Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-03
THERE were two red houses in
Acraman's road which shout
darAd ZACH athar ,opaaartgaIl,,

"HERE were two red houses in
Acraman's road which shout
dered each other confidentially
and seemed on such manifestly at
fectionate terms that the notion of
their respective Inhabitants being
anything but bosom friends was sim
ply ridiculous.
The thought struck Dollabella Pow
ney quite forcibiy when she bought
one of these said houses, and made
her more eager than was her wont
(she was not curious by nature) TO
catch a glimpse of her next door
neighbor Oddly enough. II was quite
a fortnight after she had moved in
before she did so. and then the man
ner of her catching" was sadly at
variance with her customary tradi-
tons of dignity.
Consumed one May evening with a
desire to know something Of that
neighbours tastes and habits, she rose
on an inverted backing box which
she had placed against her garden
wall to take a furtive peep at the
adjacent premises. The neighbor.
curiously enough, chose that precise
spot and moment for a similar ma
neuver. Result. their noses all but
met. The neighbor said afterward
that he was training a Creeper, but
the denouement was, in any case, alb
surd. Dollabella shrieked.
Her backing box turned t-rtle at
the start she gave, and she nearly
sprained an ankle as she fell plump
into group of peonies. With a
cOuntenance the color of those fam
boyant blossoms. and tears of morti -
tication in her eyes, she scrambled up
and went matestically indoors, bang
ing the front door to ease her feel
ings. The neighbor-such is the de-
pravity Of man-laughed. After that
there was only one course open to
Dollabella--the next door neighbor
must be ignored-sent to Coventry
straciZed-crushed
1t was two months later, and the
sultry glory of a July evening took
the Guiding Cottagers" they
were irreverently cailed-into an al
most tropical embrace. Miss Powney
was very busy-a garden hose in one
hand and little black volume. with
a white whirligig on its cover, in the
other She appeared, between bouts
of watering, to be committing some
thing to memory.
The next door man was on a ladder.
He was chronically on ladders. Dol
labella had consulted her lawyer
brother as to the possibility of a
single woman getting an injunction
against people who perpetually
mounted heights and, under a pre-
text OF pruning. commanded other
peoples domains. Moreover he was
whistling and his whistling got upon
Dollabella's nerves. Whenever she
looked up she could see his straw
hat and a pair of big brown hands
busy among the young branches of a
mulberry tree-and the sight annoyed
her.
Fractures" said Dollabella to her
self, as she hosed a thirsty-iooking
Clump of carnations, ARE Of six kinds:
simple - compound 49, convex 49, con-
cave (no, that sounds nonsense)-
wait a minute"
She threw back her head and looked
to the sky for inspiration.
"Wheou-whe-ou went the man
next door.
"Simple-compound - implicated
ocntex-ah!"
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES"
Good heavens" cried Dollabelln,
and the little black book with the
shaken hand to the ground
A Crash.
Something had happened next door
something which included a splin-
tering sound and the too sudden con-
tact Of heavy body with Mother
Earth.
The whistling had ceased abruptly
in the middle of a bar; there was no
longer any sign of a straw hat and
clipping hands
Dollabella, listening in cold hor-
ror. heard two or three groans, and
then there was a CHASTITY silence.
Her heart thumped bard against
her ribs--her breath came in little
uncomfortable gasps.
It's an accident of some sort, "
she said addressing the flower oor-
ders. Now. what ought I to do?"
The hollyhocks and sweet williams
having no views on the subject she
did what common sense prompted.
The gardener, who came once a week
to NOV the grass and titivate the
garden generally, had left a pair %
snort steps Close dl HdHO. Sne I6tcheo
them and placed them against the
wall, and climbed to the top.
She was almost afraid to look, but
common sense gave her another prod,
and look she did; and, In looking
beheld a prone hgul which lay on
its back, presenting a very white
upturned face to the summer sky.
BY its side, also prone, was a
broken ladder.
AT first she really thought that the
whistling man next door was dead.
Her heart seemed to turn somer-
sault and to stop before It got over.
She scrambled down into his garde l.
dropping bang on to a choice lilium p
auratum in the process. and hurried