Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-18
SHE WAS SERIOUS;
He so FRIVOLOUS
MAIDEN TRIES TO GAIN AN EDu-
CATION
Sensible Converse Ensues for Ten
Minutes and Then "Tootsie"
Comes Back to Her
Old Self

| ity, and the tone of his voice was such
| that YOU could have sugared your tea
with it, but as he stood there-hls eur
bent forward to catch her usual piay1ul
answer and his eye all ready TO 1east
upon her customary look of loVe-put
as he stood there, [ repeat, she pre-
served a silence and all the conVentoh-
alities, and the shadow of nameless
dread hovered sover his imploring couh-
tenance.
Good evening"" she said. -
Good EVENING"" he demanded, with
dropping jaw.
YES" she said.
Good evening?" he repeated. You
say Good evening" Edna? a?'-the nao-
bergasted man!
DO you think it will rain?" she SAID.
"Rain?" he cried, and that nameless
dread ceased to hover and settled ooWn
forthwith. RAIN First you say
Good evening" and then you ask a,, me ,1asl -
ii will rain," and making terrible ges-
ture of despairing determination ne
strobe toward her.
'Edna!o he said, what is it that has
come between us? You must ten me!
Oh, what horrible, horrible mistake IS
this that"
John" she said, "hush!' ,,,..
"Ah!" he breathed to the nlght. ohe
calls me 'John'!"
And he sought to take her little hand
as though it were all right now. :,
why, of course l call you 'John'
she said, keeping her hands to hersel'
John, stop! / want to have serious
talk with you" It.
"Serious?" said John, pausing in his
endeayors and slowly sitting back Win
worried, worried look between ms
ears. .>- roh,
listen our conversation has been too
| frivolous lately-Oh awfully frivolous
Light you know. John, and nothlng 70
it /" John made an eagerly dlsse4liIls
motion with his elboWs). mo. Jonh,
really. there has been nothing to it
and life is passing. John. We must
talk of things more instructive; you
must teach me and | must teach you
il I can. There are so many thlngs
we could talk about. John, instead Oh
those-those awfully frivolous thlngs'
There's the Panama canal was read
ing about it all morning. why, John,
i1's lust wonderful. And then there's
Mars and the fleet and the currency
John, you must tell me all ABOUT the
currency question-and there's the
Philippines and Tibet and the shah,
and earthquakes, and, o. ever SO many
things! So let's be sensible from now
on and not waste our time like we
have DONE Now, tonight, John, sup
nose we talk about derelicts."
"Derelicts?' gasped John. "Dere-
licts?"
"Yes; ocean derelicts-I was reading
about them all afternoon. john; dld
you know that a computation M mace by ps
the hydro graphic office" (sne
coughed with pride) "shows that 1928
eerelicts were sighted upon the north
Atlantic ocean within period OF seven
years?"
John said nothing.
YES" she answered. land inasmuch
as the average term of survival for
derelict is one month, it is estimated
that at least nineteen must be con-
stantly floating over the north Atlantic
ocean,"
John sighed.
John" she said, "there are more
derelcts sighted during September, oc-
tober and November than during any
other months of the year."
Are there?" said John.
yes" she said; land here's funny
thing-I mean d strange thing. Here's
a strange thing John: The pilot charts
show that most of the derelicts have
been sighted in the gulf stream"
John got up and walked to the Win
dow.
"Why," she said. lone derelict is
known to Lave fioated three years ana
six days. and to have drifted over 10000
miles. She was abandoned off Cape
Hatteras, John, and fioated in a north
easterly direction with the gulf
stream
Catching her eye, John gave her such
pleading look that for moment her
voice faltered, but she continued new
ertheless:
"This derelict then wandered off to-
ward the southeast and circled around
in the track of steamships westbound
from (1ihraltar-"
He came back from the window and
stood beside her.
Next she wandered south until she
reached the northern limit of the north
east trade winds"
Signing bitterly, he walked away
again. ,....,o,.
of the sailing route from the equator,
she continued with a catch in her voice.
"anproaching the United States coast
until she encountered the gulf stream,
being reported in all about forty-fVe
times" ,,-
! looked at her.
"Prof. Waters tells about another snip
that was cut in two as the result of a
| collision" she lent on, avoiding MS
| glance and trying to harden her voice,
8but she did not sink. The stern went
north; the bow went south
"Poor bowl" he said. went sou1h'
did he?"
"rhe bow went SOUTH" she repeated
''The stern brought up on Wells peach,
and the bow drifted on down oppoSl.e
the Carolinas. 1t is propapie
that the stern was Influenced more by
the wind and less by the current.
than was the bow.
She hesitated, paused, stopped, anu
in that moment the great l1ght shoIle
for her and the great voice spoke TO
her. For the first time she UNDERSTOOD
why men go down to the sea in sh1ps'
why canals are built, why the cannon
roar. why man goes forth at the cali
| of duty springng. She gave John the
glance that his eyes had hungered Tor,
and all at once Johns face was SHINING
| like a sunburst.
"Ah?" he said, returning to his first
greeting. "Ah there?"
TO which she made learned reply
"I see you!"
John turned his head for a moment
to hide his happiness and then looked
at her again, his eye sparkling with a
certain roguishness and his manner
full of a certain whimsicality, as ne re-
marked
| "Toot-sie!"
And her answering echo softly smote
the air. indescribably wise, indescrlp-
ably deep and indescribably educa-
tional: "Woot-sic!'-N York Even
ing Sun.