Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-08

PLAIN little garden herb called Honesty
clear as the daylight in which it bloomed;
no hocuspocus. She just spoke out, and
sooner or later the thing bore fruit.
I DON'T see," she said one day to him,
1 "what Mothers going to do"
Going to do?" inquired the bachelor.
"Well,' she explained, "it's all right now,
of course, while / am young; but I'm seven
already. And when | marry"
3Oh,' said the bachelor, "your mother
will live with you, of course"
Barbara shook her head sadly. THAT S
just it. She won't"
WON'T"
mo. She doesn't believe in old folks in
terfering with young folks. heard her say
so. But it's dreadful, isn't it, to think of
her living all alone?"
Him. said the bachelor. "You don't
suppose, now, that you could-give up being
married he sake?"
"Well that's just as bad. Then he'd be
all alone. Somebody, you see, would be all
alone-whichever way"
Frelinghuysen stared. "That's so" he
said.
"And you know how it is yourself, Bar
bara reminded him.
Frelinghuysen nodded. Said he,' II do"
and looked very grave.
"The only way that can see," Barbara
continued thoughtfully, @would be for Mama
toget married first; but that impossible:
"Impossible!" cried Frelinghuysen. lust
just how do you ean-impossible?"
"Why,' said Barbara, nobody wants to
marry a woman with child, you know"
The bachelor was dumb.
"I've heard two people say that Bar
bara explained, Mrs. Lloyd and Mrs. Par
IRISH, while they were waiting for. Mama to
come down. And when they went asked
Mama if twas so; and she said that little
girls shouldn't bother their heads about such
things"
"Now 1 should think the bachelor re-
marked deliberately and very guardedly,-
IL should think that it would make great
difference who the child was; whether it was
a-nice child
"Am 1 a nice child" Barbara inquired.
@Of course!7 said Frelinghuysen.
Barbara smiled. Il must tell that to
Mama" she said happily. al think we
ought always to tell the bright things to
folks. don't your
@Hah!' said Frelinghuysen, gasping for
an answer. @I-hum- well-just SOL"
"He was awful funny" Barbara told her
mother afterward. "He went like this,
Mama, 'Hah-hum- well-just SOL"
Il Was d WcCk DClOiS IIlc DdCutlOI IcCuIIcu
In the meantime he devoted himself ex-
clusively, as of old, to his books. They
were trustworthy They had never led him
into any mischief!-at least, never before;
for now something had gone wrong with
them.
1t was astonishing how impossible it
seemed for man to write book and leave
out love. This, of course, the bachelor had
observed before; but with this difference:
that whereas, before, the sentimental chap
tiers had been innocuous, there was seduc-
tive glamour now, even in their least artful
passages. They seemed suddenly to have
acquired significance and charm. And when
he came to think of tit was worthy of
note, a thing to be considered not thrust
aside in levity, or scorn; for the mere Stats
tics of it were important, that nearly all
the writers who had ever lived had made
this passion the fountain of life's bitterest
sorrows and fairest joys.
Now this was both pleasant and alarm
ing-though in what way he was concerned
in it, Frelinghuysen hardly dared to think.
1t would have been presumptuous. He was
conscious, however, of weight of unthought
things upon his mind. Just how it had got
there who was RESPONSIBLE and how long it