The Little Red Chimney: Being the Love Story of a Candy ManLeonard, Mary Finley
General
The Little Red Chimney: Being the Love Story of a Candy Man
Leonard, Mary Finley
Fiction; Love stories
"Right you are. Your inference is absolutely correct. The foundations of
this American Commonwealth are threatened, and the _Evening Record_
don't stand for it. Life's made a burden, liberty curtailed, happiness
pursued at the point of the dust-pan. Here is the Democratic party of
the State pledged to School Suffrage. The Equal Rights Association is to
meet here next month, and--the mischief is, the pretty ones are taking
it up! The first thing you know the Girl of All Others will be saying,
'Embrace me, embrace my cause.' Why, my Cousin Augustus met a regular
peach of a girl at the country club,--visiting at the Gerrard
Penningtons', don't you know, and almost the first question she asked
him was did he believe in equal rights?" The Reporter paused for breath,
pushing his hat back to the farthest limit and regarding the Candy Man
curiously. "It is funny," he added, "how much you look like my Cousin
Augustus. I wonder now if he could have been twins, and one stolen by
the gypsies? You don't chance to have been stolen in infancy?"
This innocent question annoyed the Candy Man, although he ignored it,
murmuring something to the effect that the Reporter's talents pointed to
the stump. It might have been a guilty conscience or merely impatience
at such flagrant nonsense, for surely he could not reasonably object
to resembling Cousin Augustus. The Candy Man was a well-enough looking
young fellow in his white jacket and cap, but nothing to brag of, that
he need be haughty about a likeness to one so far above him in the
social scale, whom in fact he had never seen.
The Reporter lingered in thoughtful silence while some westbound
transfers purchased refreshment, then as a trio of theological students
paused at the Candy Wagon, he restored his hat to its normal position
and strolled away. On the Y.M.C.A. corner business had waked up.
For some time the Candy Wagon continued to reap a harvest from the rush
of High School boys and younger children. Morning became afternoon,
the clouds which the east wind had been industriously beating up
gathered in force, and a fine rain began to fall. The throng on the
street perceptibly lessened; the Candy Man had leisure once more to
look about him.
A penetrating mist was veiling everything; the stone church, the
seminary buildings, the tall apartment houses, the few old residences
not yet crowded out, the drug store, the confectionery--all were softly
blurred. The asphalt became a grey lake in which all the colour and
movement of the busy street was reflected, and upon whose bosom the
Candy Wagon seemed afloat. As the Candy Man watched, gleams of light
presently began to pierce the mist, from a hundred windows, from passing
street cars and cabs, from darting machines now transformed into
strange, double-eyed demons. It was a scene of enchantment, and with
pleasure he felt himself part of it, as in his turn he lit up his wagon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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