The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1919-12-13

emu OF Nndl. CTltu Something NlllIIi' ]
her-that same something that had .
so often spurred her to mOmentary /
escape.
She felt great dependency, a ter /
ror of the morrow that would bring /
the end Of nothing but that neverthe- !
less would mark the death of part of .
Andrea PellOr. Then a more startling
emotion seized her. She realized, al
most with the sharpness of a recoil. .
that she was on the verge Of becom-
ing forever woman without Il his
tory. She looked back and saw :hat
she had never done one outre thing;
she looked forward and saw that she
probably never would; she looked
down and
At her very feet was the coping that
| edged the almost PERCEPTIONS cliff.
! Upon the pale stretch Of SAND was
| PARKWAY blur, dark, wide-winged
/ blot. she concentrated her unbeliev-
| ing gaze upon it until she made it out
/ beyond a doubt. 1t was an airplane.
/ Two midget figures moved around it
| buSily.
Andrea watched the midgets dream
| lily and thought of all the stories she
had read about flying machine elope-
mentS. As she stood there her diaph-
anOus secOnd-best party dress and her
loosened hair stirred by the spice
laden breezes Of an Indian ocean dawn
and her eyes full of the still, fairy
light of a tropiC moon, the thing dry
ing it's vast wings on the distant
sands seemed like n giant moth.
Strayed from some Arabian Night and
sent in answer to the cry of child
hoods valiant fancy.
Who were those midget dots? Were
they men or genii? Whence had they
come and whittier would they go? Did
they talk with tongues or like Brown
les, with their toes and eyes? Andrea
wondered all these things. suddenly
stopped wondering, skipped up the lad
der-like stair from the garden To her
room, snatChed up n warm cloak affair
which buttOned in a high collar at
her neck and that fell sheer in ever
her ankles, and in less time than it
would take to say Jack Robinson a
hundred and fifty times she was slip
ping and sliding down the path of
many slants.
She came upon the airplane so sud-
denly that she forgot to be disapp0int-
ed at its gross materialism. Ii was
very real indeed so were the men who
: attended it. One was the tallest,
. blacklist, nakedest native she had yet
seen, a mighty statue in unimagined
bronze. paganly clothed only at the
lOins with a spotted pelt. The other
was a white man gone brown in the
? sun. He was neither very young nor
old. he carried himself erect with the
5 bearing OF a man who is full-growr
/. and knows it. and when he moved he
2 gave an exhibition of long, thin mus
D cles under q perfect central control
r His mouth seemed to be possessed OF
r a smile that never wavered in spite
: of the fact that he held a piece OF
n wire between his teeth and was other
|
D 1t was the black man who frs
? sensed Andreas presence and gave
: warning to his master in low, gut
+ tural, rolling string of flowing vOwels
o The white man did not look round
d he merely shrugged his shoulders ant
t went on with his job. Andrea watched
g him in silence until she was convinced
r that everything that could be lone t
V the machine was about TO be accom-
n plished and it's proprietor on the verg
/ of flying away and then, embOldene'
Y by that unwavering smile, she said II
:, such voice as children use whe
y pleading for cake, "Please, Mr.. Mar
l. take me with you"
She knew a good deal about flyin
$ machines; she knew they cOuldn'
, stay up very long and that if the
l. were worth anything at all they inva
D riably came back to where the
i started from like well-trained pigeon:
D She had left her door locked and sh
n, figured that she would be back lon
y before Aunty Gwen could work hel
u | sell up 10 llle punt VI h"'ihS
ir broken in. When her voice rang acros
e the silence of the false dawn, clea
< and light as a silver bell giving tongu
n. across snow. the white man starte
r and dropped the wrench he was m'
u nipulating. He caught it in midair
Is then let it fall TO the ground dell
Is erately and turned to look her owe
d. She was certainly something to sc
10 and to wonder at. Her eyes of Iris
x blue danced with light younger tina
~ her face-a light that attends the etc
ell nal wistfuI child within us-but b
meath their shining gaze were sha'
le ows and her cheeks were over-pal
es lust to one side of her rounded chi
al was bit of black cOurJplaster, sham
IN full mask of a tiny sign of too muC
T. chocolates and too little exercise. 81
ne was slim enough TO look tall in spi
Id of that clOak-like affair OF dark biz
" glove cloth that fell from her Shot
of ders TO her ankles in ever-wideniT
~ folds.
e. Through all his inspection the man
T. face never changed. He looked b
IS over deliberately, judged deliberatel
n and deliberately let down the lit
On ladder that gave access to the obSer
he er's seat. He helped her up without