104 THE COUNTRY BOY 



slip out to the dance and surprise them. I 

 told her I didn't care much for such things 

 owing to the crowd that went, but that now 

 I could see a dance as I never had before. So 

 I helped Nettie into the buggy just where it 

 stood and she sat there thinking, perhaps, while 

 I went to get the horse. And you bet I wasn't 

 gone long, and the way we saluted each other 

 when I returned with the horse showed that we 

 had already begun to get chummy, and how 

 much better it sounded than to be distant. 

 I backed the horse into the shafts and har- 

 nessed and hitched him right where he stood, 

 but I got half of his harness backwards. I 

 couldn't think of anything pertaining to 

 harness, so when I got into the buggy I drove 

 out through the barnyard as quiet as possible 

 and feeling about as good as a young man 

 ever feels. I was afraid to breathe for fear 

 my arm would touch hers. I wanted to get 

 to the dance as quickly as possible before any- 

 body left so that the advertisement I would get 

 from being seen with this beautiful girl would 

 be as big as possible. I didn't have time to get 

 any candy hearts, or in fact anything, and the 

 perfume she had on seemed a fit emblem to 



