Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-27
Around the CITY

rs nutshells made out of wood
momma?
Momma was too busy talking to the
woman with her to bother about the
cTumb of boy who was tagging at the
other side.
''alomma Is nutshelIs made out OF
wood?"
Momma descended from the heights of
really important gossip to give her son
a needed reprimand.
| For goodness sake. shut up. Didn't
| / tell you what I'd do IL you didn't stop
your everlasting fool questions? OF
course, they're not wood
Momma resumed her lofty occupation
! and the little boy sulked along-everybody
knows how a child looks when it gets
that sort of turn down. Then his in
| telligence asserted itself:
! Nuts grows on trees, and trees is
| wood. momma.
| Leaves grows on trees. too, but leaves
is somethin' sides wood. isn't they, NOM
MAJ"
| No report from the lady.
When trees is cut down they is planks,
! isn't they, momma?
IF you open your mouth again I'll
| box your head off. Shut up, will you?"
| Another sullen silence. Another idea
on the subject:
IF you plant nut won't tree come
up. unle.sn it's bush. momma?
AIOIIl-lfld. IL uutSIcllS 1911 NOou WI
is they, mOm-ma?
Momma's answer was jerk at the
child's hand as she turned with her
friend into a store.
And a woman who had been walking
behind said to hersef-having no blessed
small boy to say 1t to:
81 wonder If nutshells are made OF
wOod-or WHAT?
Anybody able to answer that question?
There iC this town
who is determined to educate her mother.
She was ice Dreaming IN department
store cafe the other afternoon while her
parent and another benighted woman
We're discussing the latter's fall.
II tripped up and fell spra wiling be-
fore l knew what l was about, AS luck
would have it L saved my bones. but my
shoulder pains something awful | guess
| muster wrenched 1t.
Certainly you wrenched it, repeated
the parent with a sympathy in a friends
downfall that was really fine to see
The young person paused with appraised
spoon to administer dose of knowledge
You mustn't say wrenched, ma. You
must always say rinsed.''
And ma said to her companion in ig-
norance: said it with pride that would
have been ridiculous except that it was
touching:
You have TO be mighty careful what
YOU say these days when the children get
high up in their learnin'-don't your
Look at the Mayfowers"
The words were breath of the spring
They made q woman who was looking
out of the car window at bare trees and
icy streets think of sappy green things
and smelly loan and dogwood bios
SONS
Awful cute, aren't they?'
MayfOWerS are not usually classed in
,, that term of endearment, SO the woman
turned from the window to the young
girl who had voiced the exclamation
She was pretty. slim girl. and her
companion was of the same big-ha tied,
fur-open-to -shOw-a-lace blouse type Both
were staring with an admiration. openly
ardent. at the passengers banked on the
rear platform. Then the woman knew.
The men fronting the glass wore heavy
REFER jackets and sailor hats, on each of
which was lettered 'MayfiOwer.''
They were young enough to have red
cheeks. and eyes as fresh and sparkling
as tie water they followed by trade.
And they laughed with joyousness that
showed beautifully strong white teeth
AS the girls watched and smiled and
possibly. hoped for the Irritation which
failed to materialize. the three Mayfow-
ers came to point where they Shout
dered huge rolls Of bunting that had been
patriotic decorations the day before for
some her-of-his-country celebration
and jumped lightly to the street. And as
the girls craned their necks to watch
them going along John Marshall place
the one WHO lau HOl spoken remarked,
with an originality that was startling:
.'Ch. huh: they certainly are cute
But the Maynowers were not cute.
Really They would have battered down
any man who called them so.
Then the woman who had been looking
out at the way February was going on
turned again to watch the bare trees and
Icy streets, but she did not, somehow,
notice them.
She was seeing May fiowers-the kind
that grow In the woods.