The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-15
EVENING STORY
The Other Nut,
(By Osborn Jones.)

Perkins college you have to change
cars at Perkins junction and wait in
a forsaken little shed of a station in
the middle of corDfields for the uncer-
tain shuttle train that carries you on
to Perkinstown-Perki that is
nine-tenths campus and college boys
and girls, and faculty, and faculty
houses, and only one-tenth native
population.
For three or four days preceding the
opening of college in the autumn and
the reassembling of the students after
vacations this shack of a station is
crowded at train times with students
In fact, they overflow the station and
its benches outside and are to be seen
standing in groups on the roads that
lead off between the cornfields. "A
other times passengers are few. 1t
was full week before opening of COL
lege and that is why the fast train
thru the junction left but two passen-
gers. First there was young man
such a complete specimen of what
every college senior thinks he looks
like or wishes he did that he needs
no description. He leaped off the
train, made the platform in another
step, deposited suitcase in the station
and then started to pace the platform.
1t was then that he noticed for the
first time that there was another pas
Senger. A coed, obviously. and of the
type that makes the Perkins men
usually approve Of that form of edu-
cation.
Passengers stranded at Perkins
Junction newer need introductions.
That is an unwritten rule of courtesy
( at Perkins, tho the same students pass
ing on the campus would hesitate at
an acquaintance that had not been
preceded by an introduction.
| The acquaintance in this case was
begun when the nan raised his hat
| and bowed, indicating thereby that If
| the girl wished it he would speak, but
that he would not force his compan-
! ionship upon her If she were unwilling.
| She was not loath.
you are a student, aren't your
! she asked, and the man noticed that
| her voice was silvery. Also her eyes
seemed to be deeply blue and shad-
owed by bewitching lashes.
Then in the next few remarks the
| barriers We're down. InStinctively they
| knew that they were of the stuff out
! of which congenial comrades are made
and they were as friends who have
| known each other for years. Perkins
| Junction had more than once been
! the scene of quickly made friendships
| that could not have been accomplished
/ on the campus and in the classroom
at the college in less than year.
When fifteen of the forty-five min
| uteS that We're doomed to pass in
waiting had slipped by the man sum-
name.
Sidney Drew" she said, and then
when she asked him he told her his
was Alonzo Love. Just a shade of a
smile crossed her face.
Il suppose you think that Is queer
sort of name" he said, not with any
resentment.
mot funny, only somehow you don't
look like an Alonzo. You look like q
Bill or Tom or something like that
! take?" asked Aionzo. Domestic
science, I-suppose. Girls like you ISL
ally door, at least, they ought to-
Why"
"Oh, just because it's a shame for q
pretty girl to get sidetracked from
! marrying, 1 suppose, and domestic
! science leads right that way. Or
might say because a girl like you is
bound to be married, and it is a shame
for girl that is married not to know
ore about managing a home thar
she does about calculus
You're frank she commented
But L am not really pretty and yoJ
don't have to make flatterinE
| speeches. I am not going in fol
housewifery, tho I might like to.
am going to take mining engineering
The man whistled. You'll be the
only girl in that department" he told
her Il am eoing to be a mining en-
gineer myself, but 1 don't see why you
should want to-
II know 1 shall be regarded as {
freak"
Yes" he admitted. There's an.
other nu. in college, tho-a chay
named Bill Dean, who is taking do
nestle science. That is just as bad
Almost" And then Sidney toll
her comra Mon a secret that she ask
ed him not to divulge. She was des
tined to be mining engineer becausi
in her family there had always beer
a mining engineer for four genera
lions, and because her father had dice
and left her a valuable collection o
| mining engineering instruments an.
| papers and her grandmother. WHIT
, was her guardian, felt that she ough
| to make use Of them.
Funn~,' said the man. "DaInet
; funny" he emphasized.
| On the train together they occu
pied ad joining seats and before man
minutes Rad passed the girl knew
. that her companion was twenty-five