Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-11
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Getting Back After the Sum-
mer Vacation.
TIRED OF THE sEAsHoRE
Faculty Of Adapting Oneself to the
Inevitable.
TOWN LOOKED MIGHTY GOOD
So Did the Familiar Faces Of Friends
and Neighbors Who Waved
Welcome to Those Returning.
TIRED OF THE SEASH0RE
TOWN LOOKED MIGHTY GOOD


Welcome to Those Returning.
The man with the sun-peeled nose looked
pretty comfortable. sprawled over the
lawn-bench on his little patch of 'front.'
yard grass. and placidly zephyring his
face with a ragged-edged palm leaf fan.
He was tugging at an old black wood pipe
and watching the yaller. but cherished.
dog Of the household luxuriously roll him
self in the grass.
Nope" said the man. I'm not sorry to
be back nome from the vacation. No cave
of gloom at all. Find it pretty good. Not
a bit depressed about It. Not down in the
mouth at all. Only been home a couple Of
hours now, and I'm already back in the
old groove. Haven't any worry at all
about the thing Of taking up the white
mans burden and going back to work to-
morrow morning.
about a week ago. though, down at the
beach, 1t certainly made me curl up and
become peevish. the thought that my va
cation was on Its last legs. Couldn't see
me snappy to think Of pulling up stakes
and clomping back to the old grind
Caught myself inwardly Tuning because
I couldn't vacationize just as long as I
wanted to, like some other people Of my
northumberland when I thought Of
these folks and Of their bank rolls that
enabled them to just hang on anywhere
they choose to stick as long as they cared
to I sort of disliFed them and wondered
why unappreciative fat heads that didn't
know how to relish the good things Of life
always got them, and all that sort Of
grouchiness. Fact is. felt like the young
ster who wanted to have his cake and eat
ii too. Struck me as being q mighty poor
arrangement that I couldn't loaf and loll
around and beer-and- skittle-ize until I got
tired Of II.
"And my wife had pretty much the same
line of reflections about the thing-I could
see that.
"'Well. only six more days she said
one morning as we sat on the big breezy
veranda overlooking the whipping water,
and then she sighed. and her wistful looks
and her signing made me even more sore
Hadn't Meant Anything Unpleasant.
That's it, go ahead and remind me Of
all the Internally unpleasant things you
can think Of rounded on her. and then.
Of course, she said that she hadn't meant
to say anything unpleasant. but that nat
urally she felt sorry that all the good time
was drawing to a finish, and
"'And I suppose I'm just tickled to
death over 1t and ready to turn fip-faps
and handsprings and somersaults over 1t,
am IT, I kept on grouching, and then she
saw what sore thing the come-home
part of 1t was with me, and she changed
the subject, and nothing more was said
about the waning vacation till two days
before we were due to return.
Then. upon a comparison Of notes, we
found that we'd suddenly tired Of the sea-
shore, both of US, and that we were dead
willing to come home. Wed both made
up our minds that there was no way out
of 1t and that we had to return, of course,
and so we'd been quietly adapting our
selves to the inevitable and framing up
reasons why we were dog-tfred OF the
whole vacationizing business.
"Do you know my wife said tome as
we rocked away on the porch two days
before our time was up. I'll be glad to
get back home. deed I will?
II shot her a quick glance to see wheth-
er she really meant 1t or not or was just
saying 1t to sort Of jolly me along, but
she looked in earnest and that started me,
too.
"'Same here said I. TIM sick and tired
Of this place. and then we fell to knock
ing the seashore place that, only a few
days before, we had so dreaded to leave.
1--WE discovered that there was q mighty
common and onnery lot of people coming
down for the month of August. We found
that the hotel table was getting measley
and upon comparison of ideas We found
that to both of US every article on the bill
of fare had been tasting like stewed tur-
nips for several days past. We agreed
that the bad mosquito period was just
about due. She was just as tired, 1t SEEM
ed, as I was Of sea bathing-had become
sick of the work of undressing and dress
ing again. And the sea was becoming
sort of monotonous to her, 1t appeared, as
I declared 1t also was to me. And the
folks around the hotel with whom we were
acquainted had suddenly become uninter-
esting, or bores, or something, and we'd
wearied of watching the progress of the
various hotel flirtations we'd been study
ing, and the chatter of the young fellows
and girls on the verandaS had suddenly
seemed imbecile, and the clacking Of the
dowagers about their grandchildren's all
ments was irritating. and the behavior of
the young children around the hotel was
becoming insupportable, and the wind
seemed to have shifted that our room
was hot at night, and the bands on the
piers seemed to play the same old pieces
every night, and wouldn't it be bully to
get something to eat again, and maybe
our own big porcelain tub wouldn't be ap-
preciated when we got to it once more
and the Washington markets must be fun
of good things at this season, and there
had been plenty of Augusts in Washing
ton that hadn't, been so hot, at that, and,
talking about heat, it was mighty hot,
wasn't it, right there on that porch. with
the sea only few yards away and
whole long line more of that kind of
cheerful and heartening stuff-we both
had identically the same ideas about the
fun of winding up the vacation. 1t seemed.
Accepting the Inevitable.
Wonderful and providential thing, this
way folks have of adapting themselves
to the inevitable. I don't know how we'd
ever manage to get by If we didn't possess
the faculty Of doing this.
Then the packing up, and the long Sc
ries Of protracted good-byes, and the
lodging of lot of other good-byes, and
the scramble for the train, and the roll
toward home. 1t was pretty hot on the
cars today. but the wife and I, upon talk
ing 1t over, found that ii wasn't anything
like as hot In the chair-car as 1t had been
in our hotel room at the beach for several
nights previous, and this idea comforted
US, SO that when we drew toward Wash
ington an hour or so after shutdown we
felt genuinely cool.
Queer. how natural everything looks at
the home railroad station when you're re-
turning from a journey. When you've been
away for a month 1t seems as II you'd been
gone for about nine years. and you sort of
wonder how 1t happens that the same famil-
lar faces Of employees are to be seen around
the gates and baggage rooms and waiting
roo nd ON of boI