The daily Alaskan., 1918-08-31
Vernon Pope
 @D By JANE OSBORN
Copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa-
 mar SyndlcRte,)
By JANE OSBORN

Whenever Hester Fey had ten cents left in her purse after she had bought
 her luncheon, paid her carfares and
 bought her evening paper out of the
 45 cents she allowed herself for "spending money" every day, she went | to q little basement flower shop and
 exchanged that silver piece for a rose
 or q couple of carnations, a few daf- fodils or pansleS, or any other bloom that that small sum would secure. -.
 Don't you ever buy candyT the | girls in the office would say to her
 when she steadfastly refused to share | with them q little bag of licorice drops or chocolates that they brought
 back with them after luncheon.
 "Eyery girl has a sweet tooth; its funny you haven't" "Well, maybe do like sweets" He's
 ter would say. But to me flowers are so much sweeter than candy. And q
 rose on your desk will stay sweet for days, and the candy Is all gone In an
 afternoon" .a s.- On her way from business she used i to walk up the avenue past the big | florists windows, and there look eager ly In to see the flowers, whose names she did not know that were arranged | to tempt the folk who could afford to pay as much for a box of flowers as Hester received for working whole week.
 Then Hester read in the paper that n great flower show was to be held | early in the spring. The tickets were 50 cents, and that meant that five dimes would have to be saved, and that five times when she might have bought a little nOSegay she would have to go without. To spend 50 cents for a single evenings entertainment seemed like extravagance to Hester, so she determined to go to the flower show, on the day that It opened, as soon as she was through work at her office and remain there with the flow
 CTS till the doors closed. She would have from half-past five till eleven o'clock, if she chose just to wander about and smell the sweetness and revel in the color of the flowers that the paper said were to be even more gorgeous than in previous years. TO be sure. tEiS would meun going with out dinner; but she bought a sand- wich, which she ate rapidly at lunch counter on her way to the show, and
 this satisfied her craving for food. At first Hester wandered about the great hall in daze, now standing transfixcd before a table on which l nothing but roses were placed, and
 then hurrying from one rock garden to another, searching out in each new and hidden beauties, till she knew the
 characteristics, but not the names, Of all the plants that ever found place
 in rock gardens. If any one stopped to notice the enthusiastic young girl as she stood with hands clNSped and eyes cleaning before one of the eX- hlbits. Hester did not know 1t, for she
 was too intent on enjoying the flowers
 every minute of the hours she had to
 spend to notice the other spectators
 at all.
 After she had wandered about for
 over an hour. she finally stood lost in
 admiration and almost perfect content
 before the tulip exhibition that had
 been awarded the first prize. It was
 the exhibition of the millionaire, L. K. Pope. whose world-famOus tulip hot
 houses and gardens made certain his taking the first prize for this class of
 flowers every year. Hester had not read her evening paper every day
 without knowing the reputation that MT. Pope and his family had gained in fields other than tulip raising. Mir. Pope himself, as every one knew, was
 at the time seeking divorce from
 his third wife, and his only son, young Vernon Pope, had given interesting
 reading recently in the evening papers because of his elOpemcnt with a. musi-
 cal comedy star of considerable repu- | tation.
 Hesser didn't in the least approve of the PopeS, but she did love their tulips, and when she heard one woman
 who stood for while beside her say
 to her companion, q can't even ad-
 mIre the exhibition when think what
 kind of people the Popes are" Hester wondered for brief minute whether
 she were weakening in her very rigid i standard, because she could admire 1 the Popc's tulips as much as she did. It seemed to her, as she stood there | feasting her eyes on the sen of golden tulips. as pure as morning sunlight,
 that just to grow flowers like that
 would make people want to be good
 and decent.
 The exhibit. as every one said, was
 the most attractive of any shown, for
 tulips, In beds of red and yellow, pink,
 white, and of that rich dark red char I acteristic of the 'black" tulip, were
 arranged about a little Dutch cottage
 that had a real little door and two
 windows with white muslin curtains.
 If Hester had any well-defined idea of | hoo,.orly mansions if wos Of some