Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-12
in an awful hurry.

dinner leftovers TO take for lunch in
the auto. for we are going way out to !
WAYNE county to see some nwfully
fine tobacco he has heard is there. |
don't want to ask mother, for she
won't let me GO. and his mother. if he
asked her, will begin to talk about us
Tom said come to you and you would
understand and fix 1t quick. He said
kiss you for him and tell you he said
Come on in. the waters 6ne.' Isn't
he a ioke?" And we kissed and laugh
ed and packed a basket, and kissed
and laughed again for goodby. | felt
amused and happy for few minutes
and also deserted. It's a very good
thing for a woman's conceit to find out
how many of her lovers are just make
believes. I may have needed Toms
detection.
Anyway, I don't know when I ever
was so glad to see anybody as ! was
when Mrs. Johnson came in the front
door, A woman who has proved to
her own satisfaction that marriage Is
a failure is at times great tonic to
other women. I needed a tonic badly
this morning. and l got it
well, from all my long experience,
Molly" she said as she seated herself
and began to hem a dish towel with
long. steady stabs, Husbands are just
stick candy in different jars. They
may look little different, but they all
taste alike and you soon get tired OF
them. In two months you won't know
! the difference in being married to Al
Bennett and Mr. Carter and you'll have
to go on living with him maybe fifty
! years. Luck doesn't strike twice in
the same place and you can't count on
| losing TWO husbands. AIS father was
| Mr.. Johnson's first cousin and had
more crochets and worse. He had ST.
| lent spells that lasted a week and
| family prayers three times a day,
though he got drunk twice year for a
month at a time. Al looks very much
! like him"
"Mrs. Johnson" said after a min
| ute's silence. while | had decided
whether or not | had better tell her
| all about it Qf a woman's in love
| with her husband you can't trust her
to keep a secret, but l decided to try
Mrs Johnson, 81 really am not en-
gagged exactly to Alfred Bennett,
though suppose he thinks so by now
If he has got the answer to that tele-
| gram. But-but something has made
me-made me think about Judge Wade
| that is. he-what do you think of
him, Mrs. JohnsonT l concluded in
the most pitifully perplexed tone OF
voice.
"All alike. Molly; all as much alike
as peas in a pod: all except John
Moore, who's the only exception in all
the male tribe | ever met! His marry
ing. once was just accidental and must
be forgiven him. She fell in love with
him while he was treating her for ty
phoid, when his back was turned, as it
were, and it was Gods own kindness
in him that made him marry her when
he found out how 1t was with the poor
thing. There's not a woman in this
town who could marry, that wouldn't
marry him at the drop of his hat: but
thank goodness. that hat will never
drop and I'll have one sensible man to
comfort and doctor me down into my
old age. Now, Just look at that. MI
Johnson's come home here in the mid
Gle OF the morning and III have to get
that old paper hunted out OF. his desk
for him last night | wonder how he
came to forget il" It's funny how
Mrs. Johnson always knows what Mr..
Johnson wants before he knows him
self and gets it before he asks for it!
AS she went out the gate the post
man came ia, and at the sight of an
other letter my heart again skunk off
into my slippers and my brain seemed
| about to back up in a corner and re-
fuse to work. in a fash it came to me
that men oughtnt to write letters to
women very much-they really don't
pillow deep enough: they Just irritate
the top soil. l took this missive from
Alfred. counted all the fifteen pages.
put 1t out of sight under a book, looked
out the window and saw the ginger
barber coming dejectedy around to
the side gate from the kitchen-I knew
the scene he had had with Judy about
the bottle encounters of the night be-
fore-saw Mr.. Johnson shooed off
down the street by Mrs. Johnson; saw
the doctors car go chucking hurriedly
IN the garage, and then my spirit turn
ed itself 70 the wall and refused to he
comforted. l tried my best, bat failed
TO respond to my own remonstrances
with myself. and tears were slowly
gathering in a cloud Of gloom when a
blue Bingham. rompers clad sunbeam
burst into the room.
cit your nightgown and your tooth
bresh quick. Molly, If you want TO
pack 'em in my trunk he exclaimed.
with his eyes dancing and curl stand
ing straight up on the top Of his head
as 1t has a habit Of doing when he is
most excited. You can't take nothing
but them cause I'm going TO put in a
rope to tie the whale with when
ketch him. and it'll take up all the rest
of the room. Get 'em quickr'
Yes. lover. I'll get them for you
But tell Molly where il is you are going
to sail of with her in that trunk Of
yOursT" asked. dropping into the game
as 1 have always done with him. no
matter what game of my own pressed
when he called.
'"On the ocean where the boats go
cross and run right over a whale.
Don't you remember yon showed me
l Nhar nj %