Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1905-09-12
BLlSTON'S TROUBLE.

On rainy Friday afternoon as BllY
ton started toward the elevator home
ward bound, his stcnographer came trip
ping after him.
mr. Bliston. don't you want an UNI
brella?" she asked Didn't you know
it was raining?'
Piston never borrows an umbrella II
he can avoid it--not because he has a
special fondness for Flooding through
the rain without protection, but for rea-
sons especially we'll known to his wife
and frequently and scathlngly remarked
upon by her. He is, in fact, so forgetful
that II he borrows anything he usually
loses It.
No pretext for declining availed in
this instance, however The steuog-
rapher happened to have two umbrellas
at the Office and it would be absurd, she
said, for Bliston to get wet when It could
so easily be avoided SO he grasped the
proffered handle and fed.
Monogram, eh2' he said to himself
as he spread the umbrella against the
spray borne by the east wind. "a pres
ent from him. of course. Foolish girl
It's dollars to doughnuts that lose it
before get to the train"
1t happened for once to be a poor
wager. But as Bliston cut across the
station lawn at Hummockdale, past the
'keep-off- the-g grass sign, that sixth
sense of the suburbanite that tells him
of an incompleteness somewhere. began
n ~ i'm nr,1 sIr, h
the lost look Of commuter who is land
ed at his home station without parcel
in his possession can know the outward
manifestation of this sense.
When Bliston hitched his chair back
from the dinner table that evening and
announced that it was necessary for
him to pay a visit to the railway station
his wife smiled a knowing smile due to
Iong experience.
What was it you left on the train, my
iear?" she inquired
There was no use lodging either con-
fession or its consequences.
Theodore Bliston. you ought to be
ashamed to take a gift umbrella, in the
first place. when you knew you would
ose it. And even the $40 you'll go and
oay for a new umbrella won't replace a
present. you know"
Bliston knew but ne had not lost hope.
inquiry revealed that the crew of the
rain on which he had left the UNI
orella would come through again later
n the evening. He hung about the sta
ion till they came, rode four stations
Town and then waited 40 minutes to get /
Jack, with the net product of informa-
ion that two umbrellas had been
ound, but that they had been left at the !
'ther terminus and would be brought
downtown in the morning.
Mrs. Bliston was pessimistic "I'll
elieve it when see it, +" she said.
Bliston hurried into the found Of
ice in the morning. The umbrella was
asily distinguished he said. for it bore
. monogram. What were the letters?
Vhy--the letters-er-wha the deuce
we're they, anyway? Did she spell her
Iame Katherine or Catherine? Well,
a would have to own up that the UNI
'rella belonged to his stenographer.
he avowal was received with calmness,
lot to say dignity. And what was the
andle? Gold. of course.
"Gold?' The attendants suspicious
hanged to scornful assurance. mot a
umbrella turned in this
week" he said
But Bliston did not give up his quest.
That evening he boarded the down train
Lgain. this time armed with a minute
from the owner of the UNI
rella.
The umbrella surely had been taken /
0 the Office, the conductor insisted. IL
he gentleman didn't believe it-well /
es if he would go down the conductor
would accompany him and help secure
lis property.
Biiston went. What if it did mean
second evening spent onor waiting for
low trains? And that Saturday night
Whist game at Unison s-pooh! When
3liston set out for thing he was in
omitable
So they found the umbrella Bliston
vas consequently elated when he ap-
his home, in which a solitary
light told the lateness of the
lour.
II found it," he broke out, triumph
antly Il was bound / should find the
hing this time if it took all night
But, Theodore, where is it?"
Where is--?" Bliston tumbled into
a chair. Margaret" he confessed.
I've gone and left that blamed UNI
brella on the train again. Chicago
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