The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1917-03-23

she said. AT least. l was only seven
or eight blocks away. and 1t was DART
when ! came out, and I'd have had to
go home alone-and I preferred going
home with you"
ITS pretty beautiful for me-" said
Bibbs, with deep breath. you'll
never know what 1t was to hear your
laugh in the darkness-and then to
to see you standing there! Oh. 1t was
like-it was like How can tell You
what 1t was like?" They had passed
| beyond the crowd now. and a crossing
lamp shone upon them. which revealed
the fact that she was without her furs.
Here was puzzle. However. allow
ing 1t to stand. his sollcitude for her
took another turn. II think you ought
to have a car" he said. especially
when you want to be out after dark.
You need one in winter. anyhow. Have
you ever asked your father for onsY
"No," said Mary. II don't think ia
care for one particularly"
But my mother tried to insist ON
| sending one over here every after
noon for mo- I wouldn't let her, be-
cause like to walk. but a girl"
"A girl likes to walk, too" said
Mary Let me tell you where I've
been this afternoon and how l hap
pened to be near enough to make you
take me home. I've been to see little
old man who makes pictures Of the
| smoke. He has a sort Of warehouse
for q studio, and he lives there with
his mother and his wife and their
seven children. and he's gloriousiy
happy. I'd seen one of his pictures at
an exhibition, and l wanted to see
| more Of them, so he showed them to
me. He has almost every thing he ever
painted: l don't suppose he's sold
more than four or five pictures in his
life. He gives drawing lessons to keep
alive"
How do you mean he paints IN
smoker" Bibbs asked.
Literally He paints from his stu.
do window and from the street-any-
where. He Just paints what's around
him-and it's beautiful"
1.-The smoke?"
"Wonderful! He sees the sky through
1t, somehow. He does the ugly roofs
| of cheap houses through a haze Of
smoke, and he does smoky sunsets and
smoky sunrises, and he has other
things with the heavy, solid, slow col
umns of smoke going far out and grow
ing more ethereal and mixing with the
| hazy light in the distance; and he has
| others with the broken skyline OF
| downtown, all misted with the smoke
| and with puffs and jets of vapor that
have colors like an orchard in mid
April. I'm going to take you there
some Sunday afternoon. Bibbs."
You're showing me the town." he
said. II didn't know what was in II
at ALL"
There are workers in beauty here"
she told him. gently. There are other
painters more prosperous than my
friend. There are all sorts of things"
| II didn't know"
mo. Since the town began growing
so great that 1t called itself greater
one could live here all ones life and
know only the side Of it that shows"
"The beauty workers seem buried
very deep" said Bibbs. "And ] imag-
| inc that your friend who makes the
| smoke beautiful must be buried deep
est Of all. My father loves the smoke,
but l can't imagine his buying one OF
your friends pictures. He'd buy the
Bay of Naples but he wouldn't get
one OF those. He'd think smoke IN a
picture was horrible-unless he could
use it for an advertisement"
Yes" she said, thoughtfully. And
really he's the town. They are buried
pretty deep, it seems, sometimes,
Bibbs."
And yet it's all wonderful" he said.
ITS wonderful to me-"
you mean the town Is wonderful
to your
Yes, because everything Is, since
you called me your friend. The city
Is only rumble on the horizon for me.
1t can't come any closer than the hori-
ION so long as you let me see you
standing by my old zinc eater all day
long, helping me. Mary" He stopped
with gasp. That's the first time
I've called you Nary"
Yes" She laughed, little trem-
ulously. Though | wanted you tor
II said 1t without thinking. 1t must
be because you came there to walk
home with me. That must be IT."
women like to have things said"
Mary informed him, her tremulous
laughter continuing. Were you glad
l came for your"
"No-not glad felt as II wers
being carried straight up and up and
up-over the clouds. l feel like mat
still. l think I'm that way most Of
the time. l wonder what I was IKE
before l knew YOU The person I was
then seems to have been somebody
else, not Bibbs Sheridan at all. 1t
seems long. long ago. l was gloomy
and sickly-somebody else-somebody
don't understand now, Q coward