The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1915-03-05
A Good
Match
But Not One Usually to
Be Expected
BY F. A. Mitchell


One Of the many peculiarities of hu-
mar nature Is to place little value ON
what we do easily. A man will have
unlimited ability. for instance, as q
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 be
can't tell one note from another.
There is a worse phase Of such freak
ishness than this. \ man with a single
gift, not recognizing its value. will
imagine he has another gift that he
doesn't possess at all. Il fell into =
business life by mistake" says Jones.
who easily captured half a million dol
lars. "What l was made for Is farm
ing" He puts his accumulations In
IL farm. and in a few years there 10
nothing left Of them. Yet no n can
convince Jones that he is not a 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 Mt school was a per-
feet scholar. When his report cards
came to his parents there was u string
Of AS against every study. the whole
looking like a company Of soldiers all
of equal height, without n single little
fellow in the lot. All he had to do
was to read his lessons over once, and
then he could go u and play. It
pleased him that he could do this, for
u reason. He was ambitious to be q
fine tennis player, q twirler. an oars
m%an-indecd, 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 q ball do
the stunts Of a boomerang. Norman
would stand looking ut Tom wrapt In
admiration and wish he could exchange
some Of the AS on his report cards for
Toms curves. =
When Norman was ut 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, q dis
appointed a 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 q
show in any of them. .
One would suppose that these fail
ures would have cured him of his am
bition to be an athlete. On the con-
trary, after graduating he went Oh to
a summer resort anording every "a
cility for sports. with the determine
ton to make something of himself"
as he expressed 1t. AS for his college
course, in his heart he regarded It 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 IL an aunt of hers
sent her there to give her u chance to
catch a husband. There was no hope
that she would snare an intellectual
man, for she was i%nordinately stupid,
but her aunt thought 1t 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 a love get. But
Norman was a nice young man and
seemed so cut up by his failure that
in subsequent games she "played or"
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-
cludcd to take a row IN the river. He
hired q boat and was pulling out into
the stream when the current took him
In among some tall grass. His oars b..
came clogged. and in his spasmodic e..
forts to disentangle himself he upset
the boat. He was in no danger. though,
he could not swim. for the waite.
where he was dumped was only THREE.
feet deep. But he presented a i.,
gubrious spectacle. Pulling hins"f
up on his feet, he stood looking als,.t.
him as IL for an inspiration a. to what
to do next. when he saw Julia stand
ing on the landing.
She had the good sense not to laugh
ut him.
III I were you.' she said. II woull
walk back here with the boat, where
you can tip It on it's side and let the
water run out"
This is the worst place for starting
u boat" he said a~pologetically, II ever
saw. I wonder they put the landing
here"
Its the current and the grass 70
gether." she replied soothingiy.
he managed to get tho boat, which
was full Of water, near enough 70 IT,
landing for her to set q boathook on II.