The Press., 1918-01-31
The Father s
 Helper
By OsbOrn Jones


 Copyright, 1917, by the Mcclure Newspa-
 .- ', per. syndicate)
 When Dick Stoner, after q stormy and galloping sort of seaside court ship, had actually heard Madeleine re-. turn all his VOWS of devotion he thought his struggles to win her as his wife were practically over. Made leine was visiting a boarding school chum when the romance occurred, and for that reason, perhaps, Dick had for gotten that Madeleine probably pos gessed parents and that those parents might have something to say before permitting their eighteen-year-o beauty to become Mrs. Dick Stoner. But Dick knew that, as parents usual ly rated sons-in-law-to-be, he was not undesirable. His record at college and in business since then, though not actually brilliant, was clean and progressive, and any father-in-law or mother-in-law-tO-be would not have much difficulty In discovering that his share of the StOner fortune was large one.
 So 1t seemed as if the matter was set tied till, after a sudden burst of en- thuslaSm on the part Of Medicine, as they sauntered In and out around the sand dunes at the seashore, she sud dently changed her tone and her eyes l grew round.
 "Id forgotten about father" she said. "He will never let us do any | thing we want tO--We are great trial to him, you know, and l don't know how in the world 1 can ever be mar ried if he doesn't consent. just couldn't elOpe."
 Dick didn't like this intrusion of an Objecting father-in-law. It was much nicer hearing Madeleine's guideless praise of his own many manly virtues and good features. So he tried to per suade her that the father whom he had never seen was not such a grutf sort after all and that 1t would be an easy matter to "bring him around"
 ''You haven't any idea how strict he is," Madeleine protested. "He's pro- lessor of psychology and this year he's trying to write his greatest book and l and, we'll, 1t Is very hard to be the father of five daughters and Arthur | and Bonnet and write book on psy- chology.. It's hard to be the father of i've daughters anyhow, he says, espe- cially when they are the kind of daugh- ters that we are"
 "Why can't he shift responsibilities | till the book is dOne?" suggested Dick. l Couldn't your mother manage to keep you within bOunds~
 1 "Oh, mothers just as busy as she can be mending us and darning us and planning meals and things. She has a mothers helper to help her and still she never seems to have time to breathe. And poor old father said he was going to try to get q fathers l helper'-to make his task of being our father easy, just as mother does with her mothers helper So far he hasn't found anyone that wants the jOb." k 'sWkat would this fathers helper 1 have to do?" asked Dick, rather amazed at the turn of Madeleine's con- versatiOn.
 "Oh, I suppose he would have to help Bonnet with his Greek and spank Arthur, and he'd have to come to meals and see that we were all there and maybe say grace, and sometimes just happen in the drawing room whe" MI nerva's suitors were there. Mine4 Va's the sumner, you know, and she has just bodies of suitOrs, and mother says that father ought to appear once in while just to show that there is some one keeping track of how often they come. But father can't stand tha sort of thing. And I suppose the fla ther's helper would have to scOld m' sometimes because I am so reckless :, when I ride-mother keeps at fathel to scold me for 1t, but he hates to; anC he would have to scOld the servant when mother couldn't manage them and sometimes, if one of us girls didn' have an escort to a dance, suppose the fathers helper would have to g' with us. Father ought to, mother says, but he hates to-
 "My Greek is a little rusty" an nOunced Dick, when Madeleine had fin ished her monolOgue, ''but think IT take that position. You say your ia ther hasn't found anyone for 1t. Al right, I'll make tracks for your place tomorrow and by the time you hav' come home I'll be installed and per haps one of the first things can d. will be to show father that it Is tC his interest to let his daughter Made Ieine become Mrs. Dick Stoner.'
 When Madeleine reached home a the end of that week she found thu young man whom her father had re gently employed to be identical witt the man to whom she had recently be come engaged, except that he wal dressed in dark blue serge and hel fance had inclined to light tweed' and white flannels. Besides he spoke in 6 voice that was subdued and thu speech was free from slang-nOt yer! much like the explosive discourse O the man to whom she had recently en gaged herself. And besides, the mar she had known at the seashOre haC been eager to see her alone and often whereas the new inmate of her fath er's home, after having been intro duced to her, seemed not to notice her. It was not till the following da! that they did chance to come upol each other in the library.
 eve mustn't try to meet each othel on the Q. T. at all," Dick began '"Those brothers of yours are just tho sort to find 1t out, no matter how W. try to conceal it. We can stand it this way for while. Your father has been telling me his troubles this morn ing. He's especially worried aboU yOu-yOu wretch. He tells me yo, worry him so he can hardly write, says you ride the widest horse in the sta ble, go off in the woods unattended and otherwise render him incapable of the high degree of concentration that he needs to complete his book He asked me to, watch you especially ana to suggest way to tame you I'd no idea you were such wild crea !