The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-11-26
A Good
Match
But Not One Usually to
Be Expected
By F. A. mitchell

One Of the many peculiarities of hui
man nature is to place little value on
what we do easily. A man will have
unlimited ability, for instance. as a
trader. He considers money making
something that any fool should be able
to accomplish. He is ambitious to play
the piano, and it worries him that he
can't tell one note from another.
There Is worse phase of such freak
ishness than this. A man with single
imagine he has another gift that he
doesn't possess at all. 81 fell into q
business life by mistake" says Jones,
who easily captured half a million dol
lars. What l was made for is farm
ing" He puts his accumulations In
farm, and in few years there Is
nothing left of them. Yet no one can
convince Jones that he is not a natural
farmer. He explains his failure on
the ground that there were happenings
in his case which would not occur once
in hundred years.
Norman Alsop at school was "a per-
feet scholar. When his report cards
came to his parents there was a string
OF AS against every study. the whole
looking like company Of soldiers all
OF equal height. without a single little
fellow In the lot. All he had to do
was to read his lessons over once. and
then he could go out and play. 1t
pleased him that he could do this, for
90 no
fine tennis player a twirler, an oars
man-indeed, anything and everything
that was athletic. But while he was
revered by his schoolmates he was
looked down upon by them on the
fields of sport Tommy Green, who
stood at the other end Of the class
from Norman, would make a ball do
the stunts Of boomerang Norman
would stand looking at Tom wrapt In
admiration and wish he could exchange
some of the AS on his report cards for
Toms curves.
When Norman was at college it was
the same. He took all the prizes away
from the other students and was grad
uated at the head of his class, a dis
appointed man. Why? Because he
had failed to get ON any Of the athletic
teams. He was not big enough or
strong enough for football, but he tried
for all the rest without a ghost of a
show in any of them.
One would suppose that these fail
ures would have cured him of his am
bition to be an athlete. On the con-
trary, after graduating he went off to
ofr
cility for sports, with the determina-
ton to make something of himself"
as he expressed It. AS for his college
course, In his heart he regarded 1t q
failure. At the Pennant, hotel built
on site expressly fitted for water
and land sports, he found just the
place that suited him. There were golf,
tennis and boating. to say nothing of
mountain climbing.
At the Pennant Norman fell In with
Julia Damon. She had no business to
be at such hotel, for it was expen-
sive, and she hadn't a cent in the
world. The truth is an aunt of hers
sent her there to give her a chance to
catch a husband. There was no hope
that she would snare an intellectual
man, for she was inordinately stupid,
but her aunt thought it possible she
might mate with some rich mans son
whose only ambition was to attend
horse races and other spectacles
where he would have nothing to dc
but look on.
Norman was introduced to Julia al
the tennis courts. He asked her tC
play, and she beat him a love set. But
Norman was II nice young man ant
seemed so cut up by his failure thai
In subsequent games she played off,
permitting him to beat her most o
the games of the last set. This made
him not only well pleased with him
self, but with Julia.
The same afternoon Norman con
cluded to take row on the river. H.
hired boat and was pulling out int
the stream when the current took hin
in among some tall grass. His oars be
came clogged, and In his spasmodic ef
forts to disentangle himself he upse
the boat. He was In no danger, thong
he could not swim, for the waite
where he was dumped was only thre
feet deep. But he presented 1t
gubrious spectacle. Pulling himsel
up on his feet. he stood looking abou
him as II for an inspiration as to wha
to do next, when he saw Julia stant
ing on the landing.
She had the good sense not to laug
at him.
"If were you." she said, II woul
walk back here with the boat. wher
you can tip 1t on its side and let tn
water run out"
''This is the worst place for startir
q boat" he said apologetically, II eve
saw. wonder they put the landin
here
ats the current and the grass T
gether." she replied soothingly.
He MANHOOD to gpt the boat whi(