The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-19

closer to art than I'd ever been before
or am like to get again. Now, 1 didn't
hunt her up. nor she didn't come gun
min for me. 1t was a case of runnin'
down signals and coilidin' on the stair
landin': me maxim a grand rush out
of the studio for a cross town car. and
she Just gettin' her wind fore she
tackled the next flight.
Not that hit her SO hard; but it was
enough to spill the paper bundles she
has piled up on one arm and start 'em
bouncin' down the iron steps. First
comes a loaf of bread, next a bottle of
pickles, that goes to the bad the third
hop: and exhibit G was one of these 10
cent dishes of baked beans-the pale
kind. that look like they'd floated in
with the tide. Course, that dinky tin
pan they was In don't land fiat. 1t
slips out of the bag as slick as II II
was creased, stands up on edge. and
rolls all the way down. diStributin' the
mess from top to bottom. as even as if
II was laid on with a brush.
MY luncheon says she, in regular
me-che-e-ild voice.
"Lunch!" says I. That's what I'd
call a spread. This ones on the house,
but the next one will be on me. Will
tomorrow do?"
Sorry" says I, but I'm runnin' be-
hind SEIZED. now. What's the name,
6lIiss?"
&C. A Better. top floor" says she,
fbut don't mind about"
tTrhat's all right, too" says I. skip
PIN down over the broken glass and
puntin' the scent white through the
door for a goal.
It's little things like that, though.
that keeps n man from forgettin' how
he was brought up. I'm ready enough
with some cheap jolly, but when ii
comes 20 THROWN in a beg pardon"
at the right place I'm a late conner. l
thinks OF 'em sometime next day.
Course. / tries TO get even by order
in four-pound steak. with mushroom
trimmin's. sent around from the hotel
on the corner; but l couldn't get over
thinkin' how disappointed she looked
when she saw that pan of beans dom,
the pinwheel act. I know I've seen the
time when a plate of portland in my
fist would have been worth all the
turkey futures you could stack in
{ barn, and maybe il was that way with
her.
Anyway. she didn't die OF it, for a
couple of days later she knocks easy on
the studio door and gets her head in far
enough TO say how nice it was of me
to send her that lovely steak.
Forget it," says I.
Never" says she. Tn going to do
bas relief of you in memory Of it,
"A-barrel which," says l.
Honest. I want within a mile of
bein' next. II comes out that she does
sculpturin'. and wants TO make a kind
of embossed picture of me in plaster OF
paris, like what the peddlers with gold
rings in their ears sell around on va
cant stoops.
Pd look fine on a panel, wouldn't II"
says I. Much obliged. miss. but sittin'
for my half-tone is where 1 draws the
line. I'll lend you Swiftly Joe, though"
She aln't acquainted with the only
registered assistant professor of physi-
cal culture in the country, but she says
II he don't mind she'll try her hand on
him first. and then maybe I'll let her
do one of me. Now. you'd thought
swiftly with that before takin' mug of
his. would have hid in the cellar fore
he'd let anybody make a cast of it:
| but when the proposition is sprung,
u he's as pleased as if il was for the
~front page of FoX's pink.
That was what fetched me up TO that
seven by nine point of hers. next the
roof. to have look at what she'd done
10 Swiftly Joe. He tows me up there.
And say. blamed If She hadn't got him
10 the life, broken nose. ingrowin' fore
head, whopper jaw and all,
How about it?" says joe GRIMM
at me as proud as If he'd broke into the
Fordham Heights Hall of Fame.
Il never see anything handscmer-of
the kind" says ].
Then I got to askin' questions about
the sculpturin' business, and how the
market was; so Miss Better and me
gets more or less acquainted. She was
"A meek, slimpsy little thing, with big.
hungry lookin' eyes. and double hank
of cinnamon cOlOred hair that 1 should
\ have thought would have made her
\ neck ache to carry around.
> eJudgin' by the outfit in her ranch the
sculp game amt one that brings in sa-
declined coats and such knickknacks.
There was a bed couch in one corner,
a single burner gas stove on an up
ended truck in another. and chunks of
clay all over the place. Light house
keepin and art don't seem 10 mix very
well. Maybe they're just as tasty, but
I'd as soon have my eggs cooked in a
fryin' pan that hadn't been used for a
mortar bed.
We passed the time of day regular
after that. and now and then she'd
drop into the front Office to show me
some piece she'd made. l finds out that
the c. A. in her name stands for Cor
nelia Ann: so I drops the Miss Better
and calls her that.
Father always calls me that too"
says she.
''Yes?" says I.
That leads up To the story of how the
old folks out in Minnekeegan have been
backin' her for two years stab at art
in a big city. Seems II has been an
awful drain on the family gold reserve
and none of 'em took any stock in such
foolishness anyway. but she'd tollied
'em into lettin her have n show to
make good. and now the time was
about up.
"Wel." says 1, you amt all in. are
you?"
Her under lip starts to pucker up at
that. and them hungry eyes gets fogSy:
but she takes a new grip on herself
makes a bluff at GRIMM, and says
throaty like, It's no use pretending
any longer" says she. Tim fail
u-er'
~ Say. that makes me feel like an ice
cream sign I'm blizzard. ! hadn't been
lookin' to dig up any private heart
throbs like that But there IT was. So
] starts in to cheer her up the best l
knew how.
Course" says I. ITS a line
touldn't shake nickel out OF in year;
brt If II suited me. and thought l was
onto my job, 10 make 1t yield the coin
or go good and hungry tryin'."