The guests who did not leave by automobile took the noon trolley to
Louisville. Among the latter was Tom Harbison. Mildred had rather
hoped he would stay over Sunday at Buck Hill. He pleaded an
engagement, however, but with melting eyes declared he would soon be
back.
Jeff heaved a great sigh of relief when they were all gone, especially
Miss Jean Roland. What a nuisance black-headed girls were, anyhow! He
began to wonder what Judith was doing. Was she wearied after the ball?
Was she on the road in her little blue car selling toilet articles?
Would she feed the motormen and conductors, in spite of having been up
until morning? Of course she would! Judith was not the kind of girl to
fail in an undertaking and to let men go hungry.
"Half past five! She furnishes dinner for the men on the six-thirty. I
wonder what she is giving them to-day?" Jeff smiled when he remembered
how Judith had satisfied Nan's impertinent curiosity concerning what
was in her basket. "I've a great mind to find out. Foolishness! I'll
do nothing of the sort." The young man tried to lose himself in the
intricate plot of a detective story but he had to confess he was not
half so much interested in the outcome of the tale as he was in what
Judith was to carry in her basket.
"I'll go help her lift the heavy load on the trolley," he decided,
slinging aside the stupid book and starting across the meadows to the
trolley station. He must traverse the broad acres of Buck Hill to the
dividing line of Judith's mother's farm, then through a swampy creek
bottom, up a hill to the grove of old beech trees, and then down to
the trolley track.
"Can't make it! There's the whistle blowing for the next station," he
said as he reached the grove. He stopped and, leaning against the
smooth trunk of a great beech, looked out across the fields. There was
Judith in a blue dress, standing on the little platform, a cooler of
buttermilk in one hand, swinging it as before as a signal to the
approaching trolley. She wore no hat and her hair shone like spun
gold.
"I'll wait here for her and maybe I can persuade her to sit down a
minute and talk to me." Lazily he settled himself on a mossy bank,
leaning against the friendly trunk.
The trolley car stopped. Eager hands were ready to receive the heavy
cooler and laden basket. Only one passenger--a man--alighted and then
the car sped on. Judith picked up the basket of empty dishes and milk
can that had been deposited on the platform and turned to follow the
path homeward. Jeff sprang to his feet, meaning to hasten to her and
relieve her of her burden, when his intention was changed by seeing
the man who had just alighted from the trolley walk quickly to her
side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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