Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-09-16
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
CHAPTER III.
The Masters Lash Cracks.

Did you ever try not to think of
thing and have it hound you and
pound it's way into your brain every
second? l guess you have; l guess
every one has.
It's mighty hard thing for the
brain to find different groove when
your thoughts, and actions, and de-
sires have been smoothing nice lit
tie channel for years.
I didn't get much sleep that night,
but l won the fight; or rather the
brown eyes of the girl won 1t for me.
Every time I'd think Of that simple
old man with his two hundred and fif-
ty thousand dollars, and lgure the
hundred slick ways I could work to
get it away from him those brown
eyes would come before me.
And behind them I'd see the neigh
bors who were waiting for the white
haired old man to return to them.
Yes, sir, when I got up next morn
ing knew that the waiting folks back
home We're going to have their cele-
bration: that the old man and the girl
were going back home with two hun
dred and fifty thousand dollars worth
of happiness.
His money was as safe in New York
as though it were In chilled-steel
safe with the combination lost; safer,
perhaps, because 1 was going to see
that nobody came near it. could pre-
tect him from my kind. Maybe my
years of grating weren't wasted at
all.
But wasn't quite as happy or care
free as I had been the day before.
Then 1 hadn't thought of what l was.
or what / had been.
Now / was awake I realized that I
was the one-night-stand comedian po-
sing the big-time stuff before his
cracked mirror, and in a day or two,
o. maybe three, I'd have to go back
to the one-night stands. was a graft
er, crook, and that girl
met them the next morning at the
hotel The bad dreams I'd been hav-
ing, the black thoughts that had been
turning me inside out, all went away
when those brown eyes looked into
mine and l clasped the little white
hand in my big palm. To be worthy
Of a girl like that!
l. DADDY wants to see the Natural
Eistorv museum" she laughed up at
.ie when the greetings were over
-TiIe wants to see the dinosaur, though
he says, they amt no sich animal +"
"Now, Allie" he protested boyish'
Iy. 81 only said I'd bet the critter had
never been in Virginia.
"And that amounts to the same
thing in daddy's eyes," she laughed:
then a look of frank chagrin came to
her face, 4 beg your pardon" she
apologized, 81 didn't think"
"The apology is unnecessary"
smiled back. 81 spent several days in
Norfolk once"
Her hand touched my arm in ges-
ture of thanks, and her eyes looked
into mine searchingly as she smiled. i
think she knew lied. Virginia was
one of the few states In the union
Mike Garven had never sent me.
That day went like a dream to me.
The old man was like child on tts
first play trip: his enthusiasm knew
no bounds.
The groups we saw at the museum
reminded him of stories that he told
us in his quaint, whimsical way. They
We're stories of Virginia-simple sto
ries of his neighbors and friends;
they illustrated the innocence of his
own nature and his thoughts of all ma
ture.
We stopped in front of the beacon
strictor group. The old man gazed ut
the twisted, hideous bodies with a
kind of fascination, and when he
turned to us there seemed to be a
look of plying horror in the mild
brown eyes.
"The only living creature in all
Gods world that all the human race
hates" he said slowly ever since
the world began It's been 30, guess.
It's a pitiful thing, too.