The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-04-19
Caroline
Thinks 1t Out
By Mona Cowles


egg and make toast for yourself is all
very well and good for girl when
she Is single, but to have to do that
sort of thing is quite different when
one is married." Caroline had said
with very definite air five years ago
on the memorable afternoon when
Horace Blair had proposed to her 81
don't in the least mind living here in
this two-roOm apartment now and j
suppose you are quite comfortable in
the boarding house, but to have to live
in three or four rooms or to have to
80 to boarding after we are married
would be really quite impossible"
Horace fondled the hand he held and
looked dejectedly at the graceful finger
that Caroline had just permitted him
to measure for the engagement ring.
you are a very sensible girl, Car
oline," he said, "and | suppose you are
right"
''Of course, I'm right" she agreed.
AT twenty l might have been foolish
and romantic. Then | might have sup
posed that | could be happy and make
you happy on my thousand-dollar-a
year income and your salary of three
thousand"
"Twenty-eight hundred" Horace
corrected with a sigh.
"With an occasional picture I could
sell that would come to no more than
fortyfve hundred" She sighed and
shook her head.
"Im sorry, Horace, but it can't be
done. I've seen other girls try to do it
and-well, perhaps they are happy
but we couldn't live the way we do.
You wouldn't want to try. 1t would
mean living In a suburb somewhere
with an incompetent maid and wear
ing ready-made clothes-yes, l know
l have to now, but l won't always be
young. At thirty l would look a mess
in q ready-made sult-and we would
have to keep eternally counting the
money, and If we went to the theater
we'd have to sit in the gallery"
"We've had rather good fun that
way haven't WEI" Horace murmured.
Eyes, Horace DEAR but doing it now
is one thing and doing it then is quite
another matter. You'll thank me some
time for the stand l am taking"
"Then--you mean you won't marry
me?"
mot in the least. I simply mean
that l can't marry you till our income
is doubled at least"
Horace took out an envelope and
pencil from his pocket and began to
figure.
Mine thousand-that means that I
must have about seventy-five hundred"
I'm relent little" smiled Caroline.
"Ill marry you when you are making
six thousand. You can work up to
that"
sit may take five years." sighed the
unhappy sutton
"What If it does? We love each
other, and we can go on quite nicely
this way. You know marriage isn't
something to be entered into emotion
ally"
"You are q very sensible GIRL" said
Horace accepting his sentence grlmly.
II think see your point of view"
And so it was settled and Horace
and Caroline began their long engage
ment. There were never any quarrels
Caroline was too sensible for that
and never once did she weaken from
her wise decision that to make toast
for yourself was one thing, but to have
to do it for two was another. Even
In his most impatient moods Horace
had to admire the lofty ideal that
Caroline maintained toward marriage
1t was something that had to be under
taken on dignified, rather grand scale
or not at all.
And a day or so ago Caroline was
still making her own toast and draw
ing an occasional picture that sold
quite content on her small income ant
Horace was working on patiently witt
the concern with which he had begun
ten years ago, grizzly waiting for an
other chance ahead that would brins
him the coveted slx-thousand dollal
income. 1t did not seem then tina
there would be long to wait for al
ready he had reached the fifty-1ve hun
dred mark and he had saved enough
to make possible the prospects o
starting in life with q rather more pre-
tentious abode than the suburban cot
tage that Caroline had held In sucl
contempt.
Caroline worked Mt her drawing
board as patiently and eagerly as eve
and her ability as an illustrator hat
not become impaired but owing to wa
conditions, as the editors told her, Their
wss less demand for her particula
kind of talent than In years gone by
When she did get an order 1t mean
smaller check than formerly. Sh
did not finch at the economies thi
necessitated. Single poverty was on
thing. she insisted, and married pov
erty another.
Then a day or so ago Horace cam
to spend his usual Sunday Afternoon
with her but instead OF hurrying up tn
two flights of stairs to her apartment
when he reached the house where sh
lived In spinster sedateness, he hes
tated and then walked detected
around the block. Again he started I
-