Evening star., 1907-08-18

by the water pItCner, q pldte plleu IlSIl Will
bread and another plate of butter. When 1t
was found that there were not enough chairs to
go round one of the COuChes was drawn up
longsde the table and three girls sat on 1t
in row
"The stew was finally brought in, in the
kettle in which it had been made, and set on a
side table, from which Margie served 1t and
the green peas with large pewter spoons. L
must say never had an idea that such stew
could be made. | comphmented Margle on
having become famous cook, as heartily as
did the others.
"Suddenlv, however, cry went up for the
picked onions, which. it seemed, had been
forgotten. At home Marge had never been
allowed to eat onions; but now she produced
a large bottle of these dehcacies, and l man
aged to extract the cork for her with knife.
Then it was discovered that all the forks were
in use, and there was nothing with which to
fish the onions from the bottle.
Never mind. I'll show You how, said
Alice. She went to the couch where her wraps
lay, and returned with "a long hat pin. With
this, having first duly wiped it on corner OF
the paper cloth, she proceeded to spear the
pickles This remember, was demure looking
sweet Alice with the Madonna like expression.
| tell you, | was positively sick!
We'll YOU may laugh, old man. lou dldn
have to eat those onions.
Did |? | did. When the girls noticed
my evident disgust, they voted me proud, and
decided that my education had been neglected,
or that | would certainly know enough to
relish onions And Alice herself pressed one
to my lips. while Margie held my head firmly
from behind l might have put up a flrmer
resistance; but Sylvia leaned suddenly tor
ward-I am convinced, with the intention OF
opening my mouth by the good old fashioned
method of catching hold of my nose; but |
anticipated her and swallowed the onion.
was obliged to eat three.
Il am glad you find it so amusing! l did
lie 4 |
myself; and when Margie announced after
the stew was finished that the plates and
things must be washed for the salad l obl1g-
ingly piled everything on a tray and carried
it behind the scenes for the operation. The
girls made great fun of washing the dishes /;
fruit salad, and large cups OF coffee with real
cream in it.
Il was afraid of being voted proud again
if | refused the coffee so | drank 1t without
comment from d blue and white cup with
little Ceestials circling it, which rested on
a saucer with design of fans in bright reds
and yellows.
when the feast was over, however, and
most of the girls were around the piano sing
ing, managed to get Margie alone on VIM
dow seat. | tried to be as nice as possible
about it. | said that | knew 1t wasn't her
fault in anyway, except that she should have
let us know how hard up she was. But OF
course, | explained, this sort OF thing would
never do. | should write home, and mother
would gladly send on enough to enable her
to get away from associations OF this sort
and go into some really well kept boarding
house.
And instead of thanking me, that girl sat
there and laughed and laughed. Bob dear,
YOU certainly must trv to cultivate sense OF
hunor!' she said finally. Do you know,
we've all been enjoying ourselves immensely
this evening, just watching your face. Poor
Bob! You didn't see the fun in it little bit,
81 did not replied decidedly. l fail to
perceive any fun in beholding a member, of
ones family dragging along in such wretched
poverty as this
AT that Margie threw back her head and
broke into a peal of laughter that attracted
the attention of every other girl in the room
And do You know, she sprang up and repeated
to them what | had said
"Confound it | was horribly mortified! |
wouldn't have believed that Margie would have
PLAYED me a trick like that. | must say,
though these girls were awfully nice and jolly
about it. They tried TO impress me with the
fact that Margie and Sylvia We're the luckiest
of mortals to have a studio like that with a
place to cook and piano. That wasn't pov-
erty III New Works Bohemia. No, indeed
not by any means!
And when | was going they all insisted
upon shaking hands with me, and asked me
to come again, often and they would take
to a welsh rabbit party in a hall room,
and get up a real Bohemian cakewalk in my
honor, and do all sorts of things to help me
develop that true sense of humor. There was
no good irving q make them understand.