Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-04-03
THE EVENING STORY.
Red, Juicy Tomatoes.


Old Henry Billings cid not like neigh
hors. He was bachelor and had lived
so long alone in the big brown house
surrounded by lilacs that he didn't I'M
derstand neighbors, except as people who
had too many children. dogs. cats and
monographs. and vino cooked cabbage
when they didn't cook onions, and so
spoiled his gardens and his olfactory
nerves.
And he didn't like women. except as
chambermaids and cooks lie particular
~ disliked widows and women who were
fussy and eXtravagant in the matter of
clothes. Folks often said he Gidr like
anybody or anything but himself aud
his comfort. but that doubtless is the
natural attitude of people toward cx-
elusive people.
So Henry Billings, being of this ma
ture, particularly dislkcd Mrs. Crafty,
the widow, who rented the green and
white cottage. tile YARD of phi,h adjoin-
ed his tomato garden. She was not 50
very Young Henry Billings iodthed
young women-appe;,riny even at Il dis
taut View well toward the thirti"s. but
she had ali the airs of a young woman,
and all the faults that forty different
sets Of neighbors could have. She had
=
white hair and pronounced mongrel
lineage. III fact Henry Billings had
never seen Il dog before of that partular
shape and breed. And she had Il cat
Il big. pinh-ribboued thing. that she
Coddled-and kissed, Henry Billings
spat with disgust when he saw her
one morning as he stood at the window
of his upper bedroom shaving himself
Also she had monograph which she
played every other evening.
BQt than the dog, than
the cat. more uneUdurabc to Henry
Billings than the eXecra BILE photograph,
We're the lacy. frilly, ribbony silly caps
that she never appeared without. Henry
Billings had been reared i'll Il Presby
terrain atmosphere. and since boyhood
he had regarded vanity sinful. These
caps went beyond vanity; they We're
positively indecent. He felt that it was
not respectable to faunt such intimate
articles of wearing apparel i'll public
view. To begin with they were frivolous
things even for bedroom privacy. And
Mrs Graty wore them all the time,
when she swept the porch when she
spaded the garden, when she lay in a
hammock and read. Il suppose" sneer-
ed Henry Billings to himself-th ere was
no one else TO sneer it to-''that she
thinks her big brown eyes and red cheeks
are just the cutest ever under that mess
of lace! BAH And he took to smoking
on the west side of his house. Mrs.
Grsty lived at the east.
She had lived there two or three weeks
When III. looked out one morning at
dawn and saw that numbering. homcly,
white dog romping through his tomato
patch. II saw blood he got into his
trousers and raced down and out the
back door. The dog him coming
and GamboIed back to his own precincts
before he could reach him. Henry Bill
lingS had important business In the next
town that day. but he had to postpone
it and spend the morning and most of
the afternoon fixing the fence between
his land and the next. 1t was board
fence. lie tackled wire netting along it.
He thought lie saw Mrs. Graty's lace
cap bobbinS among the lilac bushes next
docT. and he grumbled aloud and told
what he thought of dogs and people who
kept dogs. Three of his best tomato