The daily Alaskan., 1917-10-08

| phemous tie I'm goin' to get 10 salI my boatw Jane shouted. Its goin' to rain"
 Ut Is not" said William, irritated. Its not going to anything like rain |, I s'pose you think 1t ought to rain just to let you sail that chunk of wood."
 Its goln' to rain It's goin' to rain" Jane made a litrle singsong chant of 1t. Its goin' to rain-it gives Willie pain-it's goln' to rain-it gives Willie a pain-it's goin' to-
 He interrupted her sternly. Look here! You're old enough to know bet ter. I s'pose you think there isn't any thing as important fin the world as your getting the chance to sail that little boat! s'pose you think business and everything else has got to stop and get ruined, maybe, just to please you" AS he spoke he walked to an umbrella stand in the hall and deliberately took therefrom a bamboo walking stick of his fathers. Jane's eyes became strange and unbearable. She uttered a shriek:
 "Wnlie's goin' to carry cane" He went down the street trying to swing the cane In an accustomed and unembarrassed manner.
 Jane made this difficult.
 "Willie's got a caneT she screamed Hes got papa's cane" Then, resum- ing her little chant, she began to sing: "It's goin' to rain-Willie's got papa's cane-it's goin' to rain-Willie'S got papa's canew She put all of her voice into final effort. "Aiss PrGtfH get Uet # pou dont take an umbereller-rr" The attention of several chance pe- | destrians had been attracted, and the burning William, breaking into an az onized half trot, disappeared round tho corner. Then Jane retired within the house, feeling that she had done her duty. It would be his own fault If ne got wet
 Rain was coming. Rain was In the feel of the air and in Jane's hope.
 She was not disappointed. Mr. Gen. esis, so secure of fair weather in the morning, was proved by the afternoon to be a bad prophet. The fat cloud was succeeded by others, fatter. A corpulent army assailed the vault of heaven, heavy outriders before giant of evil complexion and devastating temper. The rain came with a swish, then with a rattle and then with a roar, while people listened at their gar ret doorways and marveled- Window panes turned to running water-it | poured.
 Then 1t relented, and out came the children. Shouting, they ran to the flooded gutters. Here were rivers, lakes and oceans for navigation. Jane's timely boat was one of the | first to reach the water.
 Her mother had been kind. and Jane, with shoes and stockings left behind her on the porch. was happy sailor as she waded knee deep along the brimming curbstones. At the corner I below the house of the BaXters the | street was flooded clear across, and Jane's boat, following the current pro- ceeded gallantly onward here, sailed | down the next block and was thought | Iessly entering a sewer when she snatched 1t out of the water. Looking about her, she perceived gutter which seemed even lovelier than the one she had followed. It was deeper and broad CT and perhaps little browner, where fore she launched her ship upon Its | dimpled bosom and explored 1t as far as the next sewer hole or portage. Thus the voyage continued for several blocks with only one accident, which might have happened to anybody. It was an accident in the nature of fall, caused by the sliding of Jane's left foot on some slippery mud. This | beacherous substance, covered with water, could not have been anticipat. ed. Consequently lanes emotions were those of indignation rather than of cul- pabiHty,
 Jane resumed her navigating. Thus absorbed she failed at first to notice the approach of two young people along the sidewalk. They were the entranced William and Miss Pratt, and their appearance offered a suggestive contrast iii relative humidity. In charming and tender colored fabrics, fluffy and cool and summery, she was specklessly dry. Not a drop had touch. ed even the little pink parasol over shoulder, not one had fallen upon the tiny white doglet drowsing upon her arm.
 But William was wet He was still more than merely damp though they had evidently walked some distance since the rain had ceased to fall. His new hat was a mucilaginous ruin, his dank coat sagged, his shapeless trou. sers fopped heavily, and his shoes gave forth marshy sounds as he walked. But he carried walking stick proudly.
 If Jane had not recognized the mod cling of his features she might not have known them to be Williams, for they had altered their grouping to pro duce an expression with which she was totally unfamiliar To be explicit, she was unfamiliar with this expression in that place-that is to say, upon Will