The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-18

1 the children's got their feet on the
 ground You paid up the grocery last
 week, didn't you?"
 Joe nodded a dripping head
 Well. I'll jes' git yer money outen yer
 coat while I think about it." she went on
 as she rummaged in his pocket and
 brought out s9.
 "Leave me a quarter" demanded Joe, gasping beneath his soapsuds.
 "All right" said Mrs. Ridder accom- modatingly: 'now that Bob and Ike are | gittin 50 cents day 1t aint so hard to make out. I'll begittin' a new dress first thing you know"
 q seen one up at the corneri' said Joe,
 "A new dress?"
 Nav, a dressmaker. She's done got out her sign"
 'What's her name?" asked Mrs. Rid der. keen with interest.
 Mrs R. Beaver, Modiste," repeated Joe from the sign that hoated in letters of gold in his memory.
 q knowed a Mrs. Beaver onct, up on Eleventh street; big fat woman that got in a fuss with her preacher and smacked his jaws"
 'sDid she have any children?" asked , Joe.
 Seems like there was one, pretty lit- tie tow-headed girl"
 That's her." announced Joe conclusive ly. What was her name?' 'Lawsee, I don't know, I never would "a ricolected Mrs. Beaver 'cepten she was such tarnashious woman always a. tearin' up stumps and never happy lessen she was rippitin' bout somethin'. What you want? A needle and thread to mend your coat? Why, what struck you? You been wearin' it that way for a month. You better leave 1t be till I git time to fix it."
 But Joe had determined to work out the salvation of his own wardrobe. Late in the evening, after the family had re- tired, he sat before the stove with back bumped and knees drawn up trying to coax coarse thread through a small needle. Surely no rich man need have any fear about entering the kingdom of heaven since Joe Ridder managed to get that particular thread through the eye of that particular needle But when a boy Is put at a work bench at F years of age and does the same thing day in and day out for seven long years, he may have lost all of the things that youth holds dear, but one thing he Is apt to have learned, a dogged, plod- ding, unquestioning patience that shoves silently along at the appointed task until the work is done. By midnight all the rents were mended and large new patch adorned each el- bow. The patches, to be sure, were blue and the coat was black, but the stitches were set with mechanical regularity. Joe i strengthened his aching shoulders and held the garment at arms length with a smile. It was his first votve offering at the shrine of love.
 The effect of Joes efforts was prompt and satisfactory. The next day being Sunday he spent the major part of it in passing and requesting the house on the corner, only going home between times to remove the mud from his shoes and give an extra brush to his hair. The girl meanwhile was devoting her day to sweeping off the front pavement, scant three feet of pathway from her steps to the wooden gate. Every time Joe passed she looked up and smiled, and every time she smiled Joe suffered all the symptoms of locomotor ataxia By afternoon his emotional nature had reached the saturation point. Without any conscious volition on his part his feet carried him to the gate and refused to cary him further. His voice then decided to speak for itself, and in strange. hollow tones he heard himself saying. say, do you want to go to the show with me?"
 Sure said the pink rascinator. ''When?"
 q don't keer," said Joe. too much em- barrassed to remember the days of the week.
 "Tomorrow night?" prompted the girl.
 "I don't keer," said Joe, and the con- versation seeming to languish he moved on.
 After countless cons of time the next night arrived. It found Joe and his girl cozily squeezed in between two fat wo- men III the salery oi .ho | Sop'o si@ tre. Joe had to sit sideways and double his feet up, but he would willingly have endured a rack of torture for the privil- ege of looking down upon the fluffy blond pompadour under its large bow and of re- ceiving the sparkling glances that were flashed up at him from time to time. q ain't ever gone with a feller that I didn't know his name before~ she con-