Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1914-12-11

Good
Match
But Not One Usually to
Dc Expected
By T. A. Mitchell


sssssssossssssssssoossssss
One Of the many peculiarities Of hu-
man nature is to place little value on
what we do easily. A man will have
unlimited ability for instance. as
trader. H. con iders money making
something thlt any fool should be able
to accomplish He Il ambitious to play
the piano. and 1t worries him that he
can't tell one note from another
There is a worse phase Of such freak
ishness than this. a man with single
gift, not recognizing its value. will
Imagine he has nnotler gift that he
doesn't POSSESS Mt all Il fell into
business life by mist tke," says Jones.
who easily captured h4lf million dol
lars. "What / was ut#de for is farm
ing" He puts his accumulatiOns In
farm. and in n few years there Is
nothing left Of them. Yet no one can
convince Jones that he is not n natural
farmer He explains his failure on
the ground that there were happenings
in his case which would not occur once
In a hundred years.
Norman Alsop at school was IA per
feet scholar. When his report cards
came to his parents there was a string
Of AS against every study. the whole
looking Ike a 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
a reason. He was ambitious to be o
fine tennis player, a twiFler. 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
I from Norman. would make n ball do
the stunts Of a 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, 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
show I'm aDy of them
One would suppose that these fail
ures woald have cured him of his am.
billion TO be an athlete. On the CON
trary. after graduating he went off to
a sumner resort affording every IA
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, a hotel built
on a 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 a hotel, for 1t 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 On 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 be would have nothing to do
but look on.
Norman was introduced to Julia at
the tennis courts He asked her to
play, and she beat him love set. But
Norman was a nice young man and
seemed so cut up by bis failure that
in subsequent games she 'played off.
permitting him to beat her most Of
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. He
hired boat and was pulling out into
the stream when the current took him
in among some tall grass. His oars be
came clogged. and In his spasmodlc ef-
| forts to disentangle himself he upset
the boat He was In no danger, though
he could not swim. for the water
where be was dumped was only three
feet deep. But he presented a lu-
gubrious spectacle. Pulling himself
up on his feet. he stood looking about
him as If for an inspiration as to what
to do next. when he saw Julia stand
ing on the landing.
She had the good sense not to laugh
at him.
IF were you," she said. II would
walk back here with the boat, where
you can tip 1t on its side and let the
water run out"
''This is the worst place for starting
a boat" he said apologetically, 81 ever
saw. I wonder they put the landing
here"
Its the current and the grass to-
gether," she replied soothingly.
He managed to get the boat, which
was full OF water, near enongh to the
landing for her to get a boathook on it,
and she did the rest. Norman went to
his room. changed his clothes and spent
the evening with her. He could not
get over the stupidity Of the man who
Ind built landing just where the cur
rent would take a boat right into the
yery place to swamp it, Miss Damon