The Elk Mountain pilot., 1916-12-28
to do is to tell this SOS to keep tho

to do Is to tell this SOS to keep tho
family from being made q fool Of
don't want to see the family just made
use of and twisted around her finger
by somebody that's got no more heart
than so much ice, and just as sure to
bring troubles in the long run as-as
Edith's mistake is. Well, then, this is
the way it is. I'll just tell you how it
looks to me and see If it don't strike
you the same way"
Within the room, B.bbs, much an
noyed, tapped his ear with his pencil.
He wished they wouldn't stand talking
near his door when he was trying to
write. He had just taken from his
trunk the manuscript of a poem be-
gun the preceding Sunday afternoon.
and he had some ideas he wanted to
fix upon paper before they maliciously
seized the first opportunity to vanish.
for they were but gossamer. Bibbs
was pleased with the beginnings of his
poem, and if he could carry it through
he meant to dare greatly with tho
would venture it upon an editor. For
he had his plan of life now: his day
would be of manual labor and think
ing-he could think of his friend and
he could think in cadences for poems,
to the crashing of the strong machines
and If his father turned him out of
home and out of the works, he would
work elsewhere and live elsewhere. His
father had the right. and it mattered
very little to Bibbs-he faced the pros
pect of working mans lodging house
without trepidation. He could find a
washstand to write upon. he thought;
and every evening when he left Mary
he would write little; and he would
write on holidays and on Sundays-on
Sundays in the afternoon. In a lodging
house, at least, he wouldn't be inter-
| rupted by his sster-in-law's choosing
the immediate vicinity of his door for
conversations evidently important to
herself, but merely disturbing to him.
He frowned plaintively. wishing he
could think of one polite way of asking
her to go away. But, as she went on.
he started violently dropping manu-
script and pencil upon the floor.
"I don't know whether you heard 1t.
mother Sheridan" she said, "but this
old Vertrees house. next door, has
been sold on foreclosure, and all they
got out of it was an agreement that
lets 'em live there little longer. Ros-
| coe told me. and he says he heard MI
Vertrees has been up and down the
| streets more n two years, tryin' to get
job he could call position and
| couldn't land 1t. You heard anything
about it, mother Sheridan?'
well, I did know they been doin'
| their own housework good while
back" said Mrs. Sheridan. And now
they're doin' the cookin'. too"
Sibyl sent forth little litter with
sharp edge. 81 hope they find some
thing to cook. She sold her plano
mighty quick after Jim died"'
| Bibbs jumped up. He was trembling
from head to foot and he was dizzy
of all the real things he could never
have dreamed in his dream the last
would have been what he heard now
He felt that something incredible was
happening, and that he was powerless
to stop it. 1t seemed to him that heavy
blows were falling upon his head and
upon Mary's; 1t seemed to him that he
and Mary were being struck and beat
en- physlcaly-and that something
hideous impended. He wanted to
shout to Sibyl to be silent, but he could
not; he could only stand. swallowing
and trembling.
What l think the whole family
| ought to understand is just this" said
| Sibyl, sharply. "Those people were so
hard up that this Miss Vertrees start
| ed after Bibbs before they knew