Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-14
0M \ RAINY NIonT
. oaopt oiseIeult Jab In Lee.
 bllnkNr'o QotimatloN.

This dash for the pole businsss may Do pretty hard work" said MT. Logbllnker. No doubt It does call for quits some patience, ikill and on. durance. But if you want to under take something that h really difficult just try to hold an umbrella as 1t ought to be held over the head of . lady h rainstorm. tried that last night with Mrs. Lngblinksr. and thought before we got where we wers going that I'd rather have been in tho far north with Peary.
 Rain? It was just sluicing. with the rain coming down like flood falling through coarse meshed sieve. and Mrs. Logblinker had on all her finery. including her tall, wide pic. ture hat. with the high. dropping feathers.
 When we opened the front door I opened the umbrella and held tt over her while she gathered up some Of her warments under her waterproof. and while she glanced around herself to sec that she had got everything secure, and then we started; and when we had gone about 14 steps in that pouring rain and looked around at Mrs. Losblinker to mako sure that I was protecting her all right I was surprised to see that her towering hat, that had surmounted her head so jauntily when we s.arted. was now creeping slowly down over her fore head.
 Can't you see, Lucius.' said Mrs. Logblinker, that you are holding the umbrella right against my hat!'
 And could see it then, though I certainly had not seen it before, and % raised the umbrella to clear the back of the hat. I had been holding 1t low down, of course, you under stand, the better to protect her. So now l raised it, but I must have raised u too high, for in minute I heard a voice plaintively saying:
 Lucius. the rain is just pouring on the side of my hat
 So now I brought the umbrella down little and then presently I felt something tugging at the umbrella on the off side and Mrs. Logblinker says, with q touch of impaience now:
 My! You've got the umbrella caught in my hat!
 And 50 l had. But I disengaged it quickly, and then tried to hold 1t and keep it balanced so that 1t would just clear the big hat all around and yet come low enough down to afford the best protection.
 T can honestly say that I paid no attention whatever to my own clothes. l honestly didn't care about them; all wanted was to do the best I could for the lady by my side; and though it did strain every muscle In my hand and arm and body l thought was now making pretty good job of it, hut in . minute:
 My hat will be ruined I heard tho voice saying; and then I looked at the lady again. and raised the umbrella and lowered 1t and tilted 1t this way and that in e desperate ef. fort to make 1t serve its purpose, an impossible thing to do, am now per suaded, for nothing less than an um- brella IA feet wide at least would really shelter lady in . picture hat in . heavy rain like this.
 But tried hard. did the best I could. only to hear about ten sec. onds later:
 Don't you know how to hold an in tones actually peevish.
 Mrs. Logblinker peevish. actually peevish, and to me! Then she actual. ly drew away from me. out from un- der the umbrella, into the pouring rain!
 "Humbly, but quickly, hastened to her side again. to protect her. and the other two blocks we had to 60 to get the car we moved in silence. with me doing the best could; and when we got inside the car and got settled down . little. where 1t was dry, she did smile on me again.
 But I can tell you one thing: don't shy at difhcult jobs, and we are pretty poor; but the next time Mrs. Logblinker and go abroad on a rainy night we takes . barouche if 1t busts us"