The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-12-26
eeeeeesesgseseSeseeSSSSgSeSg
IMAGINATION
BY ALICE KNIGHT.
4esesgseseseSeSeSe


Ned Barnes and his classmates
we're holding an indignation meeting
at which Ned seemed to have by lar
the greatest grievance. They had just
left their English classroom where
the professor had startled them by
announcing the fact that they must
write short story for the next day.
"He has no right to do it," said Neu'
"This is a course in critical writing
and not narration"
you're right, old chap" said MS
friend Dick, "and it sure is harder
TO write love story than to toss OH
criticism, but l suppose well have
to do it."
"Thank goodness, he didn't specify
it had TO be a love story"
mo. but that's about the easiest
miles YOU write thrilling adventure
story"
"Well. it's all right to write about
adventures if you ever had any, but
I'm not going to write lot OF rldlcu-
lous lies. | couldn't do 1t anyway, l
tell you. Everybody always said had
no more Imagination than cat"
The next morning in the Engiish
class, instead of seeing a frownlng
and gloomy Ned Barnes, his FRIENDS
saw a beaming countenance which
still remained beaming when the pro
fessor said 1--WE will begin by reading
Barnes story. And to an eagerly in
terested audience he read the tol-
lowing:
"The train from New Hampshire has
lust drawn into Boston as 1t has
thousand times before. But today IL
is all different for there is one little
passenger who has never seen Boston,
or indeed any other city. Her express
sion of eager curiosity and childish
delight attracts us at once. TO look
at her sweet and innocent face, one
would never suspect that she was
deceiving her poor old aunt in the
belief that she was spending the day
with a friend in the next town In
order that she might slip away to the
magic city of Boston for a few hours.
Just a few short hours, that was
the only cloud on her horizon; just
few short hours, but she dare not
stay longer. But perhaps that would
be long enough, and she clutched her
little hand still more closely over
something that she had held in the
palm of her hand ever since she left
home. We would love to see what 1t
is. but it is evidently very precious,
for she Is not willing to let go for
a minute. We will follow her through
the station and listen to her timid
request for information. The myster-
les of the elevated and subway SEEM
ing to be unfathomable, she decides to
walk, and 10 minutes later she Is
standing before millinery window,
wide-eyed and breathless. Surely she
must be dreaming. Such wonderful
creations never existed outside or
Fairyland. One in particular took her
fancy. 1t was large and droopy and
fluffy, with the dearest little forget
me-nots. Did l tell you her eyes were
as blue as the heavens above and her
cheeks as pink as the roses in an old
New England garden. Surely 1t would
be becoming.
With a little fiutter of her heart
and a tighter clasp of her little hand
on her imprisoned secret, she entered
the shop.
II Boston was new to her, certainly
she was new to Boston. Her fresh
beauty and simplicity aroused the
faded interests of even the shop girls
and they We'd with each other in
waiting on her First she tried on the
forget-me-not hat In the window. 1t
was all that her heart craved for, but
true to the eternal feminine, she must
try on every other hat she saw-Just
to make sure. Finally, after gloating
over all the wonders she decided on
her first choice. When 1t was pre-
scented to her In box so big she could
scarcely carry It, she thanked the
clerk for her kindness and started to
go away.
"Wait a minute, my dear. You have
not paid for 1t yet"
'ePaid for it! Oh. I thought -''
A look of embarrassment and then a
deep flush spread over her face. "Oh,
| must be In the wrong store"
Slowly, almost regretfully, she open
ed her hand and gave the clerk the
crumpled paper she had carried for
hours in her hand. "Will you tell me
where that store is, please?"
The clerk, at first amused, and just
as quickly ashamed of her amuse-
ment, read their own last Sundays
advertisement,
HATS GIVEN AWAY,
Bewilderingly beautiful. Charmingly
simple. Darlngly dashing. Delightfully."-
demure. All kinds to suit all tastes.
In daze the girl listened to the
clerks gentle and sympathetic ex-
PLANTATION of the wicked city's exag-
gerations, but it is doubtful if she
understood anything except that she
had lost her hat. Completely disillu-
stoned, she left the shop. Two big
tears gathered in her eyes and blur
red everything. She did not even see
the approaching "
Just as the story is reaching the
interesting part, the professor Is
called away for a few minutes. A