The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1914-12-11
4 Business Adventure of Emma McChesney

By EDNA FERBER
Auihos Of "Dauqs Oars "Buttersd Side Doson. etc.
Copyright By Tfsdsrt


practical working nightmare that W.
use again and again, no matter how
varied the theme or setting OF oul
dream-drama. Your surgeon, tossing
uneasily on his bed, sees himself cut
ting to remove an appendix, only tt
discover that that unpopular portion
of his patients anatomy already hobs
In alcoholic glee in a bottle on the tot
shelf of the laboratory of more alerl
professional brother. Your civil en-
gineer constructs imaginary bridges
which slump and fall as quickly as they
are completed. Your stage favorite
in the throes Of a post-lobster night
mare, has a horrid vision of herself
resting" in January. But when he
who sells goods on the road groans
and losses in the clutches of dread
full dream, it is, strangely enough
never of Cancelled orders, maniacal
train schedules. lumpy mattresses, or
vilely cooked food. These everyday
things he accepts with philosophers
cheerfulness. No-his nightmare is
always a vision of himself, sick on the
road, at country hotel in the middle
of the spring season.
On the third day that she looked
with more than ordinary Indifference
upon hotel and dining car food, Mrs.
Emma McChesney, representing the
T. A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat
company, wondered if, perhaps, she
II n ~ ~ hiffor tonic
On the fifth day she noticed that
there were chills chashing up and
down her spine, and back and forth
from legs to shoulder blades when
other people were wiping their chins
and foreheads with bedraggled-looking
handkerchiefs, and demanding how
long this heat was going to last, any
way. On the sixth day she lost all in
terest in T. A. Bucks featherloom pet
ticoats. And then she knew that
something was seriously wrong. On
the seventh day, when the blonde and
nasal waitress approached her in the
dining room of the little hotel at Glen
Rock, Mimi, Emma McChesney's mind
somehow failed to grasp the meaning
of the all too obvious string of ques-
tions which we're put to her-ques-
tons ending in the inevitable tea, COT
fee r milk" At that juncture Emma
had looked up into the
girls face in puzzled, uncompre-
bending way, had passed one hand
over her hot forehead and re-
Piled, with great earnestness:
Yours of the twelfth at hand and
contents noted the greatest
little skirt on the market he's
going to be son to be proud of, God
bless him want to leave call
for seven sharp"
The lank waitress face took on an
added Darkness. One Of the two trav-
cling men at the same table started
to laugh, but the other put out his
hand quickly, rose, and said, Shut up,
you blamed fool! Can't you see the
ady's sick?" And started in the di-
rection of her chair.
Even then there came into Emma |
ordinarily well-ordered, |
alert mind the uncomfortable thought
hat she was talking nonsense. She
made last effort to order her brain
INTO its usual sane clearness, failed,
Ind saw the coarse white table cloth |
Using swiftly and slanting to meet |
Ter head.
It speaks well for Emma McChes-
,ey's balance that when she found
herself in bed. two strange women,
Ind one strange man, and an all-too-
amiliar bell-boy in the room, she did
lot say, Where am /? What hap
,ened?" Instead she told herself that
he amazingly and unbelievably hand
ONE young man bending over her
nth a stethoscope was doctor; that
he plump, bleached blonde in the
rhite shirtwaist was the hotel house
.eeper; that the lank ditto was a
waitress; and that the expression on
he face of each was that Of appre-
ension, tinged with pleasurable ex-
itement. So she sat up, dislodging
he stethoscope, and ignoring the pur-
ose of the thermometer which had re-
osed under her tongue.
Look here!" she said, addressing
he doctor In a high, queer voice. Il
ant be sick. young man. Haven't
Ime. Not just now. Put 1t on until
.ugust and I'll be as sick as you like.
Why, man. this is the middle of June,
nd I'm due In Minneapolis now" II
Lie down, please" said the hand
ome young doctor, and don't dare I
emove this thermometer again until !
tell you to. This can't be put on until
ugust. You're sick right now" II
Mrs. McChesney shut her lips over
le little glass tube, and watched the !
cung doctors impassive face ut 6
Lkes them no time to learn that trick
nd. womanwise, Jumped to her own
inclusion.
How sick?" she demanded, the r
read. s
"Oh, 1t won't be so bad" said the e
sry young doctor, with profession /
ly cheerful smile. s
Emma McChesney sat up in bed with Q
Jerk You mean-sick! Not i'll, or {
-ippy. or run down. but sick? Trained s
arse sick, Hospital sick! Doctor b