12
SUNDAY MAGAZINE m JULY 3. IMS
'HE two voting people
sat under the tall
oaks on the outsldrt
PLAYING AT TRUTH
of the pasture. His hat was
tilted back from his forehead,
showing his sunbrown hair and
laughing blue eyes to advantage.
So thought the "girl who sat near
him. In her hand she held his
cold-rimmed eve-glasses. She was
saying emphatically:
"" You know you are fibbing. Dolph! I know what I
will do strip youreyesof these truth-coveringglasses
and make you play honest, as we used to say."
"Are you, you little fraud? Have you been
playing honest" this whole afternoon? You began
by pretending to lie alcep in the hammock: then,
when caujjht opening your eyes, said you were too
tired to go for a walk, but finally consented to go,
if it was for llacklcrries that you were berry
hungry. You did not want the berries, for you
don't seem to care for them, now you liave found
some. You have tried to keep me at a resectablc
distance, at another bu.sh, all the time, scratched
your little white hands, and made a big rent in
your leeve. I have a zigzag oening down my
only respectable light coat woe is me! After all
this damage, are you satisfied?"
" Perfectly." she replied calmly.
"You like to give a man a jieck of trouble, don't
vou?"
"Yes."
" You don't seem the least bit remorseful alwut
it look as cool and unconcerned as ever, and as
tantalizingly sweet as you were that last night at
the senior's ball, when you refused me that last
waltz. I thought all that spirit of yours would have
dimmed by now."
" You did? Well, there have lieen others to keep
it alive, if you did go oil to Montana, after the lall,
without as much as an au nivir to me."
"Oh, I supxse there have Iwen others. You are
growing to le quite a college widow, aren't you?"
"I am; not going to le. But we are off the
track. 1 maile you take off your glasses so that
you might look straight into my eyes."
" I could do tliat for a lifetime."
"IVrhiqw. if I'd let you. You know I mean so
that I may find out the truth."
"Then you should look into my eyes. .,ave you
forgotten your psychology so soon1 It is not the
fear of looking into the truth-seeker's eyes that tin
man's one. but of letting the truth-seeker look into
the culprit's."
"You are fine on distinctions this afternoon.
Well, let me look into your eyes. Xow!" She
placed herself in front f him among the dad oak
leaves and gazed into his eyes. He did not flinch:
but she did. and so gave an impatient little jerk at
his straw hat.
"Oh. I can't tell that way you are looking at
A Little Woodli
Gave Cupid Hi:
d Game That
Opportunity
Br CATHERINE FRANCES CAVANAGH
me! Let's play at truth, and then I can find out
what I want to, for certain."
"How do you play at truth?"
"This way: You put your hand down so. Ill
put mine on" top of it, and well do that altcrnately
until the number we choose is exhausted. If the
number we choose is sixteen, and you come down
on sixteen, then you have to answer truthfully to
any three questions I put to you."
"I sec: but you'll choose an odd number and
make it come to me."
"No. 111 play fair. We shall take some word
for instance. "'United States.' Now 111 put my
hand down first. Here goes! U-n-i-t-e-d S-t-a-t-e-s
there, you have it!" she cried as his hand came
down at the last letter.
"Now I can ask those questions, and I want you
to tell me the honest truth."
"Very well, sweetheart."
"Dolph! You mustn't! But never mind. Ill
cure that. First : What 1 rought you to Green Spring
Hotel?"
"You."
"This is the truth, mind."
"Yes. the honest truth."
"Well, why did you want to sec me? Was it to
renew the old friendship, and"
"Hold! You arc asking too many questions in
one. Yes. it was to renew the old sweet friendship."
"What was your object in so doing?"
"To see if you were the same girl I once knew."
"Three years ago. so it was. Well, precious little
satisfaction I have for your truth-telling. Let's play
again, and take the word 'California.'"
They tried, and she was captured this time, and
squirmed a little as he laughingly looked into her
soft brown eyes.
"Xow I will have a good interview!" he said,
settling himself easier in the leaves.
"Whom do you love best of all in the world?"
"No one," too promptly, it seemed to him.
"Which of the old set did you prefer in college,
I mean?"
" Bert. Fred and you."
"Didn't you care for me a little better than for
those other two?"
" It's too far lwck. I do not remember."
"Oh. I'll catch vou yet. Let's play again, and
take 'University.'"
She settled herself gleefully to catechize htm
as he came down on the Y.
"How many girls have
you proposed to since vou did
to me at the senior's ball?"
"Two," he replied, coloring.
She winced. "Did you care for
them as much as you pretended
to care for me?"
"I thought so: but"
Again she winced. She felt as
if she was pulling her own hair.
" Which means you did. Well, didn't you come here
for the express purpose of paying me back for flirting
with you during the last term? Aren't you making
believe you love me. just to see how III take it?"
" You talk too fast. You ask toomany questions."
He saw that she was getting excited, and his heart
gave a delighted little leap. After all those long
months of waiting he would capture her yet. " I'll
reply to the first: Yes."
"I've found out all I want to know. I don't
want to play at truth any more." She rose from
the dead leaves. He felt half sorry for being so
cruel, as she seemed unhappy. But all is fair in
love and war. and women have to le treated to the
little skirmishes that lielong to the greatest of cam
fiaigns. "Oh. but we will play at truth!" he said, catching
hold of her dress to draw her lock to her oak-leaf
seat. "And I want to catch you." They played,
and he succeeded in his wish.
"Would you like me lietter if I had not come here
with the intention of paying you for your mean
treatment of me in the last term?"
She hesitated, and then desierately replied in the
affirmative.
"Don't you think we are a couple of simpletons?"
"Yes." she smiled through the tear-welling eyes.
"Don't you think we had lietter kiss and make
up and vow to love, cherish and tell the truth to
each other all our lives hereafter, and so avoid all
misunderstanding?" Don't you know that you
do love me letter than you do any other man?
That I have always loved you from the first night
I saw you? Have we not lied to our hearts, and
so made ourselves miserable? Aren't the biggest
simpletons on the face of the earth two people rich
in love and youth who try to set by these gifts?
Can't we lie honest to each other, and so set a late
example to all lovers who torment their hearts with
too much striving to get away from the sweet,
honest truth?" He sjioke fast and excitedly, for
getting that he was taking more than his share of
questions, no more than she rememWred when
her heart was touched a little while prckmly.
The little bird that told me this summer story
forgot to tell what the girl replied, but those two
lying lovers went over the sunburnt fields together
and left the half-filled lil of blaeklierries lehind
them. The pail was returned by the farmer's lad
the next day. No questions were asked.
"O-O-O-O-O H!" By Grace G. Wiederseim
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