The Prairie Detective — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

10 THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. spare build, but well shaped, and his face was full of kindly purpose and gentle thought. A smile that was half mischievous, half pleased, was upon his lips, as he spoke, without lifting his eyes from his work: “And so, Esther, you did not like the stranger who paid you such marked attention?”’ _ The girl he addressed was the taller of the two who stood arm in arm before him. But for the difference in their height it would have been difficult _ to tell them one from the other. Therefore, having noted the point of dissimilarity between them, a description of one will serve in all essential details for both. Face, round and plump; nose straight, and a trifle prominent; lips cherry- hued, and curving up slightly at the ends; teeth even, large, and white; eyes black, full, and twink- ling merrily beneath long and drooping lashes; brows heavy and gracefully arched; forehead broad and rather round, shaded by a crest of hair which was so black that when the sun fell upon it one was sure to note a curious blue sheen which at times seemed to form a kind of halo about the head. The bright color of health lent another beauty to the face, while the neck, smooth and round, was just a trifle haughty in its erect firmness. Thus far my descriptive pen has moved with bold and sweeping strokes upon its mission; but as it passes down over the plump shoulders, stopping for an instant to note the curves of gently swelling bust or supple waist, all unconfined by artificial process, as it wanders over full and graceful hips and passes onward over limbs that taper in the fullness of sym- metrical outline, it hesitates, moves an instant in helpless indecision, and stops, baffled. comicbooks