The Statesmen Snowbound | Page 8

on a hot plate. There was no
need for matches, all you had to do was to put your unlighted cigar in
your mouth and puff away. I was trying hard to remember why I had on
glasses,--they were of no use in the world to me,--and I was also much
astonished to find that I was wearing Seymour's coat and hat, the latter
a typical western slouch, broad-brimmed and generous. I also sported a
tie loud enough to frighten an automobile. After pondering awhile upon
this remarkable state of affairs, the thought arose so far as I knew I
might be Seymour myself! I was strangely befuddled by the adventures
of the past twenty-four hours, and it was not long before I began to
seriously argue with myself that I was Seymour,--undoubtedly
Seymour,--indeed, why should I not be Seymour as well as any one

else? This masterly line of reason settled it. I was Seymour, and as an
instructor and guide of youth I felt that I ought to be thoroughly
ashamed of myself for flocking with the dissipated crowd I had just left.
Acting upon this elevating thought, I braced up considerably, assumed
an air of virtue, and not knowing exactly what to do next, joined a
throng of people who were jostling one another in their efforts to get on
a steamboat. A sail, I fancied, would do me no end of good, and as the
ticket seller assured me with a smile that the boat was perfectly safe
and would return in a few hours, I went aboard with the rest of the fools,
children, and old folks. This I accomplished after barely escaping a
plunge into the river from what struck me as being an exceedingly
narrow gang-plank.
"The band struck up one of Sousa's lively marches, a hoarse whistle
sounded, the boat trembled all over, and we were off. As the Charles
Auchester glided out into the stream, two young women with camp
stools in their hands pushed through the crowd at the entrance to the
hurricane deck--an elevation I had succeeded in attaining--and took
their seats near a life-raft upon which I reclined, Cleopatra-like.
"'Oh, aren't these excursions perfectly lovely, Ruby?' said the taller of
the pair, taking off her hat and dropping it in her lap.
"'Yes, and so cheap. All the way to Indian Head and back for a quarter.
It's a godsend for us poor tired folks who have to stay in town all
summer. And you know what that means, don't you, Pearl?'
"'Oh, yes, but don't let's talk about it,' said the other fretfully. 'I try not
even to think of what we will have to go through. What good does it do
to fuss over things we can't help?'
"'That's right, dear,' said her companion, 'and it doesn't pay to look far
ahead, either, if one wants to be happy. I never do.'
"They were pretty and quite well dressed, these two maidens. As to
their being without a male escort, I rather admired their sturdy
independence. Everything about them bespoke refinement, and yet the
very next remark from the girl called Ruby sent a shiver through my

sensitive frame, and caused my hastily formed but favorable opinion of
the pair to change color.
"'I'd give anything, Pearl, if Will and the other fellows were here. They
always buy, and I've got an awful thirst on me.'
"'We might have some beer, anyway,' mildly suggested Pearl, and a
flying waiter took the order.
"'I guess we can pick up something on the boat,' remarked Ruby; who,
by the way, was good to look at--a black-eyed lass with regular features
and lots of pink and white complexion. Pearl, languidly sipping her
beer, nodded in the affirmative. This person, evidently the younger of
the two, had a babyish face, big innocent blue eyes, and a profusion of
fluffy yellow hair. She did not appeal as much to my sense of the
beautiful as the dark one did; but I have always been partial to brunettes.
She told me later that she was twenty--which figure was enough for me
to know, I suppose. Oh, I understand women. They are an open book to
me.
"About eight o'clock the moon, immense and crimson, came up from
behind the Maryland hills, and cast a lurid path upon the wavelets. The
girls, or rather the 'Jewels,' as I have since learned to think of them,
huddled closer together, with a not too capacious shawl around them,
for the wind was freshening considerably. For a while I stopped
looking at them, being interested in the little stunts that are done on the
boat as it passes Mount Vernon. The tolling of the bell and the dirge by
the band absorbed all my attention.
"It was not