The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1902-09-11
At the Eleventh
~ flour. "a
by Anne Shannon Monroe.
M OF n match ."

u l looked up from my painting.
Bruce Blanchard stood in my door
way as coolly impudent as when
had parted with him in Yakima five
years before. ! did not start nor ex-
claim. l pointed to my match case
and ssaid quietly, Tell me about it."
He came in on this halfway invi-
tation and, seating himself on my
divan, lighted his cigarette. His to-
baccostained fingers trembed as of
old. l did not fatter myself it was
from emotion-rather too many
cigarettes.
AS / leaned back in my chair and
eyed him curiously a picture came
before me-a wide, western plain,
sage-covered and somber, the great
irrigation canal winding snake-like
down through the valley, and at its
headgates the small settlement that
had sprung up from the nucleus of
engineers and contractors camps.
On the ground in front of one of the
tents stretched the handsome form
of man in canvas clothes. A girl
swung lazily in a hammock, reading.
The man was smoking a cigarette,
and as he smoked he turned the weed
with that peculiar little gesture of
his nervous fingers that Bruce
Blanchard now used as he sat smok-
ing in my studio.
The gesture aroused me to the
present. l blinked my eyes to dispel
the vision, but the central figure staid
on and the smoke was real.
Tell me about it, Bruce" / said
again.
'"There is nothing to tell, Louise,
no color, nothing heroic. 'Twould
only bore ~ htesGot a new story?"
In those oRfen days, when Bruce
- and l had been all the world to each
other; when, in that faraway iso-
lated settlement on the plains, news
was rare, and we reveled in month
old papers and ycar-old magazines,
one of our means of adding comedy
to the prosy days was to hunt up
magazine Jokes and see which could
find one entirely new to the other.
Yes. here's a good one" l said,
lust for YOU. Its this: The other
art students think l am on fire with
artistic zeal; that l have forsaken
home and loved ones to follow INV
hearts desire; that l would give my
life and think it cheap could | once
be hung in the Partisan galleries.
/ have one thing hung here in the
art institute. Go look at il some
day-in the east room. at the south
end-a wide stretch of western prai-
rie, with white tents in the distance
and man in the foreground. They
say its after Remington Perhaps.
But that's good story. isn't il, about
my soul being welded to art? Sounds
well"
Bruce shipped the ashes from his
cigarette. He did not seem amused.
Tell me, Louise. how are you get
ting on?" he asked in a serious tone.
Tell me of yourself, dear boy" l
replied.
whats the use? Same old story.
] went 10 Africa for a time. then TO
China; later TO the Philippines. The
fever struck me and came homo
when ! could. Haven't been doing
much Of anything since. ! came TO
Chicago. drifted into the institute,
and got 10 painting again. Yester-
day ! found rooms in this building
through Todhunter. Know him? He
lives on this floor. He said they
were mostly students here a sort nf
American Quarter Latin. | didn't
dream of finding Won. Supposed Won
had rnarried q western covhov or
rancher. or something Of the kind.
You were quite in raptures over those
products Of the soil. as l remember"
"OuIv for skctchiug puruoses.
Bruce"