Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-17
THE EVENING STORY.
The Spilled Milk Cow.
BY ALBERT NJ. TREYNoR.


If you had seen the picture you really
wouldn't have blamed Mr.. Todd. The ar
fist had painted meadow and some
trees with brook in the foreground and
a cow in wading The scene was used to
impart a real pastoral flavor to a butter
advertisement in a Wilson avenue ele-
waited coach.
You've heard Of men falling in love
with women's photographs. Mr.. TODD
was even more imaginative. He lost his
head over the COW. the meadow, and the
brook. The advertisement. in this in
stance, had overreached it's purpose. In
stead of just hungering for a pound of
some ones celebrated butter he yearned
for the entire dairy farm, brook, COW
and ALL
1t was such a muggy and fetid after
noon Through the opened windows en-
tered the pungent reek of insanitary back
yards. In the coach the air felt like the
hot. wet towel your barber slaps across
your face. Tired, adhesive-loolking pas
seats and lurched into each other at the
station stops; and of them all Mr.. Todd
was the most unhappy
In the picture the cow looked SO COM
fortably cool and contented. Mr.. Todd
tried to fancy himself wading knee deep
in a babbling brook. Then he thought Of
the musty provision store down town
where he had just finished a ten-hour
working day; of the fve-room fiat on
Winchester avenue in which he would
spend another troubled and sleepless
night. Again his mind reverted to the
sweet scented pasture-as distant and in
accessible as Eden. He could almost hear
the water gurgling-
Belmont! Change for Ravenswood!
beloved the train guard. Mr.. Todd, with
a lingering last glance at the enhancing
advertisement, stumbled out Of the train
and followed the painting file of passen-
gers down the hot steps to the street.
That evening, after little Mrs. Todd
had stacked the supper dishes in the
kitchen sink and hung out the yellow ice
card, Mr.. Todd removed his shoes and
dragged two chairs to the pack porch
He sat down and put his stockinged feet
on the rail. Mrs. Todd joined him while
he was lighting his pipe. Other tenants
of the building were beginning to lug
chairs outside with a musketry of Slam
ming back doors. Some one in the next
block began desultory rehearsal on a
cornet. The family below started brisk
discussion of the weather with the fam
lily across the court. Behind the nefghbor-
ing chimneys the malevolent sun sank
from view.
I'm darned sick of this city,, growled
Mr.. Todd.
THE city'd be all right If it wasn't
for the soot,'' Mrs. Todd retorted. THE
factories in this neighborhood are get
ting to be a nuisance. I've got to wash
the curtains again.
There wouldn't be any SCOT on dairy
farm suggested Todd, with a sidewise
glance at his wife.
Mrs. Todd vouchsafed no reply. She
| unpinned her apron and gazed listlessly
at the pink sky above the jagged out
line of house tops.
Did you ever swash your knees in
cold, running water?" inquired Mr.. Todd,
! irreleyantly.
"Swash my knees? What are you
thinking of" demanded Mrs. Todd;
"Oh. nothing, only" He tapped the
bowl of his pipe AGAINST the porch rail
and a tired smile crossed his face. Moth
wading in creek. The best thing I can
remember is going barefoot in the gutter
when it rained 1 wish we lived in the
country"
| $50 I'd have to milk rejoined the
| woman. And trim lamps and tend to a
wood stove. 1 used to live on a farm
| But the air would be cool and sweet
| and there'd be no Soot." urged Todd
| hopefully.
1.-The dirt here wouldn't bother me-"
| flashed Mrs. Todd. IF we could keep a
maid"
| II thought you sod last week, when
you bought that new carpet sweeper, that
| you could get along without maid.
II guess I'll have to-" snapped Mrs.
| Todd.
| After an enervating night of wake
| fulness Mr.. Todd rode to work in the
coach with the butter advertisement.
| The cow In the bubbly brook induced