Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-01-19
A Bachelor S
Diary
BY MAX.

She dresses and undresses herself.
puts away her clothes, is learning to
clean up her rom. and / must confess
to real pain when | found her yester-
day trying to sew on button. Her
babyish dependence has been as sweet
to me as it has been to Richards, and
I am beginning to realize in a way what
a desolate place this will be when she
has really entered womanhood's estate,
and we have a child with us no longer.
With Richards assistance she Is out
ting out and making Lady Jane and
Sally Spencer, her best dolls, new
dresses for Christmas. and she makes
such a quaint picture with the dolls
stretched beside her and needle in her
hand that 1 hang around the nursery
more than ever to watch her.
/ have talked with her a great deal
and have made the fairy stories l
formerly told her more real by ex-
planning that little girls couldbe fairies
If they wished. They need not grow as
small as tiny paper dolls in order to
become fairies; they could be fairies in
their real size, and the larger they grew
the more fairy-like work they could do
The little children OF the poor needed
books and dolls and blocks and toy
dishes and nice warm cloaks and hats
and gloves and the little tiny fairies
depended on the Live Girl fairies to
provide them.
She was eager to begin at once. and
Tompkins and Richards have secured a
list of all the children of the poor in a
certain district, and Manette is using
her weekly allowance to give them a
Christmas tree they will long remember.
1 have not allowed her to have credit
at the stores. Everything she gives,
explain to her, must represent some
personal self denial. Otherwise the
fairies will know she is a four ,fiusher
When she wanted to know what a four
fiusher meant l referred her TO Rich
ards. much to that good souls horror.
The Nurse Leaves.
Nov. 9.-The pretty nurse left me
yesterday to spend a week at Elmdale,
little country town about 200 miles
from here l wonder II she knows how
much we all miss her The pup is SO
bereaved he is carrying his tail at half
mast, which fact 1 wrote her this morn
ing.
Nov. 16.-The pretty nurse has moi
returned. though her week was up at
this morning, and it is now 3 in the
afternoon.
Absence quoted Richards this
morning, and thought it very inane Of
her. makes the heart grow fonder'"
1T isn't the heart at ALL" l grum-
bled; Its my shoulder that needs her.
She knows a certain way to rub out the
pain"
Nov. 1.-THE weather is delightfully."-
bright and warm for this season Of
the year and Manette Is beginning to
look as If she needed a long outdoor
ride. had never taken my little fam
lily for a long auto ride. and | really
owed it to them. 1t was thought of
them that prompted me to telegraph
the nurse this morning that Richards,
Manette and I would come for her in
the car starting tomorrow, il agree
able to her.
with just one word:
Delighted.
So am l. Manette needs the fresh
air. and even Richards doesn't look as
well as usual. Anxiety to see my pref
ty nurse and bring her back to us has
nothing to do with it. She is just a
foolish, pretty girl. pleasant to have
around and all that, but not at all in
dispensable to my comfort. | have dis
covered in the six weeks she has been
|
her.
six weeks, did I say? | meant to
say eight days, but somehow 1t seems
like six weeks.
A Pleasant Outing.
November 24--We arrived home this
afternoon after the most pleasant out
ing I have ever taken, and l have had
many. 1t must mean that / am grow
ing to be sedate family man. TO en-
10y so thoroughly a weeks automobil-
ing trip with little girl. her nurse and
a woman who is hired to nurse me when
am sick and to quarrel with me when
am well. Really it is the same as il
| had wife-some one to quarrel with
when l am well and who forgets all diff
ferences in loving care and solcltude
when 1 am sick.
We took two days to make the trip
to Elmdale had the chauffeur hurry
Richards were anxious 10 see Jessie
Boyce. Doesn't that name look strange?
II liz the first time | have ever written
It, for the reason that ii is her name,
and as her name is used by all who APP
proach her, somehow, / have preferred
that she be nameless to me. never
cared to know anything as pretty as a
flower by its big, long name. If 1t is a
rose, les rose and II ! have to mem
tally tag IT with q title ten syllables
long | don't enjoy II.
In the same way Miss Boyoe Is Just
girl; a very sweet and pretty girl
Why call her Jessie when there are
thousands OF freckle- faced, pug-nosed,
squint-eyed Jessies in the world? She
is Just she That's all.
But as / started to say before. / di-
crossed we made quick trip there 10
reach her, because the others were an&-
ious to see her. | wasn't at all and
then after we had packed her in the
back seat. with all her bags and bag
gage strapped on behind, we made a
detour coming home, and regarded
neither time nor money in picking up
the most pleasing routes.
We left the main roads seeking al
ways the roads that parted the trees
like a chalked hne. saying to the trees
on our side: Now you can step up to
here with your toes but not step
farther" and to the trees on the other
side. Now don't step over this line"
so that they were divided like the i'd
vance lines OF two opposing armies
Sometimes we climbed out and gath
cred nuts, and on several occasions we