The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-07
EVENING STORY
Makin's.
BY. DORA H. NOLAN.


has bunkie who had failed to return
| with the scouting party and-but I'm
anticipating.
Picture to yourself a sleepy New
Hampshire town so old that it was
| thriving country seat even before the
Revolutionary war, and now, at the
| end of the world war, remains prac-
tically unchanged. Then try to imag-
| inc a square, red brick house facing
a broad, elm-shaded street, with a
fanlighted doorway squarely in the
center of its facade.
| Walk with me. thru that door into
a long hall, turn into big living room
to the right and see if we do not find
Betty Spinny standing there on this
! April morning gazing ruefully at the
| blug rug which harmonizes SO well
with the colonial mahogany furnish
| ings. For little Mrs Spinney has
/ joined the ranks of the housekeepers
whose men folks roll their own Gig
arets.
The door has just closed behind the
/ young husband. He is off to the shop
! chapter of the Red Cross meets in
this charming old room where, long
ago, colonial DANES stripped their
| linen sheets in a similar cause; and
Steve has promised to relate his ex1
| periences in that indefinite land of
an indefinite place to Betty, for she
{ lacked a vivid ina gination and the
power of visualizing things.
Just now, tho, something very defi-
mite is bothering the little wife; and
that something consists of sundry lit
| tie trails and sprinklings of a granu-
I lated brown substance which be-
smirches the Surface of that same
blue rug.
"Oh, dearl' she soli1oqized that's
the one fly in the ointment of having
| Steve home again, safe and sound.
! Why did he have 10 PICK up that de-
! testable habit of smoking cigarets?
| And if he just has to smoke them,
why doesn't he smoke the ready
made kind-they aren't so messy!'
| The neatness of that house was q
| family tradition handed down to Betty
along with the heirlooms, and that to-
| bacco, eternally scattered over the
floors. was a bugbear. She sighed
and started to clean the room for the
afternoon meeting.
When at 1890 Steve's whistle
sounded a rather disheveled Betty
| wasF placing a hurried lunch on the
kitchen table. The house was spot
less. Now, if she could only keep
Steve in the kitchen till he went up
stairs to dress-here Betty's thoughts
| were interrupted. ont one man, but
two. followed the whistle into the
house.
Hello, Betty" Steve cried joyfully,
heres my old bunkie. Fred Garfield.
| on his way to Manchester and stopped
over to surprise u.s."
A little chagrined for housewifely
reasons, Betty nevertheless greeted
her husbands chum brightly. Had
she known of his coming. she would
of course. with the family china and
plate. Steve read her thought, so con-
tinued: "Oh, never mind any lack of
style this noon, dear; I've told Fred
he'll say a word. too. Why. this is
Delmonico's after what we were up
against most of the time-hey, Fred :?
Come on. Buddie, I'll show you the
house while the wife lays an extra
plate"
Betty's housekeeping was on inspec-
ton, she felt, and so the resolve to
keep Steve and his messy tobacco
away from those immaculate rooms
was crowded out of her mind. With
some help from the preserve closet the
meal passed off very creditably. Then
Steve announced that he must return
to the shop for an hour or so, and if
he should be a little late, why, Fred
would fill in the gap.
| While the young husband was ex-
planning to his father annoyed little
wife just why his return to business
was necessary, Garfield strolled into
the next room; but he heard plainly
the small lecture that followed.
eBtty's voice grew a trifle sharp as
the ex-soldier was given to understa nd
just how plainly that tobacco showed
up on the blue rug, and if he just had
to smoke any of the nasty things that
afternoon she wished to goodness he'd
at least come out in the kitchen to
make them.
The husbands low-voiced reply did
not reach the next room. but Can
field gave a low whistle. Mimi" he
Thought to himself, 80 that's the way
the land liesi Doesn't that child real
ize what rolling and smoking those
cigarets means to Steve-how it helps
to calm nerves still raw from that aw-
full din? OF course not-but I'll make
) her"
Steven was late, so the visitor help
ed receive the guests and acquiesced
readily when they begged that he adj
! dress them
There's something, called by some
folks Chance and by others Provi-
dence," Garfield began; but call it
what you will, it is responsible for
both Spinney's and my presence here
, today The soldier looking straight
at Betty, continued: 1T was daylight
when Steve discovered that l had not
: returned with the patrol from No
: Mans Land. He volunteered to go
. out alone, under the eyes of the en-
} envy in a search for me or my body.
Because 1 was his bunkie, they let
} him go. 1 had been hit and lying for
hours in a shell hole, helpless from a
J piece of sharpnel in my hip, when
} Steve, who had been crawling from
! cover to cover with his life in his
: hands, found me. 1t was 500 yards to
, our nearest temporary trench. In all
: that distance there wasn't cover for
l a rabbit save one big shell hole half
way to the line. 1 had bled lot and
, was in. a bad way. 1t was a case for
quick treatment. So Steve hoisted
me over his shoulder and started
Only a couple of shots were fired al
US, and they missed. But when we
came to the big shell hole Steve was
I breathing hard, and the pain from my
wound was intolerable- 1 begged for
4 a rest, and above all things for d
smoke. Steve slid down into the shell
/ hole with me- Then he rolled us each
fag l remember he spilled few
, grains of tobacco and of hearing him
+ say, 'Buddie, there lot of that stuff
9 mixed with Yankee blood in the soil
n of this maps land Just then he'll