The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-09
THE EVENING STORY
Two Old Pokes.
(Rv CLYDE Iohnson.l

| bors.' observed Mr.. Rathbone, the
] broker. as he showed his chair
back from the dinner table one even
ing after his return from the city.
DO you mean that someone has
taken the Smith placer" asked the
wife.
yes, an insurance man named
Franklin. Nice family. Leased it for
five years. Going to move in next week.
Glad of it,"
81 don't know whether I am or
not" said Miss Nellie, the daughter.
eff they are couple of pokes the
house might as well stand empty"
| 81 know they have no daughter
"Of course not. If they had she'd
be just as disagreeable as she could:
Just two old pokes. and L did
| hope
| 'Weu?'
That they wouldn't be pokes. I
| just know how it will be. They'll
wander over here of an evening, and
| he and you will sit and smoke and
talk politics, and she and mamma will
and where'll I come in? Do you
know, Dad Rathbone, there isn't a
| young man worth cat meat within
three miles of this old country
house?"
ooh, see." replied the father. 'rYou
are thinking of matrimony instead Of
practicing your music"
1--WE banged till I'm sick of it.
do wish there was young man
around here 1 could make eyes at. I
was almost a-mind to f1irt with one
going by in an auto this afternoon
Poor grill Well, I guess I'll tell
you the rest of the story. Those two
old pokes, as you call them, have
son.
"And he's years old and lisps?"
Hes % or whereabouts and speaks
straight from the shoulder. He's
sculptor, 1 believe, been working on
statue for the last three years"
well, he's got tousled hair, is al
WAYS looking into the clouds and can't
tell handsome girl from homely
one. know the kind"
''Guess you don't" smiled the IA
Their, REX Franklin is right up to
date. Talks well, dresses well. and
no pretty girls get away from him. I
expect to have him for son-in-law
within a year. Always hoped you'd
marry a sculptor SO that your mother
and could be done in marble. He's
going to come and go on the train, and
of course shall meet him and speak
a good word for you"
Thanks, muchly. He'll run after
look at him twice"
The Franklins moved in. They
didn't look like pokes after ali, and
Miss Nellie felt encouraged. She was
not peepfng out of the front windows
morning and evening for a sight of
that young man, or wondering what
sort of a bait to use to trap him. She
just wanted to know that there was
an eligible parti around in case she
wanted to go fishing. He might be
all her father said, and yet she would
not like him. He would have disagree
able traits.
Three weeks had passed and Rex
Franklin hadn't been even sighted
from distance. He was to drop in
some evening with his parents in re-
turn for a call. 1t was so said, and
Miss Nellie took care have on her
prettiest gown every evening, but not
on his account-no, sirt Just because
she felt like dressing up bit. She
practiced the airs of two or three songs
in harmony with her voice, but that
had nothing to do with his coming.
She just liked to hear her own voice.
And on a certain morning Miss Nell |
sorts with the world. She fell out of
bed instead of hopping out like
cricket. Then her hair tangled as she
brushed it. Then she found that her
powder rag had been chewed up by
her Boston bulldog, and about half a |
dozen things had gone wrong when |
she tripped as she was going down to |
breakfast and rolled clear down to the |
and singularly enough she said most |
of them about the new young man |
next door. He was a ninny; he was |
no sculptor; he was homeIy and awk- |
ward: If he ever dared call she
would make him look small.
If Rex Franklin had known this he /
would have Numbered back a mol" |
when his mother asked him to use /
hammer and a nail to secure a shelf. |
The hammer was broken, but at her
suggestion he gaily trotted over to the
Rathbone house. He would see the
hired man only. And right there was
the turning point of his life.
Miss Nellie had found the oatmeal
underdone and the coffee muddy, and |
had laid both at the door of the new
young man, when she started out to
1or
flock of them, and the feeding took
place twice day. Poised over her
head like an aviator on his way from
New York to st. Louis, was a hen
hawk Although a henhaYk. he was
not averse to dining on a dove now
and then for change. He had been
maneuverfng for ten minutes for POSI-
ton, and it was when the feeding
wings and dropped to gobble one in
each claw.
The henhawk seldom gets off in his
calculations, but this one made bad
error. He came on Miss Nellie Rath-
bones head. Her hair was coiled up,
and he got his taions entangled and
couldn't release them. Scream Why,
they heard her half mile away!
Cavort? Why a colt couldn't have
beaten her gallop around the yard!
The hawk clawed and pecked, and the
girl yelled and danced, and, of course,
Providence seized upon that very min
ute to lead forward the new young
man. He had never seen chicken
hawk trying to carry off a 125-pound
girl before, but he was equal to the
occasion. He grabbed the bird and
choked its life out and then released
the tangle.
With a morning dress on that
wasn't a bit pretty-with her chestnut
hair full of kinks and knots and flow
ing down to her kneesHwith her heart
beating with fright and one ear bleed
ing from bite, why-why, anyone
er=v, ire ~ foI<
She made three jumps for the kitchen
door and was out of sight. And the