Evening star., 1916-12-31

VI my Cdturudy reg AhrS touucf, anu
otherwise nursin' along the gate receipts.
Instead Of that, though, let myself get
rung in on this weekend stuff and help
the aristocracy discover Mrs. Jim Trikett.
They don't quite agree ON Mrs. Jim, either.
Perfectly delicious!" is Mrs. Westerley
Kipp's verdict.
@How can you, mother!' shifts Lady
Dundee. 3That utterly silly person!"
But then, that seems to be Lady Dun
dee's long suit, disagreein' with mother.
You know the kind, one Of these peevish
young queens with cameo face and q
tabasco disposition. Course, you got to
make some allowance for all she's been
through lately. For there was quite a
spell, you know, when they wasn't quite
sure whether Sir Freddie had really gone
and got himself hopelessly mussed up
with shrapnel or not.
Seems he hadn't signed on as Sir Fred
erick Dundee when he'd pulled his hero
stunt of slippin' off sudden and joinin' an
ambulance corps, and the reports from
the base hospital was kind of vague. The
patient in cot 139 might have been him,
or it might have been only his valet, whose
name he'd pinched. You see, Pringle was
missin', too. 1t turns out, though, to be
Sir Freddie sure enough. Lady Dundee
had been stunnin' in black for over year
now, and when mother had helped her
close up Dundee House and brought her
over here to recover from the shock and all,
she'd been fairly swamped with sympathy.
1t was one Of Pinckney's batty ideas
for an off-season trip up to that Berk-
shire Hills joint he's SO bugs over. At
first tells him to count me out.
"May seem odd to you,' says 1, @but
now and then have to tend to business.
i any dear Shorty, says he, @if one can't
neglect ones own business occasionally,
whose business can one neglect? Besides,
day or so in the country is such tonic"
4G'wan!" says l. II can't work up any
appetite standin around watchin' you idle
richers play quarter-a-point bridge all
night. And, if did, all I'd have to satisfy
it would be them fancy dishes your French
chef lugs up there with him. Country!
Huh!' - 1: y.
II am rebuked," says Pinckney; dand
justly so. Yes there is something in your
subtle criticism. What is needed for an
affair of this kind is the rural touch l
have it'll We will have whole roast pig
served for dinner. Eh, what?"
@That wins me- says l. "What train
did you say?H 3 tH
RUT his plan is for us to motor up in the
- limousine, lettin' the other guests go
by rail. But it seems at the last minute
Mrs. Westerley Kipp had accused him of
being selfish, SO he'd included her and
Lady Dundee. We was maxim nice,
easy run Of it too, barrin' few snappy
debates between mother and daughter,
and we was rollin' along up through the
pie orchards about as fast as eight cylin-
ders could turn over, when we had to
branch off the State road for a construc-
ton detour. We'd bumped over mile
or SO of mighty uneven goin' before we
hit this side-lfill thank-you-ma' am that
snapped two leaves of front spring.
So it was a case of scoutin' for phone.
The chauffeur hikes one way while goes
the other, and that's what fetches me to
this cute little hamlet where there's tall
iron smokestack and maybe couple of
dozen houses straggln' along the main
street. 1t was loose-jointed youth push
in past on creaky bicycle who stopped