The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-06-24
SAGE AND
ROMANCE
BY Stuart q. Stone.

octave Of 1,4S3 pages of very fine
print the author of the great Ego
book had found a very great truth.
1t was on page LILY, and the great
truth was a sentence of SO words
averaging IL letters to the word, and
1t related to evolution, or devolution,
| never definitely learned which. You
see. 1t was really most astounding,
soul-satisfying truth, and 1t was no
wonder that the bookman glowed at
the discovery.
He was writing seven-syllabled
words about Huxley and the Cosmos
and the Indian Veda, when the door
to the room of books-and-books
opened and a fairy walked in. oh,
of course, it wasn't one of those
Goldilocks, Snowdrop fairies that
you cherished when you were inno-
cent, but ii was a fairy for sure
four years old, with the prettiest
brownish hair and eyes like the maids
on the life insurance calendars.
Dad" said the fairy, my mudder
wants you to come and go to the show
with us. Well have the bestest time"
The bookman, though, continued to
write great, deep biology stuff, so
that the fairy child piped her sum-
mons again and then again.
When the bookman finally under
stood he frowned and stamped his
foot. mo, indeed" he declared, 81
must finish my chapter on The Sig
nifcance of the Kink in Human
Hair
oh. dad, won't you go?"sthe little
one pleaded. There will be tigers
and kings"
But even a promise of tigers and
kings could not stir the clammy blood
of the man who wrote and the fairy
turned in disappointment yet fingered
unseen by the hearth. For the tiger
king show was a hard matter to give
up. I'll leave 1t to you.
The author sighed with relief, now
that the prattler was gone, and he
rolled up his sleeves for deeper wad-
ing in a stack of Egyptology books.
He would show the British museum
bunch trick or two in the Ego line
ali, that he would!
The biggest, latest Egyptology book
was on a very high shelf, and the au-
thor had recourse to his stepladder
to secure the heavy tome. A smaller
book dislodged itself and fell to the
/ floor with considerable clatter.
Dear mel" sighed the author;
what great bothers there are in life"
He stopped to secure the little book,
! Il IL, 4 .
was of green, so that the author could
not help but see and read the foolish
words: Lord Durhams Beautiful
Sweetheart" The sickly sentimental
fly of it all irritated the man of sci
ence
rubbish-absolute idiocy-"
he grunted. How in the world
did such clap-trap get in here?'
The front cover fell back, and the
ecientist could not get away from the
inscription on the fly leaf:
ITO Arthur, from Evelyn"
1t was the gift of his bride of the
Z happy, happy days.
Whats this?" frowned the author,
and he sat in a leather chair and fell
Lord Durham found a pearl of price in
a cottage by the sea and the Pearl
loved dearly, and finally of how a ty-
rant fate put the lord in a very high
place and the poor little Pearl was
left to cry out her heart. 1t was a
moving tale.
The philosopher read on into Chap
ter ", where he attended a fashion
able ball, and in the fifth chapter he
learned of young things kissing. Here
he sighed a real Lord Durham sigh,
utterly different from the Egyptology
sigh of a wee bit back.
"Ill declare" he murmured, when,
after awhile, he looked away from the
love tale. Il was once something like
this myself"
The fairy-kid, lettering desperately
by the open fire, thought she saw a
change-a curious softening in her
fossil parent So she asked again:
Dad, let's go to see the pretty
show?"
The author looked at Egypt and
Veda and Darwin on the table; then
he looked at the pinkish tot by the
fire, and once again he sighed-an-
other Lord Durham sigh.
Tell your mother to get ready" he
announced.
The fairy whooped and bounded
away.
And here's a quarter for peanuts
and popcorn" the author of the eau
casian Ego shouted after.
Then the wise author followed The
fairy, but he first took long, inger
ing gaze at the stack of dreadful Egyp
[ a-.I-. LII al A..