Cinder Path Tales

6o HOW KITTY from sun and shower, was a perfect drag­ net for customers. The front was all window, and the stock in trade plainly visible from the opposite side ofthe street. Here wascandy in jars on the shelves and in trays onthe counter, fruit in boxes andbaskets bythe windows,a huge soda fountain near the door, and an ice-cream parlor back of the store, with its horrible marble-topped tables, like gravestones await­ ing the inscription of" Sacred to." I have travelled a bit, first and last, but nothing more dismal than an American ice-cream parlor do I remember to have seen. While itcannot be denied that Kitty's con­ fectionery was often stale, herfruit flavorless, her soda frothy, and her ice-cream as full of starch as a Chinese laundry, Kitty herself was all right, andfresh and dainty enough tooff­ set all the deficiencies of her wares. I can seeher now, as I tell this story, with her bright "Old-Country" blushes, r soft brown hair, herblue eyes, and her trim little figure which her gowns always fitted so snugly. She wasa marvel of neatness from ribbon to shoe tip, and was rather extrava­ gant in the matter of foot-gear, for Kitty had a sweet footand ankle of her own, concern­ ing which she was not ignorant. Cap'n Holden, theproprietor of the store,