102
THE COUNTRY BOY
had never been to a dance alone, and her mother refused, although the girl was willing, so I called it off and went up home and helped around the barn. I waved my hat to the girls I had asked as they drove by in livery rigs with
other fellows, and after they had all gotten out of town I went down to the post-office to get the Silverton Appeal, when who should I meet but the belle of the village, as we all called her among ourselves. She smiled and I smiled, and she asked why I wasn’t at the dance. “What dance?” said I. “At Egan’s Hop House,” she replied. “Everybody
