloomier than the . night was. All the music of her voice was a dißCord, and the dank, dark air was filled with an odour as of dead honeysuckles and roses, and. a decaying June. But the next night was perfect again, and once more Hezekiah sat with Miss Kitty on the porch and the moon was flooding the valley with the yellow light that marks it as it rests upon the distant mountain tops. "Kitty," said Hezekiah in the voice of a penitent, " can you forgive me P" "I can, Mr Hsston, but will. lP". she answered, not unkindly. "Won't you P" he pleaded. "And if I do?" she asked with a coynesa that charmed him. . " You will marry me," he said so firmly that she trembled. . "Then I'll forgive you," and her sanoy face was buried in his coat front, and the gold of her tresses threw a soft light into his face that gave it the look of a seraph's. And it came to pass according to the prophecy of Hezekiah. That's why I'm so sorry for Hezekiah Heston. I'm Hezekiah Heston, and Kitty has baen my wife for twenty years, and. her hair is no less tawny, nor is her tongue ldßß sharp, than when the honeysuckles, the roses, the 'moonlight and June threw their gentle glamour o'er the scene.