The Cairo bulletin., 1906-05-15
TALE FROM A
GIRLS DIARY,

/
moved away.
Anton McFedries Bruce was my first
love. was six then and lisped. re-
member the lisp particularly because
Anton McFedries took exception to it.
lie mimicked me dreadfully | don't
suppose the imitation was at all like the
original, but he managed TO make II UNI
attractive and convincing, and my hui
imitation was complete. ! used TO think
vaguely OF retaliating, and once quite
teeth removed, But he made SO much
of them in his pocket and dwelt with
such color on his heroic conduct under
| the ordeal OF their extraction that my
courage melted before him.
Then, six months later, after had
| gone through the same ordeal he COM
manded me peremptorily TO look the
other way whenever found il necessary
! TO open my mouth.
remember the birthday present An
ton McFedries gave me the year | was
seven. His mother let him choose il
himself 1t was small wooden gun
that shot corks with dreadful velocity.
We played good deal with the gun
that is, Anton McFedries shot the eorks
al me. | think it was my nose that he
aimed at especially, and when he
missed, which was always, | was quite
ready to ascribe his failure to the I'M
satisfactory proportions of the target,
sentiment which Anton McFedries
warmly seconded.
There was an understanding between
10, OF course. We were to live together
always, in a log cabin in a deep forest,
and our domestic routine was to consist
for the most part of series of heroic
rescues, in which was TO be successive
~ torn from the embraces of bears and
the teeth of wolves. Anton McFedries
always figured magnificently in haze
of gunpowder and a glitter of steel My
only prerogative, aside from being res
cued was to make cookies. Anton Nc
Fedries conceded the cookies because
he adored nay mothers lemon snaps,
and | assured him that | should make
them just as good when | grew up. Ire
member, too, that was sternly denied
wallpaper and lace curtains in the dec
grafton of our log cabin. and | had TO
make up my mind TO the arrangement
If sleeping wrapped up in a blanket on
the floor.
Aside from making the cookies, this
was not the domestic picture which |
would have planned, but felt my lisp
md my other limitations and therefore
the necessity of curbing my own imag
nation / shall never again be SO hum
bly, or subsequently in love as was with
Anton McFedries.
was eight when he moved away. He
gave me his guinea pigs, three Cancelled
postage stamps and stick of gum al
parting. They were the only visible
signs of his emotion, but frankly ex-
pressed myself in tears.
Six months ago he moved back again.
/ called him Mr., Bruce then. | was
greatly surprised to see how he had
hanged. | think he was equally sur
Drsed when he saw was not the same.
think he expected that my two front
eeth would still be missing and that my
lisp would be as pronounced as ever.
Neither of us had lived up to those
Early ambitions. was still in ignorance
If the recipe for lemon snaps and he had
settled down quite tamely to an Office
m a tenth floor somewhere without any
hought of forests and log cabins and
leroic encounters.
| asked him last night If he remem-
,ered the unitarian connection in
which he used to view my nose. That
vas at a moment when he was viewingi IL
md me in a very different connection
indeed, and wanted to avert catas-
rophe. He only remarked, quite curt
y. that he must have been a young
east.
This morning the catastrophe arrived
" the first mafl. II wanted to know II
had forgotten the old understanding
nd 1t asked if would not please renew
t.
II is quite different understanding
hat he suggests now. There would be
O question of lace curtains and wall
aper. and would not be compelled 10
leep in a blanket on the floor.
,ould be the center of attraction my
elf instead of a victim to my husbands
eroisms. My nose would remain for
yer unmolested and | would be per-
lifted activities beyond the manufac"
ure of lemon snaps II was very
,uch more comfortable understanding
Anton McFedries certainly has great
y changed He no longer domineers or
yrannlzes or lords II over me. lie
,ould not think OF asking me to turn in
,e opposite direction If the expression
NV face did not suit him. To-day.
hen he remembered my birthday. il
as with something very different from
wooden gun with corks for ammun.-
on.
Yet I much preferred the embryo
inter and potential hero who trod on
~ personality and stifled my imagina-
on when was eight was very much
,ore ecstatic under the old arrange
.ant which included vicious imita-
ons of my lisp and the elimination OF
II feminine preferences. | find that |
,nnot renew the understanding with