The Palatka news and advertiser., 1915-07-30

don't want you, dearie, to live thre
more years like the one you've jus
lived"
"Do you think want to-" l retort
ed. 30 Phoebe, if you knew the liz
/ in Union Center! But you don't
You've been to visit me twice ant
we've had good time together, bu
. that place is dead and I'm alive, Of
at least | want to be-"
"One thing which newspaper worE
has taught me-" said Phoebe, quite
as if l had not spoken, "is the pic.
turesqueness of life. 1t is truisn
that in every life there is at least one
good story. And human beinps are
just about the same, Peg, whether
they live in Paris, Cork, Boston OIL
Union Center"
"You can't understand" I protest.
ed.
"But you are going to understand
lit all. | know you are" said Phoebe
as she kissed me good night.
l promised Phoebe that I would try
to see the interesting things in life Ir
Union Center. but l made the promise
as one | could not succeed in keeping
Then the day after | went home,
made my first attempt to keep my
word to her-I accepted an invitation
to dinner party. wouldn't have
done so if it hadn't been that my SIS
ter Rose, home for the first time since
her marriage, was the guest of honor
l have feeling that but, for that
SINE reason l would not have been in.
vited Roses popularity made il
possible for me to go about. After
my unfriendly manner of a year, !
probably would have had no invita-
tions if it had not been for her. Now
| have arrived in the port of hap
piness, | sometimes shudder to think
what tragedy it would have BEEN
if had not gone to that dinner!
For that night met two men.
don't think the hostess or anyone else
but myself appreciated quite what a
"lion" one of them was. Of course
Union Center had heard of him and
his books, but it remained for the
"high-brow to feel overawed at
meeting him. He was the guest of
the other man, who had been in town
for year or two as principal of the
high school, but whom | had not met
| thought | would be afraid of the
great man, but his manner was so
simple that | wasn't afraid at all. In
some way he must have OWNED how
l felt about my life and my home
town. Otherwise | cannot account
for something he told me. l had been
discussing his latest book with him,
telling him how it had given me new
ideas, shown me side of human nj
ture which had always interested me
but was so rare l had never encount-
cred it.
"If you won't tell anybody" he
said, laughingly, an tell you a Sc
cret." Then, when l had promised, he
went on: "The people about whom
that book was written live here in
Union Center. Henry's letters are
one of the delights of my life, and he
wrote me something of the main In
cident soon after he came here to live.
Then when he was on to spend his
vacation with me, l got him to tell
me more of the story and the people
in it. Strange, isn't it, that a story
| lived out before your eyes should
have come back to you on the print,
ed page?"
l could not answer him. l was
thinking of what Phoebe had said
about human nature. And here he
was, one of the masters of his art,
writing book about people who llv-
ed in the same block with me and to
whom I'd never given a thought!
He was leaving town the next day,
SC we had no more conversations. But
/ | had many with his friend. AS I
came to know him, | did not wonder
that he was called a "connoisseur in
life" He was interested in every
body and everything. He loved the
music which | so longed to hear, but
his eyes would brighten at the sound
of a street organ and he would hum
the tunes under his breath. He grew
homesick now and then for his uni
Iversity friends, but he gave unstinu-
bows and girls in his school. At
first l could only marvel when he
could grow enthusiastic over the Or
diHary happenings in our town. But
after while somethng-for a long
time | did not realize what it was
led me to be interested, also, in the
life around us.
isn't it wonderful, Peggy DEAR"
he said to me one night after the
world, even Union Center, had become
a place of beauty and wonder to me,
''to think that in essentials we all
share a common lot? On the SUR
face some people are rich and some
are poor, some are fortunate and
some are unfortunate, some are hap
=" and some are unhappy. But the
blessed thing about it is that we just
can't put people into pigeonholes like
that. After all, there are only few
real experiences in life, and when we
ret down to them, it seems to me
they are very much alike for the king
upon his throne and the shepherd
among his flocks. Laughter and
song and dance and work and tears
and love-why, they are universal. 1t
seems to me when we have had them,
we have had life. And you and I,
dear, are having them ALL"
Yes-all. For the miracle has hap.
pened. Romance has sought me out
and found me-here in Union Center.
Delieately Put.