Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-08-31
The Daily Story
4 Good Match-By F. A. Mitchell.
Copyrighted. 1914 by Associated Literary Bureau


what we do easily. A man VIII nave
unlimited ability, for instance. as
| 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 a worse phase of such freak
| fsbness than this. A man with single
gift, not recognizing its value. will
imagine he has another gift that he
doesn't possess at all. 81 fell into a
business life by mistake" says Jones,
who easily captured half a million dol
lars. "What / was made for is farm
ing" He puts his Accommodations In
a farm, and in a few years there is
| nothing left of them. Yet no one can
convince Jones that he is not 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 string
of AS against every study, the whole
looking like 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
reason. He was ambitious to be
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 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 a
show in any of them.
ures would have cured him of his am
bition to be an athlete. On the con-
trary, after graduating he went off to
a summer resort afrording every IA
cility for sports, with the determine
ton to make something of himself"
as he expressed it AS for his college |
course, in his heart he regarded 1t a |
failure. At the Pennant, a hotel built |
on 4 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 n hotel, for it was expen- |
sive, and she hadn't q 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 Unfortunately 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 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 t
seemed so cut up by his failure that |
in subsequent games she played off,
permitting him to beat her most OF |
the games of tme last set. This made |
him not only well pleased with him.
self, but with Julia.
The same afternoon Norman con-
cluded to take n 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 spasmodic eff
forts to diSentangle himself he upset
the boat. He was in no danger, though
he could not swim, for the water
where he 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 L were you" she said. az would
walk back here with the boat. where
you can tip it on its side and let the
water run out"
This is the worst place for starting
4 boat" he said alphabetically, 81 ever
saw. I wonder they put the landing
here"
ITS the current and the grass to-
sether," she replied soothingly.
TTa 90 h. Z
was full of water, near enough to the
anding for her to get boathoolz on If,
and she did the rest Norman went to
his room, changed his clothes and spent
the evening with her. He could not
yet over the stupidity Of the man who
lad built landing just where the cur
'ent would take n boat right into the
Tery place TO swamp it. Miss Damos
greed With him bnr rho naNt =